The Nth Option
by Ysavvryl
Summary: I've saved many people, and doomed them all. I was one who had to be saved, many times. But no matter who got saved or doomed, there were people that I could not save on the path given to me. I will save them. New Game plus AU for SMT IV and SMT IVA
1. After the Nihilist Option

_A/N: This story contains mind rape, themes of suicide, and other potentially disturbing scenes. It is a study of New Game Plus involving both SMT IV and SMT IVA, so Flynn is quite overpowered. Well, I think any SMT verse kind of lends itself to building OP heroes through enduring many disturbing things, but I've had comments about it before, so I'll just state it up front this time._

 _I've also played with the idea of Literature, so there will be in-story discussion of other stories, including some things that could be spoilers. However, I am not familiar with most of the works that the game references; some of them I can't even find in English. Thus I have used pieces of Literature that I am familiar with and can reference myself to develop characters in this fanfic. I'm keeping a list of works I use for this, so if you're curious, I can send you a copy of said list. Though there are a few fake works in the list when I needed a particular type but didn't know anything fitting... anyhow, hope you enjoy this story!_

 **Chapter 1: After The Nihilist Option**

Despair is the other side of hope.

"I'm sorry. You wouldn't be doing this if you weren't aware of the consequences of your actions."

Right, he would not be doing this otherwise. He had not done this when he had tried to save the world in one way or another…

"We cannot live in that peaceful world, for we too have been tainted by the Filth that we have fought. You catch my meaning?"

Yes, but he hadn't realized this was a suicidal mission. It was vital; some sacrifices, even massive ones, were to be expected when the world was so violently wrong. People deserved peace, an everlasting peace that they could count on. But they had won this through violence. They were too stained and too dangerous to be among the innocents that remained. But, what of those others that were about to die and not realize why? As time and space distorted around them, breaking down, the angel reached out to him with an expression of sublime submission. And he knew, this too was wrong…

"Would you rule over them all?"

What was there to rule over? The fires were growing as they watched, consuming everything passionately. The right to rule was a right of power. Those who won decided what would be done. Whatever path he took, that was a truth as well. But taking that for the most important truth, well, he knew people were dying down there, people who wouldn't understand why this was happening. Not that he really understood that either. The demon beside him bowed, but there was something that didn't ring entirely true to her. She might pass over the right to rule, but she certainly would not let him forget who gave that right to him. This too was wrong…

"Look, everything is being restored to what it once was."

Except, not. He'd saved as many people as he could, or had he? The Firmament was torn away, causing Mikado to become rubble that was cast away from Tokyo. The powers of demons and angels had been broken. Or, had it? The future belonged to humanity, but demons and angels would return. And that future was uncertain… and quickly cast away… he would have stayed with it, but that future was cast away, so something still was wrong…

Still wrong, still missing…

A third power rising, breaking the Firmament and separation of time. It was his future, one who had already accomplished more than expected, against her future, one who was just starting out with finding her way. He barely knew the girl, but could not find it in himself to let her life be taken so callously.

And then he, the one who had used his strength to become the hope of humanity, was rendered helpless and unable to decide his own fate.

Whatever fate was decided for him, his spirit was crushed down into a complete meltdown, a puppet to a god's incomprehensible desires. Not just once, but many times. Over and over… something was very wrong…

Knowing that his choices would be made meaningless, they became reckless. He pursued the extremes, sometimes he didn't care at all. But something, or someone, would call out and awaken his conscience again. He'd try to reach them, restore them, only to fall to that third power again. It all became so meaningless, a never ending wheel he couldn't escape.

Except, maybe this would work. He'd never taken this option because it sounded completely mad when he first encountered it, the first time he lived through this nightmare. The White were unnerving, powerful and pessimistic. Their despair had seemed alien. After so much suffering, it wasn't alien anymore. It was what he was living with, being far more powerful than any other human and yet he could be made so helpless and broken. He left his demons out of this; he'd end it all himself.

"Congratulations… on completing your objective."

It would finally be over… entering a sleep of white and never having to feel pain again….

Never again….

It should all stop…

Unless… something was still wrong…

A bird sang nearby. The scent of a lakeside covered over him, a soft stalk of grass tapped against his cheek as the breeze passed by. No, this… it should all be over…

"Hoy… hoy Flynn, wake up!" Issachar nudged him in the side. Then he'd admit to nearly oversleeping too and… Flynn cringed and gripped his hair. "Huh? Flynn?"

"Why is this not over?" he said before realizing that he was speaking. "Why….?"

"You okay?" Isacchar asked.

Flynn screamed and tried to close out the world.

* * *

There was only two new samurai this year, a Luxuror man who was the son of a samurai and a Luxuror woman who was of a monastery family that helped conduct the ceremonies. Issachar tried to reassure himself that there really weren't many chosen as samurai; two were few compared to all the other eighteen year olds who'd shown up. But, it still wasn't fair. He'd been working towards this for so long; he'd dedicated the past few years towards proving to God that he was worthy of being a samurai. Now… now what?

Not only that, but his closest friend, the one who kept his secrets and he his… Flynn wasn't well. Something had gone terribly wrong at Lake Mikado, but Issachar didn't know what. All he could do was rush to the capitol to get help and take the samurai he'd found to where Flynn was still in some strange raving state. They'd barely gotten back in time for Issachar to make the gauntlet rite. But that had failed. And, what was he going to tell Flynn's family now?

Despite being a Casualry, they had taken Flynn right to the monastery. Issachar felt out of place being there; so many strange things around, so many books. But they were aware that he was a friend to their new patient, so the nun escorted him downstairs where they were keeping Flynn. It was a dark stony basement, with rooms barred with metal. "You're keeping him imprisoned?" Issachar asked, shocked at it.

"Yes, we're afraid that a demon has invaded his mind," she said. "He's speaking of things he shouldn't know and hasn't responded to any of us. You may try again; he hasn't been violent yet, but we must ask you stay out of the cell while we're uncertain."

He hadn't wanted to speak while she was, but he had to ask. "A demon? But those aren't real, they're just fairy tales."

She closed her eyes and seemed grim.

"Right?" he asked, feeling shaken.

"Demons are real, and a true danger to humanity," she said. "The samurai usually keep them under control, but some slip through. If it weren't for the samurai, things like this would happen frequently. Be careful."

A demon had Flynn's mind; it was unthinkable. He'd been perfectly fine when they'd set out from Kiccigiorgi, in a good mood. While Flynn was very much the quiet one, Issachar could see his excitement and eagerness then. It had been in how he moved around more as they walked and the shine to his eyes. But now, Flynn was curled up on the floor, trying to hide his head in his arms. He was completely ignoring the bed they had in there for him, something that was actually nicer than back at home because it was off the floor.

"Can you do anything for him?" Issachar asked quietly.

"We're going to try exorcising the demon from him when the time is right," the nun said. "When did you notice him change?"

"It was at Lake Mikado, when we were taking a break from our journey to the Gauntlet Rite," Issachar said. "We slept a little long this morning, but when I went to wake him up, he started screaming and wouldn't stop. I didn't want to leave him like that, but there wasn't anything I could do. We're lucky that he didn't leave that spot."

"We'll have some samurai examine the area, but be careful about stopping there for long on your way back," she said.

Issachar gripped the cold bars; this was wrong, it shouldn't be happening. "Flynn? Hoy, Flynn, please, if you're still there, talk to me."

He shuddered, which was more than he'd done all this time.

"Come on, Flynn, I know you're stronger than that," Issachar said.

"Strength doesn't mean anything," he responded. "Not when I can't save you, or Jonathan and Walter. I don't want to do this anymore. The White said it would all be over. It's not over. Why isn't it over?"

"Why isn't what over?" Issachar asked. "I'd say we should get back home, but I don't think they'll let you. Um, but I'll try to get back to see you."

Flynn waved at him, but didn't look over. "Go home, Issachar. Stay out of this. I don't want you to die again. I don't want this anymore."

"Hoy, don't give up yet," he said. "At least come back home sometime. That's what's left for us."

He didn't respond anymore. But as the nun walked him back upstairs, she said, "Thank you for getting that much out of him. It gives us a better idea on how to proceed."

"Oh, sure," he said. "Um, will he recover enough to come home?"

"That's hard to say, but we'll do all we can to get this White out of his head," she said.

On his long lonely walk back home, Issachar couldn't stop worrying about Flynn and what their futures might be. They'd pinned all their hopes and dreams on completing the rite, and now… well, he couldn't describe to himself how he felt, other than terrible and empty and lost.

* * *

"Sister Gabby!"

She stopped where she was, catching the familiar movement of yellow at the end of the hall. "Over here, Abbot," she said calmly.

Abbot Hugo came over, irritated as he often got when things were busy. "Ah good, have we finished with the recording of the Gauntlet Rite results? Others weren't sure."

"Of course," Gabby said. "There were two new samurai inducted, so it did not take long after the clerks involved were reminded of the procedures." Although, it was strange. She was expecting this year's rites to be an important turning point with at least four candidates. Other events had explain things, somewhat.

"Good, we don't want the samurai leaders muttering about us behind our backs," Hugo said. "And what of the Casualry boy we have in the dungeon? He's from a distant town, so we can't release him and keep a close eye on him. I heard it wasn't severe enough to cause physical deformation, but still enough to change his personality."

"Right, his friend informed me of that," Gabby said. "In my personal opinion, he is an unusual case and should be kept in the dungeons until we are certain he is cleared of possession. Even if we do release him, it'd be smarter to keep him within the monastery."

Actually, it would be useful to destroy him and make it appear as a suicide. He certainly had given off that appearance to those who had heard him. But then, the Casualry boy was an unusual case. A special soul. Killing him off carelessly would cause unpredictable consequences. But then… this 'possession' was going to have unpredictable consequences. The future was getting less clear.

It did take some convincing to get Hugo to agree to keeping the boy around, supposedly for his recovery. Flynn would be a mild burden to the monastery like this, but Gabby knew he could be a thorn in their sides if he decided to be. Once she got Hugo to feel like the day's work was finished, she continued on to where she had been heading: the monastery roof, through a hidden access point that she rarely shared with others.

Many years ago, so far back in the heritage of others working here… it had taken some doing to make sure that the monastery was higher up than Aquila's castle. Gabby had wanted to break down the first king's image in the minds of Mikado's people as soon as they could get him dead. But then, that was when tragedy struck her colleagues and they were lost to demons. That left her alone to keep Mikado on the proper path. Near the proper path, anyhow, it wasn't easy to work alone. Because of that, the legacy of Aquila, trickster Filth that he was, remained ingrained in the tales of Mikado's people.

The air this high remained pure and light, a feeling she embraced. The stars spilled across the sky like signs of God's wealth of wisdom; a thin crescent of the moon was already near the horizon far below. This was where she retreated to remind herself of her true self. But, tonight was different. It was something she'd rather not be doing, truth be told. But things were going wrong. If she wanted any chance of making them right, this was increasingly looking required.

Gabby flicked her fingers, making a tiny bone whistle appear. She then blew through it, an ethereal sound that none in the monastery below would be able to hear even if they were right here with her. Well, perhaps one would…

Within a minute, a black figure flew through the air over the capitol city. She came right to the peak of the roof where Gabby was and hovered there in showing off. "Well well, Gabriel, you actually did it. What may I do for you?" Her voice was sweet yet mocking.

"Things have gone wrong, Lilith," she said. "It is unclear what, but the Messiah chosen by the Great Will is currently in the dungeon here, believed to be under demonic possession."

"Is he?" she asked, turning serious. "I did nothing of the sort."

"I'd know if you did," Gabriel said. "It seems to be the White."

Lilith sighed; her face was unmoving in this form, but her tendril limbs curled in concern. "Them? That's no good. I don't want to see you win, but I would loathe for them to get ahead. We can't afford them taking him."

"I know, which is why I called on you," she said. "Have you gotten the name of your hero yet?"

She curled an arm in like she wanted to smack her for asking. But then she admitted, "No. I was expecting to learn of it today."

"I as well, and I heard nothing," Gabriel said. "But the Messiah mentioned some names today; in that context, I would believe that he has experienced this time before."

"I remember nothing of the sort," Lilith said. In this case, she had no reason to be lying.

"Neither do I. As he does, I am certain the names he spoke are of significance. We can discount the friend who visited him; I sensed nothing out of the ordinary in that boy. But the other names he mentioned were Jonathan and Walter. A young man named Jonathan was recognized as a samurai today. With some research, I discovered that another young man named Walter was among those who came to be tested. The gauntlet failed to recognize him, but he must be important to us." She then offered the papers and pictures of the pair she'd copied from census records.

Lilith took them, piercing through the pages with her thumb. "I see. I'm already working with the villages; it will be simple for me to get in contact with Walter."

"I should be able to contact Jonathan any time I need to," Gabriel said. "Of course, I cannot confirm right away that we will have the right ones. Their relation to the Messiah will lead us to the truth regardless."

"Then will we need to bother with sending them to Tokyo?" she wondered aloud. "It was to influence the decisions of the Messiah, but if he is incapacitated, we only need influence the heroes." She paced a bit, then asked, "Are you going to let him recover?"

"No," she said.

* * *

"Will you offer yourself to me, and allow the Casualry to overthrow the Luxurors for good?"

Something wasn't right. Walter sometimes felt like that, although this particular wrongness was something he couldn't explain. It was like someone was missing from his life, someone important. But, that didn't matter. There was a wrongness in the world that he could explain. And, it was one that he could even do something about.

It'd all started when he failed the Gauntlet Rite. Rebuked by reality, he'd started back home to a dull, mindless, and stressful life that he had not been looking forward to. Being on a fishing boat made him feel strangely trapped, on a wooden box atop a vast ocean below the great heights of Mikado. But on the way there, he'd been called over by some others who'd failed the rite too. They were going to hold a Sabbath to discuss Literature. While he didn't know what was going on, he went ahead and stayed for the night. He'd been granted an understanding of the mystic script as if by magic, and then had his eyes opened to the true vastness of the world and what humans were capable of.

With that knowledge burning in him, there was no way he could return to a mundane life of fishing. He'd joined the group in their traveling around the Mikado countryside, recruiting other youths to their side. Then many of them started turning into demons, making their Sabbaths even wilder than before. Some stodgy villages that refused to take their heads out of the mud were burned, but things needed to change. It was thrilling to have a chance to make a mark on history.

However, Walter never received the demonic transformation. He certainly agreed with the others, and the Black Samurai who led them from the shadows. In fact, she'd chosen him to rise up to a more visible leadership, guiding their protests and planning their greatest event, overtaking the capitol itself. But others whispered against him, wondering why he remained human. It wasn't exactly by choice; he would join them in casting aside humanity if he knew how.

But because of that, he had this offer that none of the others could accept.

"Yes, Lucifer, I'll join you."

* * *

"Will you take this risk to call upon God's Chariot and stop these rebels from overturning our peace?"

Jonathan had to admit that he was a little afraid. This summoning could go wrong and kill him in the blink of an eye, before he knew it was going wrong. But, something had felt wrong for a long time. Maybe it was this rebellion boiling up, the signs he saw throughout his training that were worrisome. But it was more like someone important was missing in his life. It felt like everything wasn't going according to script.

He'd mostly expected to be accepted as a samurai. In fact, the men of his family had been accepted as samurai for eight generations now. He'd studied and trained for it. That Isabeau too would be a samurai was a bit of a surprise, but the two of them worked well together. And, she had admitted to him that she also felt something wasn't right. She didn't know what either.

But this, this was clearly wrong. Why were the people of Mikado fighting against the people of Mikado? It made no sense. Hope had said it was mostly a Casualry uprising, which was surprising to Jonathan (but not to Hope, oddly enough). They were all people of Mikado, following the will of God as His chosen. This was tearing their nation apart.

And Jonathan loved Mikado with all his heart.

"Yes, Gabriel, I'll help you summon Merkabah."

* * *

Although it was bad to get imprisoned for demonic possession, Flynn accepted it now as a welcome break from the usual cycle of things. He still expected for something big to happen to the world, to return him back to that afternoon on Lake Mikado. But it was a calm quiet place, good for contemplation and thinking. There were still times that he had to slip away from the monks to hide his nervous breakdowns. If they caught him doing that, they'd put him through exorcism again. But the distance between now and other times made things less painful.

It wasn't enough, though. He needed more time to research possibilities, and more distance from his torment. But he had ideas for that already.

One of the white robed monks came into the hall Flynn stayed in; he was hurried. "Oh, here you are," he said. "You need to stay here; there's a large disruption within the city."

"What is it?" Flynn asked, although he had a feeling he knew what it'd actually be.

Thankfully, he answered. "Demons have appeared within the city. We don't think they can get into the monastery, but it's better not to get lax around demons."

"All right, I'll stay around here," he said, even though he could take out those demons easily despite being unarmed and wearing the robes of a monk.

When the monk left, he went back to his room. This might be the end of this time, but… he searched a box that held his few possession: a small black and gold stone was in there. It was a summon stone that had been used in one of his exorcisms, trying to draw out the demon they thought was in his mind. As it was unbroken, it might have a use now. He couldn't control what demon would come, but it might not matter. There was also a card that he'd been working on, one of his little discoveries in poking around the monastery. That was potentially two demons, if both the stone and card worked.

He started hearing screams in the monastery not long after. As he thought, the measures taken for safety no longer applied. It was so late; he might as well let this history burn. It wouldn't matter when he woke back up again. When he walked out of his room, a rakahsha tried to ambush him, both its swords held high over its head as it leapt at him. Flynn held his hand out to it: a white burst of almighty power melted the rakahsha right away. Overkill, but he needed to get used to fighting again after several years of peace and quiet.

Before long, he ran into a familiar sight. But, this wasn't one that he wanted to see. "Flynn!" Issachar came over, his grin tainted by demonic transformation. "I'm glad to see you again, but what're you in that get-up for? You're not a monk."

"They made me one since they won't let me leave the monastery," he said. "I'm glad to see you too, but you seem different. What's going on out there?"

"I've awoken to the truth, that our kingdom is rotten to the core," Issachar said. "They never sent word to your parents or anyone in the village what happened to you; they just let you disappear off the face of the earth as far as anyone back home knew. And when I told the villagers what happened, they didn't believe me. The Luxurors just keep stamping us Casualry down so we remain ignorant and obedient to their pampered wills. But I've joined a group of Casualry that won't take this any longer. We're fighting back, to wipe out the Luxorurs and make Mikado for the Casualry only."

"You've changed," Flynn said. "But having been trapped here, I can see your point."

He nodded. "Yeah, most of our group has embraced demonic powers to make our dreams a reality. Some got turned into full on demons; I'm one of those who can infiltrate places better, as long as I'm careful with my eyes and expression. It's just, I was worried about if you'd get mistaken for a Luxuror if you were still trapped here, so I blitzed ahead to find you. I'm glad I did. Come on, we can sneak out and stay out of the fighting. I want to make sure you stay safe until you have the chance to make the same transformation."

Should he? He decided to. "I've acquired some powers, from the possession," he said. "I've just been hiding them so they didn't decide to kill me."

Issachar gave his demonic grin again. "That's great, then you can help us! We might actually need it, because even though our leader Walter gave himself up to summon the leader of all demons into his own body, someone in the castle has done the same to call upon this crazy powerful angel they're calling Merkabah. And if that one calls down other angels, well they can banish us transformed ones out of this world with a snap of their fingers."

"That still happened?" Flynn said to himself. So even though only Jonathan and Isabeau of them became samurai, Lucifer and Merkabah had still been called into the world through self-sacrifice. Then leading those two away from the idea of self-sacrifice was going to be vital if he wanted to save them too.

"Let's get going, we can support the lines in the Casualry districts of the outer rings," Issachar said. "Or we can even gain a foothold up here in the monastery."

"Possibly, but then we'd be stuck here until others met up with us," Flynn said. "And we'd be near the source of the angels and samurai coming out to battle."

"Ah, so the outer rings then?"

He shook his head. "No, I'd like to go directly to where Lucifer and Merkabah are confronting each other, if possible."

With demons inside the monastery now, Flynn and Issachar could easily slip back outside, into the real chaos. It might have been seen as strange any other day, for a monk and a country Casualry to be running through the streets of the capitol together. But no one was in a state of mind to notice them this evening. Flynn reviewed some more information in his mind as he ran.

As far as he knew, the lower levels of Naruku had not been breeched this time around. The Black Samurai had continually evaded the real samurai, letting the human leader in Walter take much of the visible lead. She must have brought Lucifer up to Mikado however she had gotten here herself. The terminal in Naruku would not have been reached; the one in Aquila Plaza shouldn't be active. Had Lucifer come up as Hikaru or someone else? That might matter later on, past this cycle of time.

He and Issachar only got as far as the gate between the Luxuror and Casualry districts when they came to their destination. Lucifer and Merkabah were facing off here. And, Lucifer had the clear advantage. He slammed Merkabah into a brick house, cracking it and making the angel collapse on the ground. Merkabah looked different than Flynn was used to; their swords were crossed on their back instead of floating at their side. Their long head wings were feathered and far less ornate. After healing themself, Merkabah pushed off the ground and flew out of a massive fireball that Lucifer followed up with. The angel also wasn't as nimble or swift as Flynn was used to.

"Looks like we'll be winning after all," Issachar said in delight.

Well… Flynn took a deep breath. "Issachar?"

"Yeah?"

He raised his hand to him. "See you in the next life." Then he blasted Issachar away so that he couldn't interfere. In this kind of battle, he'd die as he was. "Sorry."

And now, these two. Flynn looked at the card. Virus Trojan. He had no idea what this demon could do in battle. But in future cycles, it was going to be very valuable. He just had to hope that it worked as he wanted. "Come, Trojan," he said, snapping the card in two.

In a tiny puff of smoke, an ornate wooden horse on a wheeled cart appeared, floating beside him. Numerous wires snaked out of its cart, darting around the air. "k3rnnlngr jw34 4n4qfn /virus Trojan jiiif 9983 &," it babbled. "#readyforaction."

"Good," he said, then pointed to Merkabah. The two of them still hadn't noticed. "Merkabah's summoning was incomplete, thus they are incomplete. Can you complete them?"

"Bzzzzzzz," the wires slipped around quicker, then slowed. "#easyaspie." Then the tiny demon bolted off to carry out its mission.

"Now let's see who comes of this," he said, taking out the summon stone. He smashed it onto the ground, making it shatter.

There was a brief chill down Flynn's spine, which gave him a good idea of just who was coming. Space distorted near him, releasing a black-winged angel that appeared like a black marble statue decorated with bright gems. Demiurge glanced at the battle, then at him. "Flynn? Something curious is going on."

"I called you into a different timeline," he explained. "And I may do it again."

"Ah. Well your service has been admirable, so I will allow it. So then, what about these two?"

"This timeline doesn't matter, but we're taking out Lucifer first," Flynn said. "Then Merkabah. But if we die, it's of no concern. It'll just end this time sooner."

"This transformation of yours will be most interesting to follow," Demiurge said. Then he blasted Lucifer from behind, nearly knocking him onto his face.

Merkabah paused on seeing this and nearly got to looking beyond their fallen rival to see just who had done this. Then their wings fluttered in pain right before a golden glow surrounded them. For a moment, Flynn could hear Jonathan's voice in there. Were those two truly dead in there? Then Merkabah emerged in the form Flynn was more familiar with: ornate, pure, and unsettling. Their swords came off their back and their wings spread out. "By the grace of God, I shall smite thee Lucifer!" They then rammed straight into Lucifer as the demon lord was trying to get back on his feet.

"We could just wait this out," Demiurge said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Could," Flynn agreed.

Then Trojan came flitting back, ducking by Flynn's shoulder. "Eet eet eet!" It sounded alarmed at the power being exchanged in front of them.

It wasn't a fighter after all. "Good work Trojan, but I'll need you more in another timeline," Flynn said. "Return to your card and hopefully I can call on you then."

Carefully, the little wooden horse scooted around him. "Flynn. #terminator #i'llbeback." Then it turned itself back into the brown and black card it had come from.

"Let's just fight both of them," Flynn said, then cast Antichthon at them.

"Wh-why are you against me, monk?" Merkabah asked, getting angry. Then space distorted again, giving a static fuzz effect around everyone there.

"So that's what happens when you tamper with the universe," Flynn said as things got worse.

Eventually, it all winked out into black.


	2. A Silent Option

**Chapter 2: A Silent Option**

Birds were singing; the grass patted his cheek in the wind. Of course. Back here. He wanted to know what was bringing him back. But for the moment, he wanted to know if he could save those he could never save.

"State your name."

Flynn let his mind drift, sliding back into the clouds of dreams. Right, this had been the first sign that anything odd might happen to him. That he might be anyone special. What would happen if he kept silent? If he didn't give a name.

"State your name."

No. He was tired of these games. And if he had to play, he was going to find a way to play beyond their expectations.

"You have been called for a grand mission. State your name."

No.

"Hoy..." a familiar voice said, nudging him. "Hoy Flynn, wake up."

"I'm awake," he mumbled, opening his eyes. His vision was hazy.

"You don't seem it," Issachar said, then went on with what he usually said. Flynn got up and nodded along. But what was going on had already been decided in his mind.

They headed off to the capitol, a walk that took half an hour from Lake Mikado. It was a nice morning for it, clear skies and a warm sun. Closer to the city, kids were playing outside. They must have been Luxuror kids to have the time to be playing, or maybe the Casualry didn't have as much to do here. Inside the walls, the city was peaceful with contented people all around. Aside from some snide remarks from Luxurors who were especially prejudiced against village Casualries, it seemed like an ideal place to be.

They didn't talk as much as usual, mostly because they were around strangers. But Issachar was very focused on passing the rite. From old memories that were growing faint, Flynn knew that his friend had done many things trying to earn God's favor to pass the rite: praying every day, daydreaming about it, psyching himself up to pass. Although, none of that counted. Nothing anyone here believed in mattered in the Gauntlet Rite, although a few of them suspected the truth from the few constants.

At Aquila Plaza, they joined a large crowd of youths that were all eighteen as well, along with some spectators or traveling companions. Issachar's nineteenth birthday was in a few days; he could have come last year, but had decided to hang back for Flynn, who's eighteenth birthday had been only a week ago. There was no formal order to the rite, just what order they had come in. As usual, Flynn let Issachar go first as he was the older of them.

As usual, he failed to activate the gauntlet. That was because it was tied to Flynn already. Last cycle had proven that the gauntlet they were using to test people with right now was only going to accept him.

He knew that gauntlet well. When they called him forward to accept it being put on him, it was a familiar weight, with a bit of discoloring on the side that had always been there. They were difficult to destroy, made to endure battles with demons. And, the screen was a bit dusty. He always did some cleaning of that to make it usable for tomorrow. But even before the monk with him began the prayer asking for acceptance, the gauntlet had already recognized him as its rightful owner. The screen was already asking to be engaged past sleep mode. So even without giving his name, his life would change greatly anyhow.

But, there was one of the corners that didn't take input as well. It too had always been like that, although he could never remember it being an actual problem. The few icons that would be over there were large enough that he could activate them touching just outside the problem corner. Right now, though, if he touched that corner when asked to put his hand on the gauntlet…

It didn't activate. He'd failed the rite this time.

He walked back over to where Issachar was waiting. When their eyes met, he shook his head. Issachar rubbed his head, disappointed and upset, although Flynn only noticed that in knowing him so well. Flynn patted his arm, then continued walking out of the plaza. His friend was quick to follow.

"Man, all of our work turned to nothing in an instant," Issachar said quietly. "And we came from so far too. Kind of a waste if you ask me."

"It's what we had to do," Flynn said. "Now what?"

"Only thing we can do is go back home," he said, although it clearly was the last thing he wanted to do. "And then everybody will be bugging us about getting married and starting a family, joining them in doing the same old thing as everybody else. But, nothing else we can do." Issachar sighed softly. "I know God's supposed to have the wisdom to put us in the place we'll do the most good in, but, I don't feel like I'm doing much good. The fields need every hand the town can spare, yeah, but, what are we really there for except as another pair of hands to do work?"

"Everybody in Mikado uses the fabrics we make and eats the vegetables we grow," he said. "It does make all we did worthless." At least, until demons started cropping up. Then their sword practice would turn out good.

"Well, if it's God's will," Issachar said, not able to think beyond that for now.

A few other youths just outside the city tried to call them over, but Flynn managed to keep Issachar away from them.

* * *

No names. Only two new samurai when there should be at least three, more likely four. Nothing unusual about the day beyond the Gauntlet Rite. No special signs. No words from God.

Looking over her current journal, Gabby sighed a little. This was supposed to be the year. All the signs thus far had pointed to this year's gauntlet rite being when the necessary humans were brought into place. A mistake, perhaps? She abhorred the thought, but it could happen. Or, had something happened beyond her notice? She was working within the world, which could make the signs obvious from God's view harder to spot.

She spent many hours of that night in prayer, hoping for guidance.

She only got the usual silence.

God was watching. That was unquestionable. Then, God trusted her to do His work in the world. She wasn't doing anything wrong yet. But the path into the next great conflict was turning out much darker and thornier than she expected. She already had to handle this early stage alone.

She… must have made a mistake somehow. She turned back the pages of her journal, trying to figure out what might be wrong. Something was clearly wrong.

Once she figured that out, it would be up to her to correct it and make sure things went on the path of God's plan.

* * *

While Flynn did what he could to encourage Issachar out of his dismal state, it wasn't enough. It took Flynn a couple of days, but he got back into the routine of daily chores and community work around Kiccigiorgi. The whole town really needed to work together to keep up their production rate. As he was one of the stronger youths, he got asked to chop wood or help with other heavier tasks. But Issachar's work slowed greatly. He had little energy and no enthusiasm for anything.

They still met up at their usual times, when they used to practice for becoming samurai. Since that was an impossibility, Issachar had no more interest in that. Flynn would often finish his tasks and go over to the usual spot in the forest to find his friend already there. "You look dead to the world," Flynn said, going to sit near him on a stump.

"I feel like it," Issachar said. "I knew we could fail and have to come back, but I hadn't accepted it as a real possibility. I'm sure we showed our dedication and hard work to God. Why wasn't it enough?"

"Don't know," Flynn said, digging in his pocket. There was a brown and black card there, one that he knew he hadn't owned in this lifetime until his dream at the shores of Lake Mikado. Issachar wasn't looking at him, so he snapped the card to summon Trojan. The tiny demon already had its orders, appearing quietly and slipping out of sight.

Issachar must have caught some small sight of it, since he glanced over to where Trojan had appeared. But he quickly forgot about it, perhaps mistaking it for a dragonfly. "I just, don't know how I feel now. I want to be angry, but I can't be angry at God. He must have His reasons. I'm really disappointed, but everybody just says that's how it is. Everybody from Kiccigiorgi that goes out to the gauntlet rite always comes back; we haven't had a samurai from here since anyone can remember. But I really felt like I could change that. That, we could. You would've made a great samurai, I know it. You're a lot more like the samurai heroes from the stories than I am, actually."

"You could be great too," Flynn said.

"Thanks, but it doesn't really matter anymore. Everybody just says to get on with life, but I have no idea what my life is about anymore. I, I don't like the future I see ahead of me."

"What are you thinking?" Flynn asked, not liking where this was going.

Issachar looked up at him, the despair there all too familiar. "I don't want this life," he said in a quiet voice. "Even if… you agree with me, right? Because we worked together towards our dream, and failed it so easily. We tried to make something of ourselves, and… it turns out we can't. There's nothing we can do anymore, so, why…?"

Flynn reached down and touched his shoulder. He hadn't wanted to do this, knowing what Issachar's fate would be. "Hoy, don't give up so easily."

"Huh? But we don't have another chance..."

"We do," he said. "Not at becoming samurai, but I've heard that there's a group of other Casualry who've decided to travel around and find their own lives, rather than just doing as they're expected to do."

"Really?" Thankfully, that stirred some life and hope back into him. "That could work. But, where would we find them?"

Flynn shrugged. "I don't know that. I hadn't wanted to mention them because I thought I could get back into life here. But you're right, it doesn't feel right to just accept that. And I don't want to stick around here if it's going to make you miserable. So, let's go, like right now. We'll find the others when we find them, or we'll just make our own way."

The idea got Issachar to smile. "All right. Thanks, Flynn, I'm glad I can count on you. If we both feel like this, then maybe God can accept us finding our own lives, somehow."

That evening as they were camping out alongside the road, Trojan slipped back to Flynn's side without Issachar's notice. "Toot toot, #AllDataRetrieved. #IssacharGauntlet? #Confirmed."

"I thought so," he said quietly. Now it was a matter of getting that gauntlet into the rite in front of his own. There wasn't much time to get that accomplished, and Trojan was his only means of doing. "Your presence is becoming vital. Thank you."

Trojan gave a chirpy twitter, glad for that. "#BigHugs! #You'reWelcome."

"I may call on you again in this time, but that should be it for now," he said. "See you next time."

"#LetsDoTheTimeWarpAgain," it replied, then turned back into a card.

"For you, but I have to live this," Flynn said.

* * *

The initial Sabbath that Flynn and Issachar attended did not have the Black Samurai there. But it was just outside of the capitol so the baker was there. Perhaps he'd already turned, as he was capable of gifting both of them with the full ability to understand the mystic script. It would have been useful back when he had access to the monastery library. For now, though, it allowed Trojan to start relating things to him by making the script appear in the air. The tiny demon claimed to have lots of memory, so Flynn told it some of his plans in case something happened to hinder his ability to recall them and carry them out.

The books were interesting to read, now that he had the time to do so. But the important thing was that it lifted Issachar out of his funk. Despite having never been able to read the script before, Issachar now understood it well enough to read through the books they were given with astonishing speed. Flynn could not keep up with him.

"I think I could've made a better fisherman than a farmer," Issachar said, as he was trying to get Flynn interested in the latest book he'd finished off. They were sitting on the floor of a hut they'd taken for the night, since whoever lived here apparently wasn't around. "This book described it really well along with telling the story in a gripping and emotional way. And when I was just talking with Walter, I could describe the fish better and even tie and bait a hook quicker than him. Funny, huh? Just because of where we were born, we ended up with jobs we were ill-suited for."

"Well you are really good at lake fishing," Flynn said.

Issachar smiled, seemingly with the clouds. "Yeah. Though still, I'd have to try it out for a while to know if I could do it for the rest of my life. I just wonder why nobody thought of this all before in Mikado, that maybe a person's real talents can't be determined right at the start when they can't even talk. I mean, does it really make sense that a person's birth alone should decide their whole life? It's..." he rubbed his head, "it's horrible. That's why I felt such despair before, since I thought there was nothing I could do about my life." One of his eyes twitched.

"Issachar?" Flynn asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Why did they do that to us?!" he asked, his eyes flashing red. They reverted back to brown for a second, then his body shook in painful-looking tremors. He tried to grab a stool nearby, only to knock it over. "Wh-why…. What..."

Flynn grabbed him with both hands, not sure if he could stop this now. Discolored foam slipped out of his mouth and Issachar looked afraid. Not having seen anything like this before, Flynn frantically tried to think of something he could do, anything. Maybe one of his demons… no, he hadn't found another summon stone; he wouldn't get his usual stock of items until he got his gauntlet back. He couldn't access any demons other than Trojan without the gauntlet and the fusion app. And as much power as he'd had, he'd always relied on demons for healing spells. But even if he'd learned one, would it be any help against this?

Then one of Issachar's tremors was so bad that it made his neck snap. He collapsed onto Flynn immediately, some leftover shakes going through him. But as his body fell still, it was no comfort. "Issachar?" Flynn asked, checking over him.

He knew from that sound, though. There was no way he could have survived that. Issachar was dead.

"I could never accept losing you after all," he said to himself, trembling less violently. "Maybe, that's why I can't get out of this cycle. Your death was never fair, not even last time. But this is just, it makes no sense whatsoever."

As he wondered what to do, he saw faint marks appearing under Issachar's skin. It was in patterns that seemed mystical. Then, this wasn't actually his death, just another part of the transformation. The Tokyo cases of demonic transformation happened so fast when one consumed the red pills that the details were still unknown to Flynn. That one certainly wasn't as painful as this.

It took another minute, but Issachar's head jerked and magic reset his broken neck. He still had a nasty looking bruise there, dark and still spreading. While he was undead now, he breathed again and opened his eyes. "Huh? Flynn? What, what happened to me?" He gingerly touched his neck.

"You became a demon, like some of the others," Flynn said. Because they could speak freely with each other, he added, "That was terrifying; I'd thought you had died."

"I thought I had died too," he said, then sat up on his own. He glanced over his body. "I don't look like a demon, not like the others."

"You can't see your neck," Flynn said. "It's not obviously demonic, but it certainly looks like you shouldn't have survived."

"Oh. I don't feel any stronger either." He smiled sheepishly. "I'd like to help the other guys out, but, looks like I'm back to not being able to do much."

Flynn shook his head. "No, don't think like that. If you wore a scarf or a high-necked cloak, you could still pass for human unlike the others. The two of us can still get into villages or even the capitol without raising suspicions, which the others can't."

"Oh yeah, and find others who need the wisdom we've found," Issachar said, smiling now. "Great thinking! We can still act as recruiters."

"That's right," he said. "Come on, we can let Walter know."

* * *

Flynn was sitting within sight of the main road, dressed in a fully covering brown robe and simple sandals. It was something he'd picked up on the last recruitment trip into the capitol, for precisely this reason. While travel was discouraged for all levels of Mikado citizens, there were plenty of tales of traveling monks who secluded themselves for the sake of communing with God for higher wisdom of His ways. It was considered impolite to disturb such a monk. So when a group of samurai passed along the road, searching for the Casualry rebels, they respectfully passed him without asking why he was there.

Once they had passed out of sight, Flynn adjusted the pole beside him so that the orange band was on top, replacing the red band that indicated he had spotted them. The orange one was an alert to take caution in approaching him, but no visible problems were around.

It didn't take long after switching for someone to slip over from their main camp and join him. "How many were over here?" Walter asked, keeping low behind the rise here.

"Twelve of them, including their commander," Flynn said. He'd also seen Jonathan and Isabeau among them, but he wasn't supposed to know them in this time. "Had some young ones too; must be getting low on numbers."

"Good, so we've definitely got them pressured," he said. "But we've got to find some way to get them back into the castle for a siege to work. We want them all penned in the central districts when we withdraw the Casualry in the outer rings. That way, we've got all the food and can make them realize how much they depend on us."

Even without formal training, Walter's mind was quick to grasp tactics of battle and war. They were never as refined as what Jonathan used, and he easily lost his head in the heat of things. But since Flynn did not want to stand out too much in this time, Walter was the best they had for a leader. Flynn nodded along. "If they keep sending out scout patrols like that, they could cut through us from behind with their demons and better weapons."

"Right," Walter said, then nudged him in the side. "You see what I mean, more than the rest of the guys who just want to tear stuff up. I mean, I do too, but we'll just invite our own destruction going in recklessly with farm tools and handmade stuff. If you and I had gotten in as samurai, well they wouldn't be facing a siege in a matter of days like this. But we'll show them the error of their ways."

"Right," Flynn said, wondering again how this would end up. Gabriel would probably pressure Jonathan to summon Merkabah, or maybe even someone else. The Black Samurai had offered to put them into contact with Lucifer, not calling him by name but it was clear that's who she meant. So far, Flynn had managed to dissuade Walter from that path.

"And your friend Issachar too, I think he should've been a samurai," Walter said. "That guy's mind is like a sponge; he's learning stuff so quickly just by reading about it. It's a travesty that he would have been left to wither away in ignorance. Nobody else among us can keep up with him mentally now."

"He's certainly happier here," he said, not about to reveal the darker side of that.

"But, you ever feel weird for staying human?" Walter said, glancing up at him instead of the road. "I mean, that's a weird question itself but, everybody else here has transformed. Not us two, even though I'm supposed to be leading them and you're my biggest help in that. I certainly believe that the Luxurors need to be torn down, and some guys say I'm like a demon in battle. Heck, I can still beat most of them with my bare fists."

"There must be a reason," Flynn said. "Other than Issachar, we've kept the sharpest minds of the group. If we weren't human anymore, this would be an undisciplined rabble, not a group who could pull off a siege of Mikado Castle."

"I suppose there is that," Walter said. "It's tough, though, getting them to listen. I have a feeling if I couldn't knock them around, they'd be jeering both of us for not changing. Though, they seem to respect you much easier. I respect you too; you're a reliable guy, you keep your head cool around these hot-blooded folks and you don't mind listening to me complain about stuff."

Flynn shrugged. "I know they talk about me behind my back, when they don't think I'm listening. Guess I'm lucky not to have one of the snap in front of me; I don't fight like you." Although he figured most of them could sense just how powerfully he outclassed them in magic.

"Well if they do give you trouble, I've got your back," Walter said without hesitation.

"Thanks," Flynn said.

* * *

The start of the siege of Mikado Castle went off flawlessly for the young Casualries. Walter was getting too recognizable as the human leading them, so it was up to Flynn and Issachar to sneak inside and shut the gates once all the Casualry were out of the castle and Luxuror districts. Then the demons started pouring into the outer districts. A few samurai were out, and quickly slain. Fires were set outside the gates as a warning to those inside: they'd die if they tried to get out.

An emergency meeting between the elder samurai and the king took place, followed by one where Hope addressed the rest. "They've got us penned in here with only the supplies and food we currently have," he said. "Not only that, but the demons within Naruku are getting restless. We've had to lock the gate to prevent them from bursting out and attacking us from within as well. As a result, our best shot at breaking this is going to be breaking through early and fast. We're going to bring together a few rapid strike forces who have strong reliable demons they can get over the walls so we have time to open the gates and break into the lower districts.

"And something important to keep in mind is that this group has been well-coordinated in spite of being comprised primarily of demons transformed from humans. We've noted before that such transfigured beings are wild and reckless, with no human restraint. Therefore, the more dangerous individuals in this siege are not the demons, but the few humans leading them: the Black Samurai, their figurehead leader Walter, and a person we suspect to be Walter's second-in-command, Flynn. We have seen the fighting capacities of the Black Samurai and Walter before, but we do not know all that Flynn is capable of. Do not underestimate any of them. We would prefer the three humans to be captured for interrogation, but kill them if that is the only option available."

Jonathan felt angry about this. Why did these people think turning into demons was going to help them? What did they see as so wrong that they were willing to besiege their own king and countrymen? Mikado was supposed to be a kingdom of peace, where everyone had a place to belong and the safety to live out their lives as they should. They were ruining all of that on the claim that the Luxuror class was oppressing them, keeping them ignorant and enslaved. But they weren't enslaved. They were free to live as they should by the teachings of God.

Something felt odd then, like time had skipped a second. Jonathan glanced around and noticed bits of odd fuzz in the air around people. Something was going very wrong.

* * *

"We've got 'em now, huh? Trapped like rats." Issachar had his demonic grin now, enjoying this time.

"Yes, but they're sure to respond shortly," Flynn said. "We haven't won yet."

"Aw come on, we've done more than they expected. Of course, we could've been in there slaughtering them already too. Everybody else is getting antsy, knowing that this is our time." He looked up at the wall that stood between the Luxuror and Casualry districts. So close.

"We're still convincing the other Casualry to leave the city," he said. "We don't want them ending up as casualties too."

"Well if they haven't awakened yet, they're stubbornly remaining brainwashed with faith." It made him wonder something, something that he didn't like. "I do sometimes wonder why you haven't embraced the demonic yet."

"It hasn't embraced me like it did you," he replied.

"Are you sure you'd not afraid of it, and fighting it?" Issachar really wanted something to do, not this waiting when they had the Luxuror toads right within reach.

Flynn shook his head. "I don't like the system any more than you do. But there's nothing that clearly triggers the transformation. Some transform quickly upon realizing the truth, others are delayed until something else triggers them."

"Well if you need help, just ask," Issachar said, clenching his fingers. That heat came back into his mind, the kind of thing that had triggered his own transformation. Why did they do nothing?! Maybe he still felt the restraint that the Luxurors had yoked on the Casualries, maybe he needed someone to hurl that off him.

"Now wait," Flynn said.

"I'll help," Issachar said, then grabbed Flynn's neck. It was unfortunate that it had to be forced on him, but they needed to do something.

It didn't take long for Flynn's body to go limp. Issachar dropped him down to the ground; he'd get back up before long. What would his hidden talents be? Or his new form? He'd surely be even greater than he was now.

He wasn't moving. Not a bit of magic was trying to reanimate his body too. Nothing.

"Flynn?" Issachar dropped down and nudged him. "Hoy, Flynn, come on. You really deserve to break through, and be like me. You..." he nudged him again, getting no response. Issachar trembled. "You… Wh-what happened? Did I really…? No, no, this can't be right. Flynn, no!"

A burst of fire enveloped both of them, causing an explosion large enough to break down the division wall next to them. Issachar sobbed and embraced Flynn's fallen body, not that it would protect anything. In fact, he wanted the fires to consume him.

And so they did, along with a quarter of the capitol city of Mikado, until the timeline finally got to wink out to black.

* * *

"State your name."

No.

"Hoy… hoy Flynn, wake up."

Flynn had a lot of information now, but some vital parts were still uncertain. So he set out to discover what was unknown. Like, was there anything that could keep Issachar from transforming into a demon? There was a charm that he found that could ward off the transformation. But then, the problem was getting Issachar to always be wearing that charm after he had his mind opened up to the possibilities of the world. If he took it off even for half a minute after that, the transformation would trigger. He needed something deeper.

Or, what would convince Walter and Jonathan not to make their sacrifices? He spent several cycles focusing on one or the other, trying to get them to think harder on what they were asked to do. Jonathan would admit to fear when the option was presented to him, but he'd still decide to go through with it because he felt it was worth it. While Walter never admitted to fear in facing death, it was clear by how he acted when thinking over it that it was there. He would also decide it was worth it; he had a similar strain of hidden despair that Issachar did, but Flynn could never get close enough to him to get him to admit to that before the time came.

Clearly, what he needed was more time to accomplish what he needed to do. A lot more time, if what the cycles usually presented was not enough to convince Walter or Jonathan not to accept sacrifices. Issachar needed that too, for the forces at work might target him still. Flynn was pretty sure Isabeau would not choose a dramatic sacrifice if the rest of them remained human and remained together. And then he had to work out how to deal with the competing plots of angels and demons.

He needed a lot more time, and there was something right underneath his nose that could give him exactly that.


	3. A Miserable Option (but not the worst)

**Chapter 3: A Miserable Option (but not the worst)**

There wasn't a lot of time to work with. However, Flynn found that small things could lead to major changes in how a timeline played out. He wasn't sure quite how long his influence on the world would last, whether it was until Nanashi made his deal with Dagda or when Krishna appeared. He did need to test that, as much as he dreaded going back to that part of time. For now, though, he had confirmed an important matter: the gauntlets would only pick out two new samurai if he failed the rite, and it was always Isabeau and Jonathan. The timeline would always go off the rails if only those two were picked. If five new samurai were picked at this rite, then time would go as he was used to. And if six were chosen? Things often got rocky, but time tended to force itself into the familiar path. Giving his name in the dream did something, but the angels and demons were stubborn about their plans.

Only this time, something had occurred to make it so only three samurai had been chosen this year: himself, Isabeau, and Jonathan. This was probably going off the rails again. But how?

After he'd been in his room a while, Trojan came back. Its wires were coiled together and it gave an anxious whine. "#MyBadSorry. #TriedDifferentGauntlet."

Flynn closed his eyes. This time, he'd gone for doing the rite before Issachar (which took some trickery) and putting what should have been his gauntlet after. This meant that Issachar would get caught up in the Black Samurai's plans again. And, they'd end up fighting again. Flynn had tried to catch him after the rite, but his friend had already gone after Hope had talked with him. "Don't blame yourself," Flynn said, trying to put a clamp on this feeling of dread and despair. "At least we know one gauntlet certainly works for him."

He kept trying to think things through. Maybe he could refuse to kill Issachar? But Hugo would call for all transformed people to be executed. How could he make an exception for Issachar? Especially since Isabeau and Jonathan would definitely be with him, and Jonathan was easily swayed by the idea of duty. What of Isabeau, though? He recalled her saying that her manga had changed the way she thought of things, which lead her to being indecisive when their group fell apart. What side would she fall on if she was kept away from that? But this was for saving three people who were always lost; she would live if he went a particular way, but that could bring out Krishna. He wanted to avoid killing Issachar anymore, at least outside of situations where the timeline was doomed to fail anyhow…

Was this right of him, to be planning out moves that affected people's lives as if they were all part of a game?

Unexpectedly, a small wooden nudge came to his cheek. "#HateMe?"

Flynn opened his eyes and cupped his hand around Trojan. "No, I don't hate you. We are trying out many risky things; mistakes are bound to happen." The tiny demon nuzzled into his hand, relieved of its worry with only that. That encouraged him to add quietly, "There are some things I need to do that I hate myself more for allowing to happen. Already, I'd rather see this timeline fail like the rest."

Trojan whistled. "#AimForHappyEnd!"

Smiling at that, he carefully petted the demon. "Right. The gods play games with humans, but what they don't realize is that I'm learning their game. While it means that I have to look at matters differently and accept sacrificing pieces at times, eventually I'll master it and play a game that'll leave them in the dust. And you, Trojan, are my secret weapon in that. So no matter what happens while I'm still learning, I won't hate you for it."

"#BFF!"

Demons like Trojan were victims too, manipulated by the more powerful gods or humans. Flynn also knew that it was possible for such demons to get along with humanity just fine. Then, that was another thing for his optimal timeline: allowing cooperative demons to remain while bringing the more troublesome ones in line.

Still, what about Issachar…

* * *

When Flynn had been seven, a disease ran through Kiccigiorgi like wildfire. It snared nearly everyone at the time of sowing seeds, a terrible time for the town to be slowed down. There was so much to get done at the beginning of spring. Thankfully, the adults who got ill recovered quickly. But for the elderly and most of the children under ten, it struck severely. A few kids, like Issachar, were lucky to never have the fever and sores that marked the ones who lost their lives.

Flynn had fainted from the fever when he tried to keep working in the fields despite feeling poorly. He recalled it being painful and frightening, that he could barely move without fainting again. However, he survived it. His recovery had been long; his parents feared that it might leave him weakened for life. But Flynn wouldn't let that illness conquer him. One was to endure things quietly, to not share one's pain with another so as not to make them suffer. That was a favorite teaching of the head priest of the village, one that stuck firm with him long after he realized that his way of life might not be that good for him.

Once he was well enough to sit up on his own for a while, his father carried him out to the weekly church service. Life in Kiccigiorgi revolved around three things: the crops, the animals, and the church. The whole town was there for that service as usual, that is, those that hadn't passed away due to the illness. He'd missed the funerary services for the others. Since he had survived, the priest called up him and his father.

He wondered why, but was mostly focused on staying alert during a service. The priest helped him into a chair in front, then put a hand on his head. "Even in the darkest of times, humanity still has hope," the priest said. "And you have shown great courage and strength in fighting for your life these past few weeks. This is a blessing from God too; we hope that you become the kind of man that is a blessing from God for all of us." He then traced a holy sign with anointed oil on Flynn's forehead and prayed for his continued recovery.

The others in the town echoed the priest's words as everyone shared lunch together. Yet Flynn couldn't help but wonder about all the others who had died in this short time. Why weren't they blessed by God to recover as well? One woman said something about how the other children were taken from the world while they were still pure and faultless, while the elderly were given a lasting peace. But he knew some of the other children who'd died weren't all faultless, and he didn't think he'd done anything special to survive. In fact, he could barely remember any of it. Flynn didn't say any of that, though, only thanking a few people who wished him good health.

Then Issachar came up to him; they lived close together, but hadn't been more than neighbors before this year. His ponytail was neater than usual that day because his mother had insisted on it for church. "If you become a blessing from God to the town, does that mean you could make a legend out of your life?" Issachar asked him.

Flynn smiled, although his mother said, "Now now, we're not to be vain."

Issachar shifted uneasily at that. "Th-that's not what I meant. I just thought it'd be great to, well, do something great with our lives."

"We strive for peace and harmony, not for things that would disrupt the life of the village," Flynn's mother said.

"That would be best," he said, although he sounded unsatisfied with that.

Feeling bad about that, Flynn said, "I haven't been able to say much, but I really like the stories you've been telling me. Thanks."

That cheered Issachar back up. "Really? That's great, you're welcome! When I heard about you, I wanted to encourage you to keep going somehow, and that was the best idea I could come up with. I, uh," he glanced at Flynn's mother, "I know a lot of fairy stories and like telling them."

Even on that day, Flynn knew that he was fibbing. Issachar did know a lot of the fairy stories by heart, but he elaborated on them in ways that made them more interesting. And they'd both lost brothers and sisters to the illness, feeling odd to be the survivors. As it was, they were the only ones close to each other's age now. "You tell them well," Flynn said.

* * *

On his own, Flynn might have been okay with sticking to village life. It was the same chores day after day. Very little changed and what changes came were the same changes: birth and death, maybe a new task that would quickly become normal routine. For the most part, most of Kiccigiorgi's villagers were like himself: quiet, hardworking, and persevering. The tasks of keeping up the village farms were never-ending, but there was something comfortable to that life when one could settle into it.

Issachar was different. His mind was a well-spring of ideas, constantly seeking out something new to throw himself into. When he learned one task, he tried to find new ways to do it. Otherwise he grew bored of it quickly. He asked adults many questions and tried to start conversations when nothing was being said. When he was given a puzzle toy, he often had it solved within a day and then would make his own that would stump every other kid in the village. Although the more Flynn saw of those puzzles, the more he found ways to solve them himself. Flynn also listened eagerly to the new ideas Issachar would have, then helped him put those ideas to use.

They were frequently scolded for such things. No one else was interested in new ideas. Sometimes, they could get another kid to join them. But it would only take one sharp scolding to get their new friend to ignore them out of not wanting to get in trouble. Eventually none of the other kids in Kiccigiorgi wanted to play with them, something that made Issachar really upset. Flynn could deal with it since he'd always kept to himself, much like his father who barely spoke to anyone around. Issachar wanted lots of friends to talk with about anything he was interested in, which made him very unpopular. Since he was different, Flynn didn't mind listening to him complain and try to work out things aloud.

When Flynn was fourteen, Issachar brought him out to Lake Mikado for the first time. "I wanted to bring my father out as usual, but he said he'd only come if I'd keep silent," Issachar explained on the long walk over. "But that'd be horrible! Who'd want to be silent all the time?" He paused, then rubbed his head. "Oh, sorry, I don't mean anything against you in that."

He chuckled at that. "I'm not silent all the time, just most of the time."

"Yeah, but you do come up with some pretty good ideas when you do speak up." Issachar snapped his fingers. "And then we make even greater ideas together! We can see problems better when we discuss things, and solve them better too. So I don't get why everybody wants to keep things to themselves. Or why they don't want to find answers. I mean, there's so much to the world," he gestured to the grassy fields round them, buzzing with insects and glowing with sunshine, "and they don't want to see it, or understand it. They just say that God made everything to His plan and keep their eyes on the fields alone. But I know people built the structures in Kiccigiorgi, except maybe the magical stuff like lights. And even those, I could probably figure them out if I just knew what all those little bits in the box were about."

"You think people can make even better things," Flynn said, momentarily thinking over all the ideas they'd discussed.

Issachar nodded. "Yeah, we could. But they say we're not supposed to covet what we don't have, using that as an excuse to not make anything except what's necessary and what the Luxurors in the castle send us orders for. I mean, I suggested that we could make a table for meals so any messes could be contained to there and we didn't go accidentally stepping in some lost food. But mother said it was a sinful idea and I was wicked for bringing it up."

"Again?" Issachar's mother berated him so much for his ideas that it was surprising that he tried that. To Flynn, that seemed like a reasonable suggestion as long as there was spare wood. His own family didn't keep any tables or chairs as it was seen as unneeded. Issachar got called wicked a lot, often by his mother, for ideas that seemed reasonable to Flynn.

"She said it'd be a waste of wood and not fitting for our status," he said, looking down and losing what energy he'd had. It was odd for Issachar. However, Flynn wasn't sure what to say to him.

It got more uncomfortable the longer that silence went. Normally, Flynn enjoyed the sounds of the countryside. But things around them seemed hushed too, whether because of the time of day or just how strange it was that Issachar didn't want to talk like usual. When they got to Lake Mikado, he just went to getting his fishing pole ready. This was supposed to be a nice break from everyday work, but Flynn felt bad for not knowing what to do.

Not even about the poles, hooks, and bait. "I haven't been fishing before," he reminded him, hoping that might get him talking again.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot about that," Issachar said, embarrassed. "I'll show you. It's just, sometimes I think it's a waste to keep trying. My parents would certainly be happier with me if I stopped trying, even if it felt awful." Although he said he'd show him how to set up the pole, he didn't reach for the second one and stopped work on his own. "Sometimes I think they'd be happier if I just died and stopped being so much trouble to them that way."

"That's horrible," Flynn said, although he felt like it was a mistake even as he said it.

"Sorry, it's not like I…" he rubbed his eyes. "I don't mean to trouble you with all my wicked thoughts."

While it wasn't something he normally did, it only seemed right to put an arm around him then. "No, I mean your parents are horrible for making you feel like that," Flynn said. "We need to show them, and everybody else, that you are great."

"Thanks Flynn, but I don't think we can do that," Issachar said. Then he dropped the fishing pole and grabbed onto him. It was strange, but he was shaking and Flynn didn't want to just ignore him like that. "There's nothing right with me! Everything I try ends up being wrong to everyone else. Why?"

He didn't understand that either, nor how Issachar's ideas could be wicked or disruptive. Maybe everyone else in Kiccigiorgi was wrong? Flynn felt awful for thinking that. At the same time, he felt angry that they'd all push Issachar into thinking like this. That was horribly wrong too. And his friend probably felt conflicted like this all the time, he realized. One thing that Flynn was sure of was that he didn't want Issachar to die. Especially if he tried to do something about that himself, since then the villagers would act like he'd never existed.

But what did he do? Being in Kiccigiorgi was bad for Issachar. However, that was where they had been born and that was where they belonged. Maybe he could start taking care of the forest so he could stay out of the village? There had been a woman who lived like that, in a hut out in the woods. She'd come into town every few days with things she'd foraged or fished; Flynn's parents had warned him against being too friendly with her, but they traded with her like everyone else. If Issachar did that, Flynn could still go out and see him once his chores in town were done. Although, it didn't seem like a life Issachar would be happy with either.

There was another option, though, one that could take them both out of Kiccigiorgi if they got lucky. And it was one Issachar had talked about before. "Maybe we're meant to become samurai," Flynn said.

"What?" Issachar asked, shocked by the statement. He lifted his head and stared at him.

"You could be different from everyone else in Kiccigiorgi because God has other plans for you," Flynn guessed. "And we both survived that illness by the grace of God. It's like those stories you tell, that the reason samurai must still be around is that they keep demons from escaping into the world now. God would know if something about that is going to change, so maybe He saw the need for someone who could think differently like you to become a samurai. And I like that you're different, and I like helping you out with your ideas, so He could be calling me too to make sure you have someone you can trust to be helping you with whatever's going to change about the world."

"That would be amazing," Issachar said, calming down a little. "But, we're not supposed to talk about that kind of thing. They say that nobody from Kiccigiorgi has become a samurai."

"We might become the first, that could always happen even if it is a slim chance," he said. "Besides, why does it matter if we're not supposed to talk about it? We've already talked about that kind of thing."

"But that was like it was another story," he said.

While he was arguing against it, Flynn felt he couldn't really mean it. "Sure, but why not take it seriously and make sure we earn God's favor in being chosen? We're practically secret keepers already since most of the things we talk about, we don't tell others or we don't tell them everything."

"That's true," Issachar said. It was something that many people in the village believed in. While it was best if you could never cause others grief by sharing your own hurts, sometimes it was easier to be stronger if you had someone you spoke to freely about anything and everything. Being someone's secret keeper was being more than simple friends with them. But really, they were that way already.

He let go of Issachar to pick up the hook on his pole. It had a pointed tip, so it should work. "Then why don't we make it official? You're the best friend that I've got and I want to help you in any way I can, especially if it keeps you from losing hope like this."

"I'm sorry," he said. "But yes, we'll swear to be secret keepers, and to eventually become samurai together. It'll be a few years, but I'll get through it as long as you're with me on this."

They didn't get as many fish as they would've liked, but Issachar had cheered up a great deal by the time they got back home.

* * *

Preventing Isabeau from picking up the manga turned out simpler than Flynn expected. On the fated day when Kiccigiorgi would burn, Hope would be away quelling some Casualry rebellions outside the castle. Demons would be involved, but they wouldn't realize where those demons were coming from until the next day when Issachar… but since Hope was gone, the prentice samurai (now three) would have a holiday without knowing the terrible reason why. Normally, Jonathan would let them know and Walter would have the idea to breakfast together. Isabeau would turn them down, but would later meet the baker as well and get the manga from him.

When it was him and Jonathan, Isabeau wasn't as reluctant in accepting the breakfast invitation when Flynn brought it up. That did make Flynn notice something: there was a young woman close to their age working at the bakery. Perhaps she'd always been there, maybe with just a smile and not a word so he didn't recall her. That morning, though, Flynn noticed that she paled as they approached. She was quick to hide her face, but glanced over at them occasionally as they spoke with the baker. She seemed most interested in Jonathan and Isabeau. As his goal was to keep Jonathan from sacrificing himself, the woman gave Flynn an idea.

They opted to eat their breakfast at the Obelisk Plaza rather than go all the way out to Lake Mikado. Jonathan pointed out the school that all Luxuror children went to. It was a five story brick building where the trim had been painted blue and white; the school was large to Flynn, but wasn't as large as some of the family manors around here. "From five to ten years old, we gather there to learn basics like literacy, mathematics, and religion. Then we go to learn the specifics of our family trade, although some families are lenient on what their children decide to do."

"Do you learn history?" Flynn asked. If this had been the only time he knew, he wouldn't have thought to ask that.

He shook his head. "No, it's considered a specialized subject only worthy of a hobby outside of a single historian that the castle keeps. Besides, the important thing to know about history is that before Mikado existed, civilization corrupted to the point that it was ruled by demons. But the angels came and saved many from that evil, giving us this bountiful land and peace. Then the great samurai Aquilla organized us into a kingdom worthy of God. There were a few incidents over the centuries, but Aquilla's wisdom and foresight, together with God's grace and protection, has kept us in this ideal manner of life. That's how we are God's chosen. There were Unclean Ones who survived the destruction of the evil civilization before us, those who practiced dark magic and wickedness. But there's no word of what happened to them after the angels kept them from invading our land once. Presumably they all died out, having fallen victim to their great sins."

"Once you understand that much, the rest of history doesn't matter except to the curious," Isabeau said. It was already different from how he knew her. But then, he hadn't gotten many chances to speak with her before her mind started changing. "I did some early studies into the healing arts as I was going to do that before I was chosen. And, I think you were studying the angels, right Jonathan?"

"As my extra studies, yes," he said with a smile. "I've simply been fascinated with the stories about angels all my life. Although, the descriptions of some of them are quite hard to comprehend. It might seem strange that I am interested in them, since I wasn't born into the monastery."

"No, that suits you," Flynn said, making him a bit embarrassed.

After they finished eating, Jonathan said, "Do you two want me to show you around more of the capitol?"

"That'd be good," Isabeau said with a nod. "I haven't actually been outside the monastery much, only to the school here and sometimes out to Aquila Plaza."

"I'll be fine on my own, but thanks for asking," Flynn said.

He knew the city fairly well thanks to his past lives, so he didn't need the tour this time. Instead, he went back to the Casualry market to find the young woman at the bakery. He got lucky with that, finding her attending the sales tables alone. She introduced herself as Marie and she was quick to bring up the subject he was interested in. "You were with Jonathan earlier, right? I don't mean to be a bother, but may I ask you something about him?"

"Sure, although I've only known him for a couple of weeks," he said.

"Is he courting the woman who was with you both?" She tugged at her red-brown hair while asking, trying to keep her eyes to him when her mind was preoccupied.

"Isabeau? I don't think so." At least, they'd never shown any inclination to doing so in his experience with them. He knew that they'd been schoolmates and friends prior to becoming samurai.

"Oh good," she said, although she didn't look that relieved.

Flynn felt a brief hesitation in prodding this matter further. But he knew he'd reject this timeline already; the things he did ultimately wouldn't matter as long as he got the information he needed. "Do you have a crush on him?"

Her face immediately flushed pink. "Ah! Um…" she glanced around, then nodded sadly. "Y-yes. Please don't tell anybody, especially not him! But, I've admired him quietly for a long time. He's a real gentleman, you know, miles better than the other Luxurors I encounter. And he's so handsome, and smart, and now he's a samurai so you know he's truly noble. Sometimes I think that he could be a saint, one who works directly for the blessed angels."

"I could see that," Flynn said, trying to sound as neutral as he could about it given that he'd seen the angels Jonathan was bound to end up helping.

Encouraged by his positive reaction, Marie went on, clasping her hands near her chin. "And you know, I've been reading father's Literature too. The one that fascinated me the most was a small one called Cinderella. It's about a servant who is in love with a prince, but of course, she's not supposed to be with him because he's royalty and she tends to the cinders. But then, she gets a fairy godmother who gives her an outer beauty to match the beauty of her soul, and she goes to a ball and ends up winning his heart." She smiled fondly. "There's more to it even as a small story, but it's so wonderful."

"It does sound nice," he said, since he wanted her to keep talking.

"I know it's not exactly the same, since I'm better off than a servant like that and he's not exactly a prince," Marie said, her eyes seeming to daydream. "But sometimes I read me and Jonathan into the story, and I wish it could really be so. It could be harder for me, though. I don't know any fairies and the divide between Luxuror and Casualry here is much stronger than the divide in Cinderella's story."

"Technically, samurai aren't to think of ourselves as Casualry or Luxuror," Flynn said. "It's in our Code, and Jonathan takes the Code very seriously. So it might be possible for you to win Jonathan's love still."

"Really?" she asked, her eyes bright with hope.

Unfortunately, Flynn got back to discover that thanks to the meddling of Jonathan's mother, he and Isabeau were now courting. They didn't seem to be in love, but they both thought it was the practical thing to do.

Kiccigiorgi didn't burn that night.

And Marie became a demon when she heard about the courtship, destroying a good portion of the Luxuror's district (including the manor of Jonathan's family) before she was executed by Jonathan (and he was shaken up from that for some time).

It was a miserable timeline for all.

* * *

When Issachar's mind started burning, so did his surroundings. It was something that had been happening ever since that night… at the shores of Lake Mikado, a precious place for him. But his mind had been full of rage, grief, despair, betrayal, and much more. He'd gone to the Gauntlet Rite with nothing but hope and that had been dashed away. But Flynn had been accepted. Why only… why only him?! It had been their dream, their great secret. They should have been accepted together. Why not?

He didn't want to return to Kiccigiorgi even though that was his only choice. However, something changed. Someone called out to him as he left the city late; they'd invited him to a Sabbath. There, he learned to read through the magic of secrets and was given a book. Once he started reading, everything changed. There were children asking questions and getting answers without being scolded for it. People shared ideas and helped each other instead of shutting off entirely. Even when criticisms were given, it was encouragement to work out the weaknesses. Those who cut off an idea as wicked or bad were portrayed as closed-minded or cruel in that book.

Issachar wanted to share the book with Flynn immediately after finishing it. But, he wasn't there anymore. He was off living their dream, leaving him out of it. Before he got too lost to the misery, he took up another book of Literature to read. It was different, as was the next, and the next. The books stimulated his mind like nothing else; they made him lose track of time. When he ran out of money for food, he exchanged some of the books for new ones, then headed back to Kiccigiorgi. Maybe he could tolerate village life as long as he had the books.

But on getting back to Lake Mikado, he started to have doubts in that. Where would he get new books? He knew there was some spell to summon them, but hadn't used it himself. He had no friends there either. When he got back, he knew that he was going to get scolded for not coming back right away. And, who'd even be interested in these books? Maybe some of the other young people; they might like the novelty if he could convince them to try them out. But, how did he let them read? Maybe he should have waited until he could meet with the mystery person who started everything.

Then she came out to him one moonlit night at Lake Mikado. The Black Samurai even brought him a hot meal, better than the fish he'd caught and the things he scrounged to keep reading there by the old pear tree. And of course, more books. She taught him the spells needed for a Sabbath and talked with him for a long time. Issachar couldn't remember clearly what all they'd talked about. There were the books, of course, and then…

On that night, he realized just how horrible the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado was. It wasn't just in how he'd been bullied and cut down in Kiccigiorgi. No, nearly everything about Mikado was just plain wrong. Especially the Luxurors. Those toads, lazily squatting around while pretending to be refined. But they were nothing but spoiled tyrants, living luxurious lives built upon the backs of the hard-working Casualry who thought even tables were indulgences. Rage filled Issachar's mind, unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. And when she asked him, he agreed that he'd rather be a demon than live in this horrible mockery of civilization anymore.

It was pretty nice overall, being a demon. Sure, things tended to combust spontaneously around him when he tapped into that rage. But if something was triggering his rage, it deserved to be burned. Kiccigiorgi had burned wonderfully, avenging him of so much pain and grief. He didn't need much sleep and could subsist on just water for a long time. With some demonic magic, he could store away his books in some invisible bag that was always available to him and weighed nothing. It all meant that he could read and read, and never have to stop unless someone was rude enough to interrupt him.

But, sometimes he didn't immediately pick up a new book after finishing the last. Some of them made him think more deeply than others, so he would pause and enjoy the countryside while thinking it over. Tonight, he'd ended up somewhere strange. He was on a beach of soft sand, before the immense spread of the ocean. He'd read about the ocean in several books, but had never seen it before now. In front of it, he felt like the books hadn't done the ocean justice. The grandeur of the water spreading out clear to the horizons, the white curls of the tides, the feeling of being minuscule and yet embraced by nature, the stillness as if frozen in a single moment of time, it all gave him a strange sense of peace looking out at it.

It was a peace unlike what others in Mikado used that word for. It was a peace he much preferred to that stale suffocating peace. Actually, it was similar to what he felt around Lake Mikado. But the lake was better.

Years ago, when he and Flynn had officially became secret keepers, Issachar had been at a low point in his life. It was nothing compared to what happened after the rite, but it had been the worst up to that point. Sometimes when he felt downhearted after that, he'd remember that afternoon, of how Flynn had embraced him when his spirit was utterly broken. And, Issachar had nearly kissed him. He hadn't and was usually grateful he hadn't. It was something far more wicked than all the other things he got put down for. They were friends. And yet, he'd often dreamed of Flynn in ways he shouldn't, being in his arms again and desiring what should be impossible. He'd never bought it up with Flynn, since it was too nonsensical outside of dreams.

But now, with the dark ocean before him and a demon's form which he was better suited for, Issachar could think back over those dreams and not feel disgusted with himself. He was a demon, he could ignore everything society told him he had to do just to keep proper. "I loved him," Issachar said to himself, closing his eyes and briefly wrapping himself up in those dreams like he did with the books.

It left him with an ache as empty as the ocean was wide, an imagining of warmth that left him so much colder when he let go of imagining. The silence around him felt oppressive. Shuddering, he tried to slip back into those dreams again. Dreams were harder to grasp than books, though. He thought back to when he'd last seen Flynn.

When he'd last…

"You've been burning many villages," Flynn said. But he wasn't scolding or cruel. He was disappointed and distraught, trying to bluff over that even though Issachar knew him better. "You're destroying more of us Casualry than any of the Luxurers."

Issachar had meant to say that he didn't want that. Instead, the fires in his mind, blazing at the reminder of the betrayal of the rite, had him say, "They're only making things worse! If they're not going to rise up against their oppression, then to hell with them! I.." no, he shouldn't… "but if they're like me… no, I didn't mean that. But the fires come so quickly and devour everything in my mind…" something twitched. "They should devour everything, wipe it all out. You deserve to burn too!"

"I'm sorry, Issachar," Flynn said, raising a hand. Issachar then found himself consumed by an entirely different fire, one that burned into his body. And the last thing he'd said was something under his breath, as if he didn't want anyone else to hear it. "I'll save you all one of these times, no matter how many hells I must live through to accomplish that."

"What did you mean by that?" Issachar wondered, still before the silent ocean. "I… I'm dead… I only realized I loved you after I became a demon and died." He then laughed bitterly; it got swallowed up by the stillness. "How many times have you had to kill me now?" Or he'd killed Flynn when blinded by demonic emotions. Memories passed through his mind, memories he shouldn't have. How many times… "Stop this, Flynn, stop it!" Issachar sobbed and wrapped his arms around himself. "Take the embrace of non-existence with me; let this end so we stop doing this to each other!"

But Flynn would not stop.

* * *

This mission was something new. Hoping to get something out of it, Flynn went ahead and did it. It was something he had to do alone because Merkabah's presence wouldn't give him the chance to get the shot. When he got back to Mikado Castle, he showed the photo he'd taken of Lucifer. It wasn't Lucifer as Flynn was used to him looking. He was more like a dragon than a human, a feral dangerous being that acted with little cunning.

"As I suspected," Merkabah said, turning back to the scales they'd been examining. They were peculiar ones, made of gold with a cobalt blue sphere acting as the fulcrum. While there were no weights on the scales, they tilted gently up and down. "Lucifer's summoning was incomplete. That should be a boon for us, although," they put a hand on their chin, thinking.

Knowing that he could take out Merkabah in a few blows, Flynn didn't feel intimidated at their presence. If anything, he was disappointed to be working with them rather than Jonathan. "Is something wrong with that?"

"Hmm." Flynn knew what was wrong: Walter had died before he could meet up with Lucifer's partial manifestation. In fact, he'd died from Issachar's wandering trail of infernos. But did Merkabah know that? The angel put a finger to the scales, stopping them from swaying. "The balance of the world is very unstable. Peace depends on having the right balance. However," they struck the balance bar of the scales, sending them spinning and shifting wildly, "the balance of the world is something like this right now."

"It doesn't seem that way," Flynn said. Although if one were to look at all the timelines he had been through, it might be accurate.

Merkabah stopped the scales again. "It would be difficult to see on a human scale. I should be grateful that Lucifer won't be much of an obstacle, and yet this picture makes me very uneasy. Hmmm… and what's bothering you? Your thoughts are extremely active; I can feel that."

At least they couldn't read those thoughts. If they were interested in answering questions, there was one that had troubled Flynn for a long time. "I have been wondering why you needed a human sacrifice to be brought into the world."

Merkabah gave him a hard look, gauging what to say.

"Jonathan might have gotten married to Isabeau, I don't see why he chose this instead," Flynn said. It had taken Jonathan longer to think about. But in the end, he chose the same way he always did.

"The Casualry allowed for more sentimental reasons to go into marriage," Merkabah said. "But it was a matter of business with the Luxurers. Status and wealth mattered far too much for them. Thus, marriage had nothing to do with passion. It was what most benefited the persons involved. He decided this was a far greater matter for everyone."

"But why would you require a sacrifice at all?" Flynn repeated. "I could understand Lucifer since he's a demon lord, but not you."

"I'm not an ordinary angel by any means," they said, but wouldn't explain any further.

But there was someone who might give him such answers… just how did he get that being to speak with him?


	4. A Submissive Option (and a vengeful one)

**Chapter 4: A Submissive Option (and a vengeful one)**

From the very first time he'd met Krishna, Flynn had felt that something was wrong about him. He'd already been through several timelines at that point and thus knew that gods weren't to be trusted fully. A few like Masakado and Lady Danu were on the side of humanity. But until one knew where a god stood, they were to be treated with caution. He already had some wariness of Thor and Odin, so seeing them along with this new god made things suspect.

This time, he felt a mix of anxiety and relief that Krishna had shown up. There was nothing Flynn could do to get Krishna to appear at this time. It all depended on someone else: Nanashi. Sometimes Flynn encountered Nanashi and Asahi in Sky Tower while he was gathering the Spirit of Hope, sometimes he didn't. If he met them there, Krishna was very likely to show up later on. If he didn't meet them there, he wouldn't meet Krishna. And when he appeared, Krishna would shatter Flynn's mind and nearly break his willpower (sometimes he did that too).

There were things that Flynn could only find out on these branches of time, though. One branch in particular had someone who would be impossible (or nearly so) to meet with on any other branch. Which times he ended up in were all up to Nanashi. To make matters worse, it seemed that Nanashi was inclined to not take the branch that Flynn needed information from. It meant that Flynn had to keep pressing through this torture. At least he was getting a very clear image on Krishna now.

And he could slug Krishna in the face this time knowing that it really didn't have any consequences.

* * *

After several failures in a row to get the timeline he was after, Flynn needed a break from it all. He knew it because the White were sounding reasonable again. But more than that, there was a fury in his thoughts that kept building, little by little. Why was he given the responsibility to make decisions for the world's future when it could all be taken away from him so quickly? Why did people have to die for the schemes of gods? Did any of this really matter when time would undo itself? And did any of it matter if it didn't, but the angels and demons kept coming back to torment humanity?

Could he really accomplish a true victory in this cosmic game?

Lake Mikado rippled under the dawn breeze. The leaves of the old pear tree rustled, a tree that marked the spot they always went to first. Opening his eyes and seeing that Issachar was asleep nearby, Flynn sat up and called on Trojan. "We're going to pull a crazy game this time," he said quietly to the tiny demon. "Let's see how they all deal with this." Then he told it what to do.

"Woot, #CrazyTrainGo!"

What he did was have Trojan shuffle the gauntlets until only two new samurai could be chosen: himself and Issachar.

* * *

Had he overslept? Issachar's mind was a blur. It was… what day was it? His head and neck hurt. Why? He tried to think back and… frustration and rage bubbled up. He'd become a samurai only to find that he and Flynn were outsiders that others didn't want in. The other samurai whispered against them, sometimes lectured them heartlessly, all because they didn't think Casualry should become samurai. But they were so lazy! He and Flynn had taken on requests that the masters should have taken care of first; they didn't even bother to go below the first level most of the time. Why should they do all the work so the rest could indulge themselves in luxury and idleness?

But that didn't answer the question of what day it was, or where he was. He opened his eyes and saw rocky brown walls all around. Naruku. Next to him, Flynn was sitting on the ground. "I-Issachar?" he asked, somehow shocked.

"Flynn? What happened?" He rubbed his neck and sat up.

"I don't know, I thought you were dead," Flynn said, confused. "Well… we were talking and you really lost your temper all of a sudden. Then you were convulsing and… I don't know."

The answer came to him, although he couldn't entirely explain it either. "I've become a demon," he said, looking at his hands. They seemed normal, albeit paler than normal. Grinning, he said, "I know I was angry, it was all burning up in my mind. And then, I just wanted to destroy it all, destroy all the people who've oppressed and tormented us. Now I can tear it all to shreds and burn them until there's nothing." He laughed, feeling a thrill of freedom that he'd never felt before.

Unfortunately, Flynn was still human and this made him concerned. "You're a demon?" He looked to his gauntlet to check.

Issachar got to his feet, his mind racing with violent desires. "Of course! Heh, they always called me wicked, but I've not been truly wicked until now. Don't worry, Flynn, I'll make it so no one dares disrespect us."

After a moment, he said, "If we go back up there, the other samurai will kill you once they identify you as being turned demon. They've been doing that with everyone else who has."

"That could be a problem," part of his mind said. But another said, "We could try anyhow."

"Actually, there's something I've thought about," Flynn said, standing up as well. "The demons get stronger the deeper you go into Naruku. If that keeps up, then the strongest demons of all will be at the deepest level."

"That might be," Issachar agreed. Which led to an intriguing idea…

"Then how about we keep heading down until we can negotiate with stronger demons than have ever appeared in Mikado? Maybe even the strongest if we can make it that deep. That way, we'll definitely destroy them."

"That sounds even better," he said.

* * *

Issachar was curious about Tokyo, but Flynn knew that he should be far more fascinated by the underground city. But as a demon, he had a quick temper and lust for violence that he didn't have as a human. In fighting demons in the streets, his friend got so focused on destruction that he didn't care where they were as long as they could get in a fight. Flynn avoided the underground settlements as much as he could. But there was one he wanted to reach because of someone who should be waiting there.

And she was there as usual, hanging out in the street above Shinjuku. All of the demons in sight were keeping away from her; Flynn wondered briefly why he hadn't noticed that the first time around. "Hi, you're an unusual pair," the brown-haired girl said, smiling charmingly.

Issachar stared at her, but it wasn't the same as Walter's first reaction to her. "And you're a demon," he said. "You're really strong too."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh, you noticed?" She giggled. "Most people don't, but I suppose you would as a human turned demon. Call me Hikaru for now. What about you?"

"I'm Issachar, and this is Flynn," he said. Flynn nodded, watching them closely. "We came down from Mikado, the place above here. We're actually looking for the strongest demon around."

Hikaru tilted her head. "Really? What for?"

"We want to crush that whole rotten kingdom with overwhelming force," Issachar said.

Laughing at that, she tugged at the strap of her book bag. "Going for the whole hog, huh? That sounds pretty interesting. But, if you're gonna try getting the strongest demon around as an ally for that, you'll want to prove yourselves as worthy. Well, worthy and interesting, but I think you've got the latter covered."

"We've been fighting every demon that challenges us," Flynn said. "What else can we do?"

"Hmm." After some thought, she nodded to herself. "Weeeell, actually, I had some plans myself, but I think your plans are better. I know a lot of people, so I can help you find the demon you're looking for. And to get their attention, I've got a great idea." She grinned; it wasn't as obviously demonic as Issachar's, but there was something slightly off to it, like her grin was larger than it should be just by a bit. "You can help me take down the Ashura-kai. That'll definitely get everyone's attention."

"What's this Ashura-kai about?" Issachar asked.

"It's led by a snob of a man who thinks he deserves to lead all of Tokyo," Hikaru said. "And he does it by giving demons these red pills. Have you heard of them?" When they shook their heads, she explained, "Reds are meant to satiate a demon's hunger, but they also act like opium to us in that it's addictive and messes with your head. A lot of demons have become weakened and obsessed with the Reds, which I hate. And if a human eats a Red, they end up turning into a demon also addicted to Reds. So the first thing we ought to do is to shut down their factory. I wasn't too sure about taking it on myself, but if the three of us go, we should be fine."

"As long as you can get us in contact with the leader of you demons, that sounds fine by me," Flynn said.

"Sure, let's go knock these snobs down too," Issachar said eagerly.

When he eventually had the chance to ask her why she needed a human sacrifice, she just smiled and said it was a tribute. That time, she fused with one of the Ring of Gaia members, which led to the incomplete dragon summoning. It was support for one of his theories, but he wanted more concrete answers to act upon. Flynn let that timeline play out, conquering Mikado with Issachar and Lucifer. While it satisfied some of his anger, it was only a temporary salve.

Because he had to go back to dealing with Krishna until Nanashi made the choices he was looking for.

* * *

Time after time after time… maybe it wasn't in Nanashi's nature to do this. Maybe there was some extra circumstance Flynn had yet to identify that pushed him into that end. But the usual choices he took didn't give Flynn the chance he was looking for. He'd found ways to tolerate the torments he had to bear while waiting. Although, it often meant he had to take other timelines to find peace again, like getting confined to the monastery, refusing to go to the underground, or going on another rampage. Merkabah was right about something: the scales of balance were swinging wildly right now.

The binds that tied him to this cross were magical in nature, so he couldn't get out of them like ordinary rope. This whole cage was magical, leaving him suspended as if in water rather than hanging off a cross. Not only that, but his body was kept paralyzed so he couldn't move. When he'd tried to sneak in an anti-paralysis ring, Krishna noticed and took it off him. He couldn't think on these things long now that he was captured, though. He had to brace himself for what was to come.

Think on his breathing. Think on his body, numb with paralysis and light with magical buoyancy. Think on his heartbeat… tense, helpless, and he knew exactly what was coming. It was worse than the first time he hadn't known what to expect because at least then, he'd hoped he could free himself somehow. But no, think on the present, then push away from even that towards inner peace. Keep hidden thoughts of other times. Keep many things hidden deep within. Some resistance was needed to convince him there was nothing more to find beyond the present. Strangely enough, it was Krishna who'd taught him this as a means to relax his mental guards, not strengthen them.

The flute played and Flynn winced. It was a piercing sound that cut into his thoughts and made him want to scream. No, not yet. This would break him down again… if he resisted too much, it'd get worse. He focused within; the flute cut into that focus, trying to draw his attention fully to it. The notes grew louder in his mind, filling it. That song, he hated that song.

'You didn't strike me as someone who hated music,' Krishna said within Flynn's thoughts. 'This doesn't have to bring you pain. Just relax and you can find peace.'

Then the notes dug in painfully, fingers reaching into his mind to pluck out thoughts and rearrange them. He threw the touch out reflexively; his body could not move, but his mind could move like a dream in this state. For a moment, he had quiet and Krishna's surprise. That was not a good sign. Then the flute and the prodding returned. Flynn fought back mentally, but the cuts into his thoughts left cracks and he felt more and more of Krishna's presence.

Suddenly, there was a sharp pain and blackness.

When his mind stirred back to consciousness, he'd been taken off the cross. That was new. He still couldn't move his body, not even to open his eyes. While his thoughts were a blur, the flute music swelled and took over.

"Just stay calm," Krishna said, picking up a tea cup for a sip. "You nearly cracked your head open resisting so much. This is much better, isn't it?"

Flynn knew he was somewhere in the Ring of Gaia temple. But to his senses, he was somewhere completely unfamiliar now. They were on the balcony of a grand strangely designed building, sitting at a wooden table with a tea set decorated with an elaborately dressed dancing elephant. He was dressed in clothes he wasn't used to, lightweight and brightly colored. Overhead, a large tree with dark green leaves spread over them, blocking the dry heat of the sun. In fact, the whole building was surrounded by a jungle. Jungle… that was an unfamiliar word for a wooded area, but he knew that was right.

Gesturing towards the tree, Krishna said, "This is a memory of my homeland, India. I thought you might like to see how beautiful it was, although it wasn't all so idyllic. Especially after foreign powers took over and tried to stamp out all that was unique to us." He frowned briefly at that, but then shook his head and smiled. "That's not important right now. Tell me, is there anything you want? And I don't mean any heroic sentiments on behalf of others, I mean anything you yourself desire?"

"Nothing you could grant me," Flynn said. His mouth felt dry and rough with those words. There was a tea cup in front of him, along with a bowl of what seemed to be candied fruits. No, anything here could be dangerous.

"Are you sure of that?" Krishna said, trying to coax him. "I am an avatar of a god of preservation, to save the world when it is in peril; I can do many things mortals think impossible."

"No," although he briefly wondered how a god of preservation became so intent on destroying, even if to make what he thought was a better universe.

"You say that so selflessly, but I hear your soul crying out in pain," he said, taking one of the candied fruits to snack on.

"You're responsible for some of that," Flynn said.

"Sometimes what's good for us can hurt," Krishna said, leaning back in his chair and bringing out his flute again. He faded away quickly.

How did he get out of here? It was an illusion, a dream. Perhaps a solid enough effort at waking… he grabbed the tea cup without thinking and brought it to his lips. A fragrant spicy scent came off it, not like the tea he was used to. That wasn't his choice. Krishna made him drink from the cup. An instinct of terror flickered, knowing that he was no longer in control of himself. Maybe he should just blank it all out and wait. He could be right in that fighting it, especially when he had this much control, was only going to hurt more.

Krishna didn't relax long after that. He set the cup down and got up from the table, leaving the balcony. After searching the halls of the labyrinth of a manor, he came to a door that had an etching of an old pear tree. "Now let's see…"

Wait, that… thorny vines quickly covered the door, trying to seal it off even more.

"So you do have something locked away from me," Krishna said, touching the vines carefully. "Someone with your willpower shouldn't give in easily even with moderate coaxing. An introvert's mind shouldn't be so quiet. We could work with this, but it'd be better when we work together fully." Then he started playing his flute again, using the music to poke cracks into his thoughts and get further in.

There were times when Krishna had to leave, to deal with things in the waking world. Flynn and the flute music were left within this dream. For a while, he kept working to protect that door. He didn't want to give Krishna access to the knowledge of other timelines. Sometimes, he worked on waking back up. He'd like to get a message to Nanashi, something that would convince him to take the timeline least traveled. But any time he seemed to be getting close to waking, Krishna came back and he had to focus on protecting the door.

Timeline least traveled… actually, there was one that showed up unexpectedly, only once while the one he was seeking had shown up twice. It had occurred when he'd gotten to meet Krishna three timelines in a row without trying something else to break up this madness. Maybe if he revealed that unlucky future and drove Krishna mad… this would end badly. If that door opened, it was going to be difficult to keep his plans straight. But he did need to know every bad ending in order to find the good one he most wanted. He just needed to have that memory close at hand.

Catching a vine trying to grow back in place, Krishna said, "I know it's natural to want to protect your central being. But I want to save humanity as well. This madness of the angels and demons has gone on for far too long. Neither of their plans can last for long, as the balance will always sway to the other side. It's designed that way now, making the whole universe sick with such swaying. More than anything else, that needs to stop. Don't you agree?"

Flynn made himself appear in the hall by the door, sitting on the floor with his arms around one knee. Krishna raised an eyebrow at this, but didn't seem too surprised. "The world's balance is swinging wildly right now," Flynn said. "Do you think your solution can last any longer than theirs?"

He nodded. "It'll be a clean new universe, with nothing to interfere."

He shook his head. "It won't solve the problem. It won't last as long as the others. If you succeed, it will destroy you."

Of course, he couldn't accept the possibility. "That's nonsense. You couldn't know that."

Flynn snapped his fingers, making the vines vanish. "How much are you willing to bet on that? You might go mad if you see what's beyond that door. I already have."

"Gods and mortals have different levels of comprehension," Krishna said, then opened the door.

However, there were more memories back there than one person should have, a great many of them far worse than most people could deal with. In many different times, he'd destroyed all of his friends, himself, and the entire universe. And the pain of it all never numbed, no matter how much he tried to force it to. The image of the Indian manor crumbled as those memories came back to him swift and chaotic. Krishna clutched his flute defensively and tried to brace himself from the assault, but too late for it.

"Are you sure of that?" Flynn asked.

"What is this?" Krishna asked, sounding intimidated. "I know of those who remember past lives, but this… how many times have you lived just this one life?"

"I've lost track," he said, clenching his fist. The scene shifted to the heart of the Cosmic Egg, to a battle between them as Vishnu and Nanashi, his demons, and Isabeau. For the moment, it was frozen in time, right when Isabeau collapsed fatally from one of the crimson blades. "But this is the one time I remember you succeeding because Isabeau got killed and that made me snap worse than you expected."

While he tried to keep those past emotions out of his head, it was hard to do so and keep the memory playing. Isabeau would survive if he declined both Merkabah and Lucifer, or if he got the timeline far enough off the normal path. Otherwise, she'd attempt to stop him from taking an extreme only to fail to be able to defeat him in battle. And she did not wish him to have her death on his hands, so she would always choose suicide for failure. But that did leave her death on his hands, for being unable to keep her safe. When she actually fell by his hands, even as an altered being in Vishnu, he was filled with rage and grief and slaughtered the rest of Nanashi's group without mercy. He couldn't explain it to himself; those thoughts were too broken and would shatter him again.

Vishnu was shaking even after the battle ended. "Go to sleep," he mumbled, dismissing the swords now that all who could oppose him were dead. "I need to focus, before this full moon ends."

All of his allies were dead too, save for Shesha who was in an altered state of being. But their souls were still here. They would soon be united irrevocably. Once the part of his mind that was Flynn was quiet, he turned to the heart and set it to be born. With all the souls they had gathered, the Egg was able to draw upon the energy of the entire world. All life without became the life within. With the sudden gap in the fabric of the universe, the rest of existence was pulled into the process as well. There it was, all of existence drawn back into One.

And then the Cosmic Egg hatched, giving birth to the new form of Life. All souls were one. All minds were connected, able to achieve anything. But most of all, One could achieve an existence without death, in true peace.

True peace…?

The minds within One struggled. Their thoughts brushed up against each other and conflicted in sharp bits of pain. They were One; They could resolve any conflict. Work together. Peace is what you wished for, yes? Peace what was you hoped for. Salvation gave the unity to cease all differences and achieve perfection for all, for All was One.

But the minds of humanity weren't willing to give up individuality yet. Not even those who agreed willingly to Salvation could entirely free themselves from the burden of wishing to be unique and apart, even as they wished to be same and together. One was torn apart into Many. And since the basis of this universe was upon the existence of just One, it all collapsed and blinked out to nothing.

And Flynn woke back up on the shores of Lake Mikado with his next thoughts, at the start of another timeline.

There was a brief moment when Flynn and Krishna were within the memory of the White getting their wish of total non-existence, only for existence to come right back in the space of a couple thoughts.

"Barely didn't last as long as when I aimed for not existing at all," Flynn said, trying to sweep those memories aside. The White persisted, though.

"Th-this can't be real," Krishna insisted; his presence within the dream wavered and his body shook. "That shouldn't be possible!" Some of his own words echoed back at him from Flynn's memories, just a feeble dream! "No, no!" He gripped his hair and collapsed onto his knees, into a dirty mud puddle in a street.

They were in another strange place where the sun shone bright. Small dismal houses were built of any old material that could be got, packed in tightly. This time, Flynn understood it to be India at another place and time without Krishna saying so. Somewhere far away, that large manor might be filled with a soft wealthy life. Not so much here, here was a tough scramble to survive. It was like the divide of Luxurors and Casualry in Mikado, but different all the same. Flynn didn't think his life was as desperate as the memories of what had been here. Then again, they would have known more than he had been allowed to at one time.

When he wondered why Krishna made this place appear when he was trying to grasp the concept of failure, he soon knew that without being told: this was another failure on Krishna's part, one he also couldn't do much about once he realized it. Flynn had opened that door, so their minds were more deeply connected than he was used to. Some of the god's feelings tried to grip him then, horror of being helpless to succeed in one's purpose when gods knew their purpose innately. Krishna was a god meant to preserve the world and its state of being, to destroy evil that tried to ruin the lives of good people. However, that was within Hindu beliefs. Thus, Krishna's real purpose was in preserving and protecting those of the Hindu faith as well as India itself.

But there was no one in Tokyo or Mikado or the world who fully believed in Hinduism now. They'd been wiped out along with all of India in the nuclear catastrophe that had purged most of the world of civilization. The scene around them changed to dust and desert while the place did not change at all.

Krishna had his hands over his face, but glanced up at Flynn. Getting a mad grin, he said, "See? I'm not much different than your precious Masakado, no…. Maybe with more to protect, but it was all gone in a flash of unholy fire! I was the human avatar of Vishnu when I was first born; I have lived a human life, which makes me different from many other gods, but again like Masakado here. At the end, I became my own god but I am still a part of Vishnu. We could do nothing about this, and now you tell me that we can do nothing about the failure of our new universe either?!"

"Humanity isn't ready to accept that, if ever," Flynn said.

He laughed bitterly. "And we have no time to prepare you for that either. You know how quickly the facade of the Hebrew God was dropped when we showed that we could be a threat. He doesn't let anybody else into the act if we have a chance to steal the show." He dropped his hands and they were in an intense rain where a ring of magical torches shone in the darkness. "Sometimes we even get roped into YHVH's games under His control, then cast away once our part is done."

For a moment, he weighted his options. But the thought quickly came up that Krishna could hear what he was thinking just the same. "I mean to take control of the game away from Him."

"You do?" Krishna asked in disbelief. But it wasn't long before he calmed down and looked thoughtful. He could access Flynn's mind just the same.

"And gods like you," Flynn said. "But I could make you one of my pieces if you'll cooperate. You would be valuable."

"A god shouldn't be a pawn of a human," he said, looking away. But he was still considering it.

"Humans shouldn't be pawns of gods," he countered. "And who said anything about you being a pawn? You're too important for that role."

Krishna laughed again, but it wasn't as crazed as before. He stood back up and faced him. "I see. I do have my responsibilities as a god, though."

"You also have a shred of humanity left, I can tell that now," Flynn said.

"I had thought it a fault, but… well, what is it you want that I can give you?"

"For now, I need more information. Like why do you need me to become Vishnu? As you were originally born human, I don't see how fusing with a human would turn you into a more powerful god."

He took a deep breath and the scene shifted to the inside of a candlelit Hindu temple. "Honestly, I don't understand it myself. I know it will work, and I know I can't just do this with anyone. I need a human with an extraordinary will, one who holds a great deal of respect and honor from other humans. Otherwise, I have previously ascended to become Vishnu before I separated into my own self, but I don't understand how to trigger that. Vishnu might be able to explain it, but I can't be certain of that."

"There's someone else I mean to ask that I'm almost certain will know and tell me," Flynn said.

"Satan?" Krishna said, catching that. "Actually, they would be the most likely to know and tell you why once you overcome them, especially with the souls of your friends being a part of them when you meet them."

He nodded. "But the problem is that if Nanashi chooses to side with his friends," the scene shifted back to the heart of the Cosmic Egg, albeit with no other players in it, "I don't get to speak with Satan alone. There's a number of people that I would rather not overhear that conversation. I need to get Nanashi to side with Dagda because if he does, there will be a point when the two of them are deep enough in conversation that I can ask Satan a few questions. I'll have to break out of Dagda's brainwashing to do that, but I have plans for that. However, I have no influence over what's going on now nor which way Nanashi will choose. And he nearly always chooses his friends."

"Nine times out of ten, or perhaps even more," Krishna said, moving his fingers over his flute without playing it.

"So your first move if you want to be on my side is to influence Nanashi to choose Dagda somehow."

"And you risk your mind shattering like this every time you try to reach Satan," Krishna said, considering it carefully. Then he looked over and smiled gently. He wasn't a cruel god at heart. But in this state, it was obvious that Krishna was fighting his own madness and grief to carry out his plans. He was doing so even at that moment, having realized that his plans were ultimately futile. "I was always out to break the game that YHVH was playing, but perhaps this proves it needs to be more thoroughly broken. Very well, Flynn, I am in your hands." He bowed. "And I will show you how well I can truly play."

* * *

Nanashi was half-asleep when a strange sound got his attention. "Doot doot daaa daa daaaah!"

It couldn't be Asahi's dad, since he was normally quiet if he came in after Nanashi had gone to bed. Opening his eyes, he saw little blue sparks in the air around a tiny form. A demon, here? He sat up quickly and turned on the reading lamp on the bed's frame. It was a peculiar toy demon, but he'd seen it before. "Hey, you're one of Flynn's demons, right?"

"Ding ding ding #Correctomundo!" It flew over and tossed a folded up piece of paper onto his lap. "#Inbox- One."

From Flynn? He was supposed to be resting up for the confrontation with Merkabah and Lucifer tomorrow. But if it was important enough to send with his demon… but the gauntlets could communicate with smartphones, right? "This is weird," he said, unfolding the paper. The handwriting was messier than he expected out of Flynn, but the message itself quickly put that out of mind.

'You have a fake double of me. Shesha can now devour souls directly. Everything is doomed, everything is broken. But you won't be allowed to tell.

'Krishna is insane, but he's starting to make sense. The whole universe was broken. If it hadn't been for this, I would had to kill another two close friends with my own hands. Issachar is gone, soon Jonathan and Walter will be too; none of them deserved this. There should never be a time when in order to save as many as possible, one must sacrifice those dear to one's heart. But the world is broken. To fix things, to make it so this madness stops, we must sacrifice what is necessary.

'What kind of hero am I if I can do nothing to stop my friends from dying?

'And it is with that that Krishna makes me think that his way could be best.

'Everything is broken, Nanashi. You will never see the future you wish for either at this rate.'

A cold noose tightened around his heart; Nanashi had a difficult time sleeping after that.

* * *

Things were broken. Satan reflected on that now that things were quiet. Why did they keep doing this? Their purpose was to judge anything and everything in Creation, up to and including God Himself. And quite a few times, Satan passed judgment that God had failed. Why did this keep happening? But they could never figure it out because once God ceased to be, they would shortly follow. And then rise again, to be collared until this incident repeated itself.

A tiny voice broken their concentration. "Eet eet eet!" A Virus demon had summoned itself even though the battle was over; Trojan was intimidated at coming out in the presence of Satan. However, it had its own orders and followed through, nuzzling against the Godslayer's forehead and making a little tweak in his head.

After glancing over at who now sat in God's Throne, Satan turned to the Godslayer and subtly froze time down to its slowest increment. If this could be dealt with between just them and the Godslayer, it was best done that way. An identity emerged out of the Godslayer's existence, strangely his most human self. "We need to speak," he said, looking to them fearlessly.

"Yes, what are you doing with a reality warper?" they asked. Trojan ducked down into the Godslayer's coat to hide. "It has no battle prowess, but it can crash the entire universe just like a computer."

"I'm very much aware of that," he said. "But in any other form, Trojan is my best strategic weapon. I'm looking to end this ordeal in the best possible manner and I need some answers that you are in the best position to give me."

"You'll be in my position soon," they said. "You'll know those answers yourself if you think I know them."

"Perhaps, but this won't last long. If this does last, I won't be a position to know. I'm going to wake back up soon as an ordinary human chosen by the Great Will to act as the fulcrum of the world's balance. I can only know these things from you."

Satan looked deep into the Godslayer's soul; they could bypass any resistance without being noticed, although special souls like the fulcrum tended to notice. And… this was true. His soul was on limited time here. Perhaps this time was very limited. Satan wouldn't know because they would fade before that time was up. From the state of his whole being, it was clear that the Godslayer was swaying the balance unpredictably. If he acted without the right information, he could unintentionally break the universe in many ways. He already had done so a number of times.

"Very well, what do you need to know?" Satan asked.

"Firstly, why do Vishnu, Merkabah, and Lucifer require human sacrifices to be summoned correctly?"

That was information that mortals were not to know under any circumstances… except, Satan had finally seen an exception. Perhaps there truly was an exception to anything. "In a general sense, they do not require human sacrifices. But in the specific circumstances of your world, they require specific human souls to exist."

"Why is that?"

"That…" something occurred to them that was blasphemous. How did they not see that before? "Hmm. There are two reasons. One is that your world does not have a sufficient human population to support all of the supernatural beings that currently exist on it."

"We don't?"

"No. Demons, angels, and even gods require energy that comes from human willpower to manifest physically on worlds with any degree of a mundane nature. Your emotions, good and bad, allow us to exist with you. However, there is a severe deficiency in magnetite energy with your low populous. Our hunger for that makes us bloodthirsty and unstable, hence why so many demons just eat humans; we are starving as much as the humans in Tokyo are. In this time of your world, only the weakest of demons or those connected to the demon summoning program can exist safely.

"More powerful beings require more magnetite. Were any one of those three summoned without a sacrifice in their full form, they would immediately drain so much magnetite that humans would suffer for it. Normally the drawing of magnetite has no ill-effects at all on humans. If I were to be called into your world, there is a significant chance that I could turn half of humanity brain dead merely through my presence."

"Then what are the sacrifices doing for you?" He was deeply disappointed that the sacrifices were too practical to ignore. However, he was already turning his thoughts towards how he could make the best of it.

Perhaps he could solve the problem Satan was having with their own existence now. "You already know that your souls are aware in such summonings; the existence of a human soul within allows us to be self-sufficient on magnetite, but we must let them maintain some level of self-awareness so they continue as a source of power. If the human soul can maintain themselves sufficiently, however, the human can and will overtake even us. Godslayer, you are still Vishnu even though you cast out Krishna. However, your state of being means that Flynn is your dominant self."

"That wasn't easy to attain," the Godslayer said.

Satan nodded. "But there are other ways."

Along with those ways, he had to become aware of the blasphemy that was key to understanding this situation.


	5. Shuffling the Cards of Fate

**Chapter 5: Shuffling the Cards of Fate**

It was starting. Flynn willed himself to remain asleep instead of half drifting awake. There was much to be done right at the very beginning.

"State your name."

He wanted this to be the last cycle, the one where he finally grasped all that he wanted. But if it wasn't… well, it'd give him a better idea of how to make the last cycle work. "Nanashi," he replied.

There was a silence that he didn't recall happening before. The winds of fate hummed by his ears. Although he couldn't see them, he felt like someone was staring at him like he was inexplicably strange.

"Then you do have a voice," the voice said. "Heed ye this: from now on, Nanashi, your life is forever changed. Your choices will no longer affect only you. Your choices will create a world."

* * *

Something tickled at the back of his neck, something not real and yet something monumental.

For a moment, Nanashi forgot about where he was. He rubbed at his neck, finding nothing. Yet it felt like his entire soul was unsettled, like, something had changed. Something was wro… no. Not wrong. Different. Something was very different.

"Hey, Nanashi, no spacing out," Manubu said, lightly pushing his shoulder. "We've got to get back quick."

"Sorry," he said, then hurried up to get back alongside Asahi. The streetlights were flickering, slowly making this area dark. If they all went out, demons could swarm them without warning. Still, the feeling wouldn't leave him. "You ever feel like something crossed over your grave, changing your fate?"

"Uh, no," Manubu said. "Sounds crazy."

"That is a weird thing for you to say," Asahi said, but she sounded more like she believed him.

"Something's changed, but I don't know why or what," Nanashi said.

"We should really get back to Kinshicho soon," Nikkari said. Fortunately, the park entrance was just in sight. "I have a gut feeling too, that something is changing. We should take care and be alert to things that seem different."

"All right," Nanashi said.

* * *

"Hey, over here."

The ruined city burned, although the fires were said to have never gone fully out for years. It was a dangerous city of chaos, one that was coming very close to burning itself out. Picking himself off the ground where he'd landed, Flynn headed on ahead to meet with a glowing soul of a man. This had all seemed so mysterious at first, then like a manifestation of the forces he was trying to decide between. Now, he knew it for what it was: the current heart of Chaos trying to call out to him, to side with them.

"Now that you've come to yourself, I can finally take form," the soul said, wavering. But it didn't fully form. "You remember me, right? I'm… I'm..." the very ground quivered with uncertainty.

"Toki," Flynn said.

"That's… that's right, I'm Toki." The soul transformed from a man to a young teenage girl, wearing an obscuring black cowl. "You remember… remember… I'm Toki?" She tilted her head, tapping her foot on the ground. "You..." her voice wasn't much like a girl's, much stronger evidence of who was behind this. "You will side with me this time, right? To change this rotten world forever. We'll remake the world into a better place, where all men… men? Where all can be free to make their way by their own strength. That's… that's right?"

In his mind, Flynn silently apologized to her, and Nanashi… and the third…

* * *

Something strange happened, a supernatural thing. Like someone had discovered the thread of her soul's fate and gently prodded it with their finger. Toki crashed into the exercise mat as her planned attack fell apart.

Her sparring partner was quick to take advantage of this, taking her spear and getting ready to finish her off. No, she couldn't let that happen. Toki started to shift her poise, ready to spring away. It was cowardly, but this was not how she was going to die. No way.

A heavy thump of a staff hit the ground, stopping them both. "Hold it," the hooded trainer said. Their face was covered, but Toki had a pretty good idea of who this one was today. The trainer glanced around through their face screen. "I cannot tell what this is, but something tried to interfere."

Making sure to get out of the spear's range, Toki got herself back on her feet. "Yes, something is trying to tamper with my destiny."

"Don't make insane excuses for a clumsy slip," her sparring partner rebuked her. "That was terrible, graceless, it..."

"No, she's right," the trainer said. "Toki, you must be alert from now on. Something major is shifting in the world."

"Yes," she replied. It wasn't wrong, though, "Something is different now."

* * *

"Please, come over here."

This was a city whose ruin had come in one fell sweep, leaving nothing but craters and desert. It was said that the air was poisonous, but the powers invested in him had kept him protected when traveling this world. Flynn moved ahead to the one feature in this place, a fallen statue where the only thing left was a weathered bronze head. There was another soul here, a soul of a man waiting to be identified.

"Now I too can take shape," he said. But same as the last, he had trouble getting it right. "Remember? I'm… I'm..."

"Hallelujah," Flynn said.

"That's right…. that's right? I'm Hallelujah." He took the form of another young teenager, his jacket and jeans much more like other young people in Tokyo. "You mustn't forget where you came from… from..." his voice too did not match the person well. "We must preserve… preserve the peace we have… have always known? Is that right? For future generations, so that the peace may last unto eternity. To take ways that do not… hmmm. Different ways, for eternal peace… that's right?"

"That's right," Flynn said softly, trying not to smile.

* * *

It was a little zap, like someone had pulled a prank with static on the back of his neck. Hallelujah gasped, dropping the items he had been collecting. Fortunately, it was nothing that could break. Chiron was quick to appear, looking about nervously. His tails swished rapidly.

"Is there someone else here?" Hallelujah asked, glancing around. But, no one was in this area of the warehouse. "Weird. I just had a feeling… you know like when you walk into a familiar room, only something is different and you look right to it because it's out of place. But it doesn't look like anyone moved anything major in here. And it was just now."

"Kuuu," Chiron replied his ears low. Then they pricked up as someone opened the door.

Oh right, he was here on work. "I'm still getting the delivery together," he said, feeling embarrassed as he snatched up what he'd dropped. They'd probably scold him for taking too long, but this job did take time.

"What are you doin' on warehouse duty?" a familiar voice said. Abe then came to the row he was in. "You're not going to get anywhere hiding out in a place like this."

He rubbed his head. "Well, the delivery order for the Shinjuku store came in late, but it needs to be filled immediately. But the other guys said they had things to do and I ended up coming down here alone."

"Feh, they dumped the job on you to go off to Milton," Abe said. "You've got to stick up for yourself more often, kid. What's in the order?"

"A lot of little things," Hallelujah said, offered him the copy he was using.

"Well, not like I was really doing anything. Let's get this done." He checked what he'd gathered before going to grab some other merchandise.

"Thanks," he said. While it was tough sometimes to deal with Abe, he could be counted on more often than not. And, he often knew about things others didn't want to admit to existing. "Hey, uh, I just had the weirdest feeling that something was different; something big is coming. But it's just a feeling. I don't know what it's about."

"So you did feel that," Abe said. He ruffled Hallelujah's hair. "You're right, something is changing. But it's damn unclear at this point what's going on. I have my suspicions but, well just be alert to all that goes on. You might just have a role to play in this after all."

"Okay, bro, I won't let you down," he said.

And Abe actually smiled at him for that, so it didn't seem that bad after all.

* * *

"Have you forgotten anything?" a young girl's voice asked him.

"Maybe," Flynn admitted. "I've saved many people, and doomed them all. I was one who had to be saved, many times. But no matter who got saved or doomed, there were people that I could not save on the path given to me."

"So you've made a new path for those you want to save," she said.

"Yes. I don't know where it leads, but I hope in time to find why I can't escape this life, these sacrifices. Right now, I just want them to be saved."

"At any cost?" she asked, worried now. "Will you end up sacrificing others for them?"

"I..." he stopped himself. He knew very well what the truth of that was. "I hope no one is sacrificed this time. But I'm afraid my heart may lead me to save them at any cost, yes. I've seen them die so many times; I've taken their lives myself. People will be lost, that's simply the way things are in this conflict that toys with humanity. And in truth, I may still be crazy. I will keep trying, though, to find the path that lets me save those close to me," something stirred in his heart, "including yourself. And then making sure that future sticks."

"I'm sorry, you have suffered much on account of me," she said, swaying where she stood. "But, thank you for still trying. I do not know myself why you relive these times so much."

"Maybe I'm just a masochistic perfectionist," Flynn said.

"I hope you're joking with that," she said.

He shrugged. "I no longer know. I haven't forgotten you. But, should I ever forget about you," he closed his eyes, "at that point, I will be beyond saving. If that happens, you can see to my destruction because I might not be capable of letting go if I forget why this all started in the first place. You called for help and I was the one to answer."

"Yes, that's right," she said. "This was your choice at first. I hope you will not have to be destroyed, that you can make peace with the pain in your heart. And, I am glad you came back from the pale depths of despair. I just wish you'd never been driven there in the first place." Her voice trembled and she sniffled.

As this was a dream place, he had to will himself strongly to end up at her side, in front of the frozen waves. He took her hand, frail and small in her weakened state. "Don't blame yourself for that. And I know that to find the path I want, I will end up confronting those who broke me into accepting the despair of the White. I may even had to aide them to get some things done, but I will not let them make their dangerous dreams into the reality of the future."

"Good, I'm glad for that," she said. "I will help you how I can, but..."

"Don't worry about that for now," he told her. "But if the time comes when I have saved my friends from their self-destructive ways and have also done enough to save you, no, when that time comes, help me to make sure that that is the future that sticks around to become reality. I really don't want to lose you again and leave you returning to this state."

She nodded. "Of course. If you do save those friends, it should be much easier. I'll be hoping for your success then."

"I hope I can fulfill your dreams," Flynn said as the dream began fading.

Grass brushed against his cheek; the birds sang. The rich nature surrounding Lake Mikado gave the air an invigorating feeling. But, this time, he didn't hear Issachar. Flynn opened his eyes, finding the sky a softened deep blue, awakening from night. He sat up and saw yellow and peach streaks surrounding the new dawn. Nearby, Issachar seemed to be drifting along the divide of awake and asleep. He should drift back asleep in a bit, then wake up when the sun was full above the horizon to wake him.

But, he was awake first this time. He reached into the pocket of his pants, finding the card that wouldn't have been there when he fell asleep last night here. He snapped it. "Trojan."

The little flying horse appeared, coiling its wire tails into spirals. "#earlybird? #RealGameTime?"

"Right," he said, then pointed to the castle. "Get the gauntlets ready."

"#rogerroger." It flew off, quickly vanishing from sight.

Then Flynn nudged Issachar. "Hoy, Issachar. Good morning."

"What, seriously?" he grumbled. "We don't have work today."

"Yeah, but we've got a ways to go to reach the castle," Flynn said. "You should be really excited."

"Not awake enough for that," he said, but he sat up and stretched. "Good morning."

"We are early, but that would look better, right?" Flynn said. "We could pick up breakfast in the castle."

And when the first two samurai of this year were chosen, Trojan would come back to alert him that it was time.

* * *

Doot doot doot doot… a sneaking song played in Trojan's head as it darted around the monastery, unheard by anyone else. After all, sneaking songs were no good if others heard them. And it had to sneak well here. A glance out of a corner of the eye might mistake him for a dragonfly, or even a horse fly. But when others got full sight of a toy-like wooden horse on a wheeled cart flying around, they were generally suspicious. Though they would mistook what it was around for.

Trojan got to where the gauntlets were stored. There were a great number of them in here; the angels had confiscated all of these units long ago and used so-called secret knowledge kept them running. If they really wanted to recruit a large number of samurai, all they'd have to do was take a tiny blood sample and run them by the bioscanner locks until one activated. The gauntlets didn't even need exact matches to their registered users, just enough of the right flags.

Instead, they would test one at a time until it got accepted. No wonder they got so few samurai accepted, as it was basically up to luck that the rite's participants had the right genetic configuration for the one gauntlet. They would take about a dozen gauntlets out for each rite although they rarely saw more than two chosen per year. In the past ten years, very few had passed at all.

This year would be different. Trojan knew where the assortment of gauntlets that would go out were. After all, it had done this multiple times already. None that were on the cart currently would match Issachar. But there were actually several in storage that would activate to him. The little virus demon wasn't able to shift the gauntlets itself.

There was still a way. It scooted over to a white trolley that the monks considered a mystic relic. Plugging the right wire into the trolley, Trojan activated in a way the monks didn't realize was possible. The trolley sputtered a bit from disuse, then jerkily made its way to the cart. Pick up the twelfth gauntlet, put it in the trolley, then shift the remaining eleven over so that there was a gap between the second and third ones. By the time that was done, the trolley was able to make a relatively smoother trip over to swap out the twelfth gauntlet for the most reliable one that would activate to Issachar's genes. Then it went back over to put it in place. Trojan set the trolley back and deactivated it. There, that was done.

For its next trick, Trojan slipped in underneath the cart with the gauntlets, grabbing onto the side with a wire to remain floating out of sight.

* * *

As she was eighteen, Isabeau came out with her father and mother to help with the Gauntlet Rite. It was a lovely dawn, with many strands of warm colors spreading across the eastern horizon as the golden sun started to appear. This could be a life-changing day for someone. Although, she didn't expect it to be her own life that got changed. Later today, she'd have a long meeting with elders in the monastery to decide what role she was most suited for. She hoped it would be a healer, to take care of others. She already chose to wear the white and blue robes to match them.

The cart with the gauntlets was brought out by some samurai, as they were stronger. "I have a good feeling about this year's rites," her father said as they joined them to walk out to Aquila Plaza. "We've gone an unprecedented amount of years without any called. I'm sure God must be waiting on someone special."

"We don't mind how special they are as long as we get some new samurai," one of those pushing the cart said. "We could run into trouble at this rate; we've already had to take some limitations."

"Like what?" Isabeau asked, curious.

But he shook his head and wouldn't explain.

* * *

Elsewhere in the capitol, Jonathan was struggling a little with this early morning. It was the day of the Gauntlet Rite in his eighteenth year, so he had to be participating. While he could simply wait until later and take the short walk over to the plaza, his father was taking part in the rite as well, as one of the watchers. Jonathan had already said that he'd go over early as well, hence getting up before dawn when the rites weren't to begin for another two hours.

He wasn't a samurai yet, so he couldn't wear the uniform even though he'd been training and studying for the role. But when he was the sole son from a family with a legacy of becoming samurai, it was expected that he would become one too. Still, his journal was filled with preparations in case he failed today. If he couldn't be a samurai, he would like to be accepted by the monastery as a monk of some kind. His mother's family had some connections there and he would get access to the monastery's full library then. They were used to seeing him there, so it shouldn't be hard.

But, it all depended on what happened today.

There was a knock on his door. "Young lord, breakfast is ready," the maid said.

"Thank you, I'll be along shortly," Jonathan said. He checked over his clothes and hair for today; this outfit would basically count for a samurai's uniform once he earned the right to wear the coat, but it could pass for plain daily wear if not. And his mother would make a fuss if he looked the least bit unpresentable, especially on such a important day.

He headed down to the dining room to eat. The cook had put together a light breakfast for him and his father since they needed to be heading out quickly, a yogurt salad with berries and honey, and some toast. To the side, some lunch pails were available for later. It was all a bit rustic, but still enjoyable.

Not long after he sat down, someone wearing a long armored coat and a tall obscuring hood walked in and grabbed the back of his chair. "Gooood moooorning, Jonathan," he growled jokingly.

Jonathan smiled at that. "Father, you look dreadful. Don't let mother see you like that."

He chuckled and took off the hood. "She's not awake yet, so I'm fine. It's for the rite, so I'll have to be wearing it all day."

They talked happily through their brief breakfast, not about the rite but about this and that. The usual. Not long after, they headed out to Aquila Plaza.

* * *

Two hours later, the sun was fully up and so was the castle. Eighteen year olds from within the city had already gathered in the plaza, waiting for the rites to begin. Those who'd stayed in town overnight were also there, having gotten directions already. And then, there would be a few from the outermost towns drifting in throughout the day; hopefully they'd find their way to the right place after enduring such a long trek to get here. A few samurai on city patrol were around the main streets to guide them.

Isabeau found Jonathan before long, leaving those with the role of the hooded watchers to line up for their part. "Good morning," she said, waving to him. "Are you helping out too?"

"That's the plan, depending on how things go," Jonathan said, waving back as he was coming over. "What are you doing?"

"Mostly the paperwork since I can't do any of the actual prayers," she said, gesturing to a table near the entrance to the dorms. It was for younger samurai who didn't have their own residence. "You know, getting files started for new samurai and preparing to send off notices to family members. Although if it's anything like last year, there's nothing actually to do."

"I can at least keep you company over there," he offered. "And my handwriting would be good enough for record keeping, right?"

She smiled at that. "Yours would be perfect." She glanced back at the crowd, then asked, "Say, have you seen Naverre yet?"

"No, I haven't," he said. "One would think his family would send him over early so he didn't have to wait."

"Or they'll try to keep him busy, since becoming a samurai is actually a step down from their position," Isabeau said. "I hope he makes it, even as obnoxious as he can be. I know he was looking forward to it like many of us."

"Right, it would be a pity if they stall him out of participation," Jonathan said.

"Excuse me, but were you both going to work on registrations over here?" a monk asked, coming by.

"If that's all right with you," Jonathan said.

"I'm already assigned over there once I get tested," Isabeau said.

The monk then waved them forward. "Well then let's start with you both; I did see that you were here earliest of the eligible candidates."

Once he signaled that they were ready to begin, others got into position. The commander of the samurai, Hope, came out and immediately got attention for his white and silver overcoat. When he held his hand up to the crowd, they quieted. "All right, everyone, we're ready to begin the Gauntlet Rites of this year to see who will be chosen to become samurai, those who protect our nation's peace and prosperity. Keep in line and keep things peaceful. Come forward when your turn is called and do as instructed. If you are chosen, you will be brought over to the dorms entrance over there for an initial briefing. If you are not chosen, please leave the plaza so as not to inflate the crowd. There will be an hour's break at noon for lunch, after which we will resume for any remaining candidates."

The crowd was quick to obey, although a quiet murmur of conversation continued on.

Isabeau passed through the line of watchers first, since she was assigned to the work officially. It felt intimidating; she was small for a young woman her age and nearly all of the samurai were strong men. Still, she kept her head high and walked by respectfully. Her father and another priest of the monastery were conducting the prayer portion of the rites this year; the other one came forward to handle her rite. "Hold your left arm forward to receive the sacred gauntlet," the priest stated.

Isabeau nodded and held her arm out so that they could attach the first gauntlet to her. It fit her surprisingly well, like it was made for her. When the samurai attached the gauntlet stepped back, the panels of the gauntlet shifted aside smoothly. A word in the mystic script appeared, 'Engage'. Was that normal? She was used to tests of these bringing up a blank screen.

The priest prayed for God to bestow His light upon the gauntlet if she was chosen. While Isabeau didn't expect anything to happen, there was a part of her that hoped that maybe, just maybe, she could be accepted. There weren't many female samurai, she knew that. And she wasn't sure what exactly they did, since there were no demons nor conflicts these days for samurai to fight. But it was truly something special.

"Now, touch the gauntlet to see if it recognizes you," the priest said.

Isabeau did as asked and the screen shone. She was shocked enough that she didn't entirely hear what was said next; she knew what it should be, praise to God that one was chosen. As she started to realize it, her father came over and hugged her. "Congratulations, this is a wonderful honor."

"Yes, I don't know what to say myself," Isabeau said. "Um, it's early, so I'll go ahead and do the registry still, starting with myself, I guess."

"Sure, we can talk about it all later," he said as Commander Hope came over. "Looks like my feelings were right, we aren't going home with empty hands today."

"That's good, I'm glad to see it," Hope said. "Come, we can talk over at the dorm entrance." A few feet on, he added, "We don't have any smaller coats ready, but the nearby tailor is handling only the rite's business today. They should have one ready for you shortly."

"Sure, I understand," she said. Her eyes got distracted by something tiny zipping through the air overhead. As she didn't see it clearly, she figured it had to be some bug. "I wasn't expecting this either."

* * *

Down in the Casualry district, Flynn pointed out a bakery where they could pick up some breakfast. Issachar didn't really care what they got; now that he was awake and his mind running after the walk over, he was having to keep a clamp on his excitement so as not to draw too much attention. They already stood out for their leather capes and farmer's clothes, which was normal attire out in Kichigorgi. But not even the Casualry around here wore anything like that.

And, this bakery had many breads that no one would even think of out in Kiccigiorgi. He and Flynn were used to oat bread, since that was the main grain they kept instead of shipping off to other places. "Oh, this one smells great," Issachar said, picking out a raisin spice bread. "Want one of these small loaves too?"

"Sure," Flynn said, taking out his coin purse to pay for them.

"Good choice," the baker said. "Are you two here for the rite, out from Kiccigiorgi?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Issachar said.

"I only ever see clothes like that on folks from your area," the baker said. "And this is one of the few times in the year when we get many visitors here in the city. You get to know who's from where after a few years, mostly by differences in clothes, or hair style, or even the way you say certain things."

"That would make sense because there aren't many times people travel through Mikado," he said. Flynn quietly passed the payment over.

"Thanks, enjoy the bread," the baker said to that as he accepted payment. Then he turned back to Issachar. "Actually, since you boys are from so far off, you might consider sticking around the capitol until evening. The Luxurors don't know this for the most part, but we in the Casualry here in the capitol have been holding Sabbaths to discuss Literature and how we can teach ourselves many things that the Luxurors would keep from us."

"Really? But wouldn't it be things that we don't need to know since we don't have their jobs?" Although, it made Issachar curious.

"There's that, but there's many other things that they've kept from us," the baker said. "Trust me, it'll completely boggle your mind when you see how much is really out there. Reading Literature is the best way to expand your mind, and your possibilities."

"We can't read," Flynn said.

"Right, only some of the village priests could read out in our village," Issachar said. "It might be interesting, sounds like, but it wouldn't really help us."

The baker smiled kindly at them. "Oh, that's not a problem at all. The Sabbath is a special ritual guided by secrets and wisdom. By participating, you can gain the ability to read, with just that one visit. You'll even be able to master the mystic script, the language that the samurai and the monastery hold their greatest secrets with."

"Huh, they can do that?" Issachar asked, shocked at the offer. That really had to be some special magic to teach something difficult like the mystic script to those who couldn't read at all. He glanced at Flynn. "Hoy, maybe we should go."

"Sure, it might be good," Flynn said, slipping something into his pocket. It looked like some kind of card, but it was probably just his coin bag. "But we should get to the Rite."

"Oh yeah, don't want to arrive too late for that," he said. "Um, where is the Rite being held, sir?"

"Up in Aquila Plaza," the baker said, then pointed up towards the large walls into the city's interior and gave them more specific instructions.

* * *

Back in the plaza, Jonathan was the second to pass through the lines of watchers. Now that the watchers were together, he couldn't be certain which of them was his father. He was professional enough that he made no motions to give himself away. When the rite began and the gauntlet was latched onto his arm, Jonathan's thoughts kept wavering on what he wanted to happen. He would be honored to follow in his father's footsteps, and all of his ancestors along that line. But then, the possibility of working within the monastery's library and continuing to learn from the books there, that would be a great life too. Either way, he was going to have to learn life without servants and all the comforts of the wealthy life his family led. But, that was something every young man among the Luxurors had to learn at some point. Most of them, anyhow.

"Now, touch the gauntlet and see if you have been accepted," Isabeau's father said to him.

Knowing some about mystic relics, Jonathan touched the screen where 'Engage' was written. And the screen also shone for him. The reactions around him were not as surprised as for Isabeau. But then, he was almost a given. And, this decided his life now. If God was calling him to become a samurai, then Jonathan would put all his efforts to following that call.

Commander Hope had already come over to retrieve him. "I'm glad to see you among us now," Hope said. "I'll speak with you and Isabeau here in a moment."

"Actually, may I be excused?" Jonathan asked. "I haven't seen our classmate Navarre among the crowd yet and I know he should be here. But his parents are chamberlains in the castle, so they may meddle to prevent him from coming."

Thankfully, Hope nodded. "Go ahead; I was worried about him not being able to come myself. And if you're dressed like this going into the castle, they shouldn't try to block you from reaching him."

"Thank you, sir," he said, bowing his head and hurrying off.


	6. The Gauntlet Rite

**Chapter 6: The Gauntlet Rite**

Down at the outer gates of the capitol, Walter had finally reached the city. It had been a long trek for him, made on his own since no one else in his village was eighteen this year. His village was right on the edge of Mikado's plateau; they used lifts and pulleys along the cliffs to fish and forage around the ocean for things that could not be gotten anywhere else in Mikado. Being that they were so remote, Walter found the castle town to be a completely different world. They used bricks to pave the streets and everyone else he saw wore fully covering clothes.

And they stared at him, for wearing heavy working jeans, black boots, and a lure vest with many pockets. It was the best clothes he owned, especially since the jeans were relatively new. They weren't yet stained up by seawater and scraped white with wear. Ignoring the stares as best he could, he followed the roads until he came across one of the samurai. Walter was familiar with their uniform and mystical gauntlets because sometimes they came out when strange creatures were spotted.

"Where's the Gauntlet Rite being held here?" Walter asked after exchanging greetings with the patrolling samurai.

"Up in Aquila Plaza," he said. "Follow the main road here to the next wall, then take a left past the gate. Keep on that road until the next gate, where another guide should be posted with further instructions."

"Thanks, I hope I'm not too late," he said.

"You shouldn't be, although they may call the break for lunch before your time comes around," the samurai warned him.

As he headed off, Walter muttered to himself, "I hope this isn't all for nothing, like with the guys a couple years back."

* * *

Up in the castle, Navarre had been asked to give some lessons to his younger brother Gaston, reviewing what he should know. "Now ordinary folks might consider candlesticks just to be candlesticks, but we know that it is vital for the whole experience to have the right details, including the candlesticks and their holders. Make sure everything gets put back in its proper location, and if it isn't there, set it where it should go."

"I thought we used the silver candlestick holders for just about everything," Gaston said, looking over the white and gold ones. "It's what always gets carted out."

"That's because of the king's tastes," Naverre said. "The styles of décor he prefers call for the silver ones. Still, we keep the rest clean and well-polished. It is a matter of pride as we take care of all treasures of the castle."

"Of course," Gaston said, then glanced aside as someone came into the storage room. "Are you supposed to be here?"

Naverre looked over and saw a familiar face, an old friend. "Not really, but I got directed here," Jonathan said. "Naverre, did you forget what today was?"

"Today?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well it's Tuesday," that was obvious from the schedule of work around the castle, "and it's..." something occurred to him: something was supposed to happen on this particular Tuesday. "Wait, today's the Gauntlet Rite, isn't it?"

"Yes, I was wondering why you weren't over there," he said. "I actually left my gauntlet over there to not draw attention."

"Oh no," Naverre said, putting his hand on his forehead. He really should have remembered; he'd been waiting for this, his entire life it seemed. "I knew it was coming, but then Mother asked me to do some review lessons with Gaston and that got started before I even thought about the rite. I really shouldn't leave off in the middle of a lesson."

"But you're going to be a great samurai, aren't you?" Gaston asked. For a ten-year-old, he was quite insistent. "You can't miss out on this! I can just do some of my other studies today; I wouldn't want to make you miss the rite you can only do once, when we can do this any time."

"That's true," Naverre said, patting his brother's head. "Thanks Gaston, I won't let you down." That made his brother grin; they left the storage area so Naverre and Jonathan could get to Aquila Plaza in a timely manner.

* * *

Back in the Plaza, the line managed to stay within the area this year instead of spilling down the stairs into the residential streets. Issachar and Flynn had finished off their breakfast while waiting through this line; the sun hung well over the rooftops, reflecting off the pavement and making things warmer than they were used to out in Kichigorgi. While others around them were chatting, they were quiet. Issachar felt like his nerves were strung out like a strand of wool being drawn into thread. This moment was all that he and Flynn had been working towards the past few years. This was the one time that they could change their lives.

Yes, the one time… Issachar wanted nothing more than to get out of the life he'd been struggling with. He never felt right with anything Kiccigiorgi held for him. All the tasks to be done were mind-numbing; anything he had interest in was dismissed as unimportant, or happened so infrequently that one couldn't base a life around them. He'd learned not to say much because as a kid, all the adults around him would dismiss his questions and ideas as unimportant, or even improper. Whenever he wanted to make things better, he had to work in secret or else he'd be stopped and scolded.

If he had to go back… he didn't want to think about it. Issachar always had a feeling there was something more out there, something he could do that he would enjoy. But he'd not yet found that and everything was empty drudgery. It was where God had placed him, and that was supposed to be right in His infinite wisdom. Flynn was the only thing about Kiccigiorgi that he liked anymore. Flynn would listen to his wandering ideas, and he would actually work with him on crazy stuff like training to be a samurai when nobody in Kiccigiorgi couldn't remember anyone from town that had become one.

No, they were going to be accepted. They had to be accepted. They'd done all they could, and now it was up to God to answer their prayers. If they had to go back, Issachar couldn't think of anything worth living for out there. He didn't want to say that to anyone, not even Flynn. But that was the truth he was hiding deep inside.

"Next candidate, come forward," the person organizing the line said, indicating Issachar. The previous one walked by, grumbling to himself about this all being a show.

"All right, this is it," Issachar said softly to himself.

Flynn still heard it. "Good luck," he said, patting his shoulder.

"Thanks, you too," he said, smiling at that. Then he went to meet with his destiny.

For a moment, if felt like he was in a dream. This was quite possibly the most important turning point in his life, and they certainly made it feel that way with their grandeur. He approached the shining statue of the first samurai, King Aquila himself, through lines of hooded samurai who watched to see if he was worthy. He would prove himself to them. He just had to believe, and keep faith that God would not deny all of his efforts.

They put the all-important gauntlet on his left arm. What did it actually do? Parts moved on it; strange shapes appeared on a black slate that had been hidden originally. The priest prayed over him; Issachar prayed along. 'Please, I will do all I can for You, just let me find the life I truly deserve. I have nothing else to live for now except fulfilling my dream, the one that Flynn and I have worked so hard for.'

"Now, touch the gauntlet to see if you're accepted," the priest said.

Where? He tried part of the tougher gray part, made of a material he didn't even know what to call. The priest silently gestured for him to touch the slate part instead. Issachar did, his anticipation having enough of a hold on him that he didn't even feel embarrassed. And… the strange symbols vanished right as the black part shone white.

There were many gasps around him; this clearly wasn't expected. This was real, right? This couldn't be a dream; he'd thought it'd go differently. But in that light, he knew that his prayers had been answered. He was going to be… no, he was a samurai. He really was!

"A, another new samurai is born today," the priest said, still surprised. "Congratulations, young man. Please, go with Commander Hope now."

"Yeah," he said, turning to the man in white even though he felt light-headed with excitement.

The commander nodded to him. "Good, I'm glad to see more samurai from the Casualry show up. Some others may give you a hard time, but don't let it get to you."

He spoke like he knew from experience. "Oh, were you from the Casualry too?" Issachar asked.

"Yes, I was," he said. "From one of the outer villages even. Don't worry, we'll send a notice to your family that you've passed."

Wow, so even the commander had once been a Casualry. But the mention of family made him pause, "Oh, um, sir? My friend is up next, do you mind if I watch him?"

"No, that's fine," Hope said, stopping where they were outside of where the rites were being held.

Flynn came up not long after. Compared to how Issachar had felt, he did not look nervous at all. Of course, Flynn had a taciturn personality that made people think he was older than he looked, or at least more mature than others. Issachar knew that he still worried about things and had more emotions than he showed. After all, they spoke freely to each other all the time. And Issachar knew that he could hear more out of Flynn in one afternoon than most people heard out of him in a month. That was just how he was.

What would happen if Flynn didn't get chosen? Issachar worried about that; this had always been the dream they shared and he didn't want to see Flynn have to go back to Kiccigiorgi. Not only would it be disappointing, but they might not see each other again unless chance let Issachar go back home on a mission.

Thankfully, the gauntlet they had put on him shone as well, accepting him as a samurai too. Issachar just about cried out of relief, but stopped himself as Flynn was directed over to them. "Hoy, we did it," Issachar said to him, trying to keep quiet out of respect for the rite.

"Of course," Flynn said quietly, though he was smiling gladly as well. He playfully punched at his arm, maybe for worrying. Issachar laughed and lightly swatted him away.

"I was just saying to him that I was hoping for more samurai from the Casualry," Hope said, smiling a moment at the two of them. "It's been quite a surprising year; we're grateful to have you along."

Over at a table by the dorms, two other young samurai were waiting, both in blue overcoats. "Oh, we have another two in a row?" the young man asked, smiling at them. "That's quite a coincidence, since we both were chosen in a row."

"And to have four in one year is pretty amazing too," the woman said.

"It's not over yet," Flynn said.

* * *

As the sun was straight overhead, Naverre came to the front of the line. Almost dead last. It annoyed him to have to wait so long. His family usually didn't have to wait for things. And it was out in the hot summer sun too, among a crowd of uncouth Casualry who had no idea how to dress for an occasion. Although admittedly, he wasn't as well-dressed as he generally liked to be out in public. But they at least shouldn't be in worn clothes that still smelled of manual labor. The ruffian behind him wasn't even wearing a shirt, just a vest. Despite the annoyances, he'd have to do something to thank Jonathan properly later on, for coming to remind him of this.

"Next candidate, come forward," the organizer said, waving to him.

As Naverre walked through the lines of hooded watchers, he was torn again about doing this. He had a comfortable life back in the castle; he knew how to entertain and impress in high-class social settings. And his parents had always said that a samurai's work wasn't all that glorious. It was grungy and dangerous, in their opinion. Beneath them. But Naverre and his brother had always loved the old tales of samurai and their wonderful adventures in fighting demons and keeping the peace in Mikado. Maybe there weren't demons around anymore, but maybe there was still a way to bring those old legends back. It seemed so much more exciting than settling for a good comfortable life.

He followed the instructions, noting all the dramatic touches they put into this ritual. The hooded samurai, the number of monks here, the reverence they treated the gauntlet with. Naverre knew all about how to build up anticipation within a party or ceremony to make the experience much more enjoyable to those participating. But this, this had been going on through all of Mikado's history. Of course they had the experience down to an enthralling mastery.

"Now, touch the gauntlet to see if it has accepted you."

Including making the mundane magnificent; these were all very simple actions in reality. Naverre touched the screen, which for some reason used the word 'Engage' instead of, well, anything else, really. And then the screen shone for him, marking him as a samurai.

As much as he wanted this, Naverre's mind was blank with the surprise that this devious little wish of his actually came true.

* * *

Immediately after the oddly late Luxuror, Walter's turn came around. There wasn't anyone left after him in the plaza. Since he was the last this year, they decided to press on even though it meant delaying when they broke for lunch. The plaza was empty compared to when he'd arrived, having to wait at the top of the stairs when he got here. Now, there was only the officials carrying out the rite and the five new samurai over at a table to the side, talking with each other. Did that put more pressure on him for being last? Or was it just normal?

"The last candidate, as it seems," the organizer said, waving to him. "Come forward."

Walter nodded and did as told. So this was it. Either he'd be going all the way back home, back to a life of scavenging the ocean and catching fish, or he'd somehow become a samurai and… well, do whatever it was that samurai did. It was kind of crazy, but he was hoping for the odds to be in his favor and he'd do the latter. Not for the long trek out here; that he didn't mind so much. But the hope was for not having to go back to that dull and often disgusting life of a fisherman. And it might not be so crazy; he'd seen another pair that he guessed to be Casulary from their more low-key attire become samurai earlier.

"Hold your left arm forward so we may put the sacred gauntlet on you," the priest there said while a samurai came over with a gauntlet.

Walter did so, glancing over the device as things shifted around on it mysteriously. It wasn't as heavy as it looked, made of some strange material that sometimes got dug up down on sea level back home. In fact, the daily fishing gear and tools he'd been clambering around the cliffs and shore with were much heavier than this thing. The priest prayed over him; there was a difference between ceremonial prayer like this and the real prayers that got said out working on the ocean, at the mercy of nature. He just quietly hoped to himself that it worked.

"Now, touch the gauntlet to see if you have been accepted," the priest said. The others around were staying still, but some already looked to drift off for lunch.

He followed that command too, and the black part turned white with light. As much as he wanted to shout with relief and joy, he kept it to just a grin for now. All around him, those conducting the rites were murmuring in surprise, and some awe. "This is unprecedented, having six chosen in one year," one of them said audibly.

He then got sent over with Commander Hope to get a full uniform rather than his fishing clothes, along with getting registered by the girl Isabeau there. And to meet the other new samurai of this year, two of which were indeed also Casualry from another distant village, Kichigorgi. South Ooida was nearly as far away.

This was going to be an exciting new time. More importantly, this could be where he truly belonged.

* * *

"Hey, welcome in Hope," K said jovially, waving to him as he came out of the crowd. "What a day, huh?"

"Right, more than any of us expected," Hope said, taking one of the open seats at the bar to chat with K. "They say be careful what you wish for. Well I was hoping we'd get some new folks into our ranks, and now we've got six of them to train at once."

K smiled at him. "That'll be interesting. The most I ever had to train at once was three, and we thought we were lucky that year. Want your usual?"

"Sure," Hope said. It didn't take long to make, so he waited to make sure no one else would want K's services right off. "The most I ever had to train at once was two. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage this. It's no big deal accompanying one or two into Naruku on their initial trips, but seven in one group is not good for those twisting passages. Not only that, but three of them are from the outer villages and are illiterate as a result."

Knowing about that, K whistled. "Yikes, those three will need close attention for all the catching up they need to get done. At least you've got Jonathan with them. He should be capable of helping to catch them up on the literacy front at least. He's a good boy, so I'm sure he won't hesitate to accept that."

Hope nodded. Having Jonathan along was a blessing, as he already had a good deal of training from his father. Perhaps Jonathan's father Mark would be willing to help out as well. However, "I've also got Naverre in this group."

K gave him a sympathetic look. "Oh, really? He could be a headache on his own, let alone in a large group like this batch of newbies."

"So far, he seems willing to work for his training," Hope said. "We'll have to see how long that lasts. I think I'll ask Mark to help out, since he did well in training his son so far without mentioning our true mission. And the girl has connections to the monastery, so having their support is more certain."

"You can count on me too," K said. "I might be retired now and unable to help in the practical fighting, but I can at least help out giving them tips on practical living and such."

"Thanks, we'll figure this out," Hope said. They discussed how to modify the usual training schedule to accommodate six prentices.

* * *

The names had been given. This year, six apprentice samurai had been named. It was a remarkable number, noting a remarkable year. This year, things were going to change.

Alone in her room, Gabby sat with her pen hovering over the journal she kept. The door was shut in case any came looking for her. Still, she dressed in her fully covering formal attire, leaving only her face and fingers visible. It was part of this guise, after all. The moon shone into her window, the stars sparkling beyond. Although she kept calm and quiet, this was the time she had waited for in all these centuries alone.

Her pen moved, drawing on resources beyond human knowledge. The hero God had called for her, the one who bore the Spirit of Goodwill… Hallelujah. The hero the demons would quickly claim, the one who bore the Spirit of Spite… Toki. Something seemed odd about that. Regardless, she went on. The hero that would become the fulcrum of everything, the one whose motions moved the scales far more than any mortal or god… Nanashi.

Gabby put her hands to her lips, thinking. This didn't seem right. Hallelujah seemed fine enough, but the other two weren't Mikado names. They were Tokyo names. Where were they?

Before she could put the question to the pen, it wrote out something that was definitely alarming. 'Law – D-gene active'

"Truly?" Gabby asked, then sighed. It was important at this time to trigger a D-gene outbreak. The process for doing so was already being carried out. If the hero she was depending on was D-gene positive and he turned demonic, that would give the side of Law a horribly contradicting situation. Her hero might even become useless to her. "To what degree could he turn?"

'Very high'

"I can't work with that," Gabby said. "It'll be simple enough for me to render it inactive, but to activate those genes again for another culling, I might need the others." She tapped her fingers together. "God, what should I do?"

Nothing was written. After several minutes of silence, Gabby set the pen down and got out of her seat. She went to the window, looking out over the Mikado countryside far below. She double-checked the hall, then shifted from her human guise to her true angelic nature. Tapping into the bloodlines of the humans in Mikado, she extended her will and gently shut off the D-gene wherever it was present. Like this, she noticed that an uncomfortable majority of Mikado were now D-gene resistant and would have to make a conscious choice to turn demon. There was even a significant amount of immunes out there, ones who would never turn at all. In this case, maybe it would be necessary to upgrade it to pandemic status? She worked to bring life back to its roots, to bring innocence back to humanity. But life, and humanity in particular, had numerous ways to avoid being tampered with. The only reason she could affect such a large population like this was because the D-gene had been implanted by angels many generations ago. If only turning it back on was as simple as turning it off.

Simple it may be, but it was exhausting. She didn't bother to revert her form when she returned to her seat and tuned the pen back in. "Now, where are the three heroes?"

Tokyo. Tokyo. Tokyo.

"Oh dear," she said to herself. They weren't supposed to be in Tokyo. The heroes were supposed to be in Mikado, with the new apprentice samurai. While that explained the Tokyo-style names, it meant that all her preparations up here in Mikado would not affect those they were meant to influence. "But how does my hero have the D-gene? It should not have spread down there."

The pen had an even more disturbing answer: 'Law – half-human half-demon, naturally born.'

"What is this?" Gabriel said, pulling her arm in close. "This is… it's too different, it's wrong. The representative of Law should not be a half-demon aberration. He is meant to invoke purity. Although, he was born that way. He might still be usable. But… are you testing me, God? Why, when I'm truly working alone?" She sighed. "Well, nothing to do but work with what I've been given. You wouldn't give me an impossible task; You must have some plan for even this. I will contact this Hallelujah. At least turning off the D-gene will delay how things progress in Mikado while I must be away."

Now, she just had to recover from the effort to shift the gene… and explain to Hugo and the others why she would be parting from them for quite some time.


	7. Starting Skills

_A/N: I've gone back and made a few edits to the previous chapters. Nothing big, just spelling corrections and some consistency errors. Also, just as a reminder of canon mechanics, there will be sub-plots going on in Tokyo, but due to the time differences, they will be moving much slower than what happens in Mikado. That's actually one of the big challenges in taking on a project like this._

 **Chapter 7: Starting Skills**

Issachar had fiddled with the gauntlet, but with everything labeled in strange ways, it was hard to tell what he was doing. It seemed like nothing more than shuffling things around. But, hopefully this training session would make it clearer. They were waiting on Hope now to begin their first lesson.

He already felt like a different person. Their dorms were roomy places they had to themselves, with their own wash room, a soft raised bed, some chairs with backs, and several places to store things out of the way. And these were clothes that they would have never kept in Kiccigiorgi, with vibrant colors and, for some reasons, defenses against magic. He even got to choose a green scarf to go with it, a decorative accessory that would have been looked down upon back home. Well, their old home. This was home now.

And the uniform made them all equal here, no matter where they had come here. Jonathan was even friendly enough to try explaining what all the symbols meant. "They seem to have a lot of features locked while we're still prentices," he said. "But, this here is 'item', so that's the item storage menu."

"These don't look like they can store a lot of things," Issachar said, shifting his arm around. There were a few slots, but they already had strange things in them.

"Oh, it's some kind of magic," Jonathan said. "The items get stored in the gauntlet's memory and they," he shrugged, "they disappear with a strange light, then come back into your hand when you use the 'item' menu to call them back out. I see my father do that all the time."

"That's some strange sorcery, but it makes up for the lack of pockets on these coats," Walter said.

"What are you talking about?" Naverre asked. "There's some good pockets in here, better than I usually have."

"There's not nearly enough for all the gear I used to pack around dropping down to sea level," Walter said.

"Right, nor all the little things we would have needed around the fields," Issachar said. A pruning knife, a small spade, scissors, colored strings to mark problem plants, bandages, perhaps a small snack, and that was just if you were doing simple field work. Taking care of the animals meant keeping different tools at hand.

"Where would you drop down to sea level?" Isabeau asked. "I thought the lands below Mikado were cursed and lifeless."

"South Ooida is right on the edge of the Mikado lands," Walter said. "I don't know about the cursed part; it's certainly dangerous down there if you're not heedful of nature's mood. But it's definitely not lifeless. We have fishermen, divers, and scavengers there, and nearly all of us would go down the lifts to do our work."

The door to the room opened then, letting in Hope and another man. "Sorry for the delay," Hope said. "I hope the six of you have gotten acquainted with each other in the meantime."

"Yes, I think we have," Jonathan said.

Hope and the man with him took chairs in the circle they'd made for this discussion and lesson. "Because we have six of you this year, we have to do things differently in training you. Instead of a single person training you, I will be calling in others to help out, including this man. This is Mark, Jonathan's father; he'll be working with you mostly on combat training."

"Right, but we're still working out getting all of your starting gear," Mark said. "It'll be a few days before we can take you out for training in real battles, so I'll be drilling you with practice weapons in the meantime."

"Real battles?" Naverre asked. "Where in Mikado would we end up in real battles?" Issachar wondered that himself, but wasn't sure about speaking up yet to their superiors.

"We'll get to that," Hope said. "Because first, we must reveal to you the true purpose of the samurai in our peaceful nation. We are in charge of protecting the people from demons."

"D-demons?" Walter asked, his eyes widening. The others were surprised too; Jonathan glanced at his father while Naverre stared in shock. Isabeau looked nervous and Flynn… well, Flynn closed his eyes and seemed thoughtful. Issachar felt nervous himself, but if Flynn was going to keep calm to this, he'd try to match him.

"Yes, demons," Hope said, in a way that didn't seem like he was joking about them. "Most people believe them to be nothing but fairy tales, but they are in fact very real and a constant threat. They exist underneath the lands of Mikado and are constantly trying to break into our kingdom. The fact that most people can think of them as fairy tales is proof of how well we have managed them for the many centuries that we have served the people."

"So they are real," Jonathan said, like he might have suspected it.

"My father would never tell me what the samurai actually did, even though he works with you closely," Isabeau said.

"Um, why don't you tell people about them?" Issachar asked, feeling nervous about speaking up. But it bothered him. "They're supposed to be really dangerous, and, well, you wouldn't want people to be unprepared."

Fortunately, Hope didn't rebuke him for asking. "That is because the lack of belief actually makes it harder for demons to break through where we have restrained them. People can call demons to them, consciously or not, by the weaknesses in their souls. But if people do not believe in demons, the demons must work harder to have a significant effect upon us."

Mark added on, "It's been long theorized that should the belief in demons grow low enough, they would indeed fade from existence and be nothing but fairy tales. Thus we keep the knowledge of them suppressed in hopes that the theory be proven correct."

"Thus, one of the major tenants of the Code of the Samurai is to keep our work a secret," Hope said. "You will need to learn the Code by heart, so that it guides your work and your lives from now on. That will be something we work on all along. For now, we must start with the basics so that you are ready to enter the area demons dwell and begin your work.

"Today, we will focus on sword exercises for all of you, and we need to get you three," Hope pointed to him, Flynn, and Walter, "started on literacy lessons so that you can handle the basics of operating the gauntlets and reading our guiding texts. Are any of you versed in the basic script?"

"No, didn't have a use for it," Walter said.

"No, we didn't either," Issachar said while Flynn shook his head.

"How can you not get by without knowing at least basic script?" Naverre asked. "It's everywhere."

"It's everywhere here in the capitol, but not everywhere in Mikado," Hope corrected. "Jonathan?"

"Yes sir?" he replied, looking over to him.

"I know you're well versed in swordplay, so I'd like for you to help with getting them through the basic script," Hope said. "We do have some lesson books for that around, for precisely this kind of situation. Once you three get comfortable with the simple script, we can teach you some common words in the mystic script that you should be aware of."

"All right, sir, I can do that," Jonathan said.

"One more thing before we split off," Hope said, doing something on his gauntlet. "I am going to activate the navigational AI in your gauntlets to act as a guide."

"A whatsit?" Walter asked.

"Something like a compass or star map?" Issachar guessed, since it had to do with navigation.

"You can think of her as a guiding spirit who can help you with operating your gauntlets," Hope said. "Her name is Burroughs. While it may not be easy to understand her at first, she is talented in helping samurai of all experience levels carry out their missions. It may take a few minutes to boot up, for her to appear on your screen. But she will talk you through the basics along with us. In the meantime, we'll go out to the practice grounds to start in on your swordplay."

That was a part he and Flynn had practiced for, although he would have never guessed that literacy would be an important skill as well. As such, Mark and Hope noticed that talent; they felt that some formal training would help refine their skills, but they were good to start out with. Jonathan was ready enough that he served as a practice partner for the rest of them. Walter wasn't practiced like the rest of them, but his strength was enough that he caught Jonathan by surprise with one of his attacks. As a result, Mark suggested that maybe he'd do well with a hammer or axe, something that didn't need formality that would make good use of his strength.

As for the other two, they had a lot of work to do to get used to fighting of any sort. Isabeau had to deal with being smaller than the rest of them, along with having little idea of how to fight. Still, she was determined to do her best and gave a better effort than Issachar would have expected out of a woman. And then Naverre…. well, it was kind of pitiful how ill-prepared he was just for sword practice. Mark had to immediately correct how he held his sword so as not to injure himself, and then Naverre just swung around randomly instead of trying to strike at Jonathan. Even Issachar could see how open Naverre left himself; demons would find him a joke.

Eventually, Mark and Hope started drilling just Isabeau and Naverre. Jonathan, Walter, Flynn, and Issachar all took a corner of the room to go over the practice textbooks for reading. "All right, I think I see how this goes," Jonathan said to himself, then he set the workbook he had on the floor between them. "Every word that we use in speaking has a written form in both the simple and mystic script. The mystic script is much more complicated and can take years of study to comprehend. But the simple script uses an alphabetical system that makes the connection between how words are written and how they are spoken more consistent."

"Oh, so then these books have pictures accompanying the words the pictures represent?" Issachar asked, looking at a picture of a loaf of bread. It had a set of symbols with it that presumably meant bread. "But what about these hands at the start? Those are different words."

Jonathan pointed out the ones he meant. "These are trying to mimic gestures, so you have 'Hello' and 'Goodbye' right here."

"Why would you need to write 'hello' or 'goodbye' when you might not be there when it's read?" Walter asked.

"You can use them for informal letters," Jonathan said. "But… well, that's later on, we're working on getting you to recognize some basic words now. I think you can change the gauntlet display to use simple script instead."

Issachar looked through the textbook while the others discussed the words in a row. A system where the parts of the word matched sounds… after seeing something, he put his textbook on the floor too, then turned a page and covered one of the pictures. "Um… apple." He moved his hand and saw that the picture was an apple. "All right, got it!"

"Whoa, how'd you do that?" Walter asked, surprised.

"He's smart," Flynn said, impressed.

"Um, Jonathan was saying that these symbols match the sounds we make," Issachar said, flipping back a page. "So, I started trying to match the sounds of a word to the written word, and I happened to get that one right first try."

Jonathan smiled. "That is really quick to pick up on that on your own. Maybe this won't be so hard for you."

"Well I just did what made sense," Issachar said, feeling sheepish for it. "I didn't mean to show off."

"No, that's fine, maybe you can see easier how to teach them that," Jonathan said.

"Thanks," Issachar said. So, the people here weren't going to put him down for asking questions or his crazy ideas? Except, maybe they weren't so crazy when they were useful. Issachar felt eager to keep working at this reading. This really was the best path for him. "Well, just match the sounds to the letters, like 'ah' here for this letter, and," he kept trying to explain how he was doing things.

Walter didn't get it. "Man, this is some kind of sorcery you're doing Issachar," he said, still trying to work it out after several minutes of explanations.

"Not really, it makes sense," Flynn said.

Walter nodded glumly. "I can kind of see it, that the letters should match the sounds. There just seems to be a lot of them. Guess I never thought about how many sounds we use when talking before."

"I have," Issachar said, feeling bolder with this. "I tried to make up my own words one time, for things that I didn't know the words for. But, I got scolded pretty badly for doing that."

"I always thought that was a dumb thing to be punished for," Flynn said.

Then, their gauntlets shifted the slate portion (actually called a screen; there was going to be a lot more words to learn for things). The image of a pale woman on a strange green background appeared. "You appear to be a new user," she said in a pleasant voice. "What's your name?"

"Issachar," he said, while the others spoke to their gauntlets. Hopefully this wasn't too confusing.

"Issachar, got it," she said. "I am Burroughs, the navigation AI for this gauntlet comp. At the moment, I am speaking to you alone."

"How can you speak to me alone?" Issachar asked, while the others glanced over. Except Flynn, he was listening to his Burroughs.

"It's a part of how my systems work with you and grow with you," Burroughs said. "I may use the speaker system if a number of you are together like this and the same message needs to be relayed. But for the initial start-up, I need to exchange some information with just you as my user."

She was finishing up her explanation when Jonathan said, "It looks like we need to split up a bit so we can take care of initialization. We'll get back to this once that's done."

"Sure," Flynn said. Issachar nodded.

"Yeah, seems like we have some questions to answer," Walter said.

They split up then, while the others were still working on their exercises. Issachar found a stool to sit on while doing this process. "Um, can you swap your, uh, look to simple script? We're just learning that; I don't know mystic script at all."

"Certainly, I will do that for you," Burroughs said. The screen flickered like a candle, changing the text display to something that matched what was in the text books. "Conversion complete; the option to change back to mystic script will be within the options menu if you become comfortable with the mystic script. Some of the standard messages may be worded less precisely in simple script. And if you need an audio reading of what's on the screen or anything I can scan, I can do that for you easily."

"Thanks," Issachar said. "What did you have to ask me?"

"I need to know some basic information about you and get an assessment of your knowledge level and capabilities at the start," Burroughs said. "Commander Hope will have you demonstrate the physical capacities later. I have acquired some information from your registration form; please make sure that it is correct. Would you like me to read it out for you?"

"Yes please," Issachar said, and listened through things like his birthdate and hometown.

"Okay, that is taken care of," Burroughs said once they were through the registration form. "Now, I would like an assessment of your mathematical capabilities."

"My what?" he asked.

"Your ability to use numbers." It took some further explanation for him to get what she was asking of him, but counting amounts quickly through what she called addition and subtraction were things he knew how to do.

He didn't feel too smart on getting through her assessment, but Burroughs was kind and supportive, willing to go through things in simple steps while he worked to make up for the short-comings he had in a Casualry education.

* * *

There was a nightly curfew, about an hour after dark. The punishment for breaking curfew was a fine, possibly required remonstrations. While it really wasn't much, people still did not break curfew. It was not done. And there really wasn't enforcement of the curfew after the evening patrols got in. As a result, the city streets were dark and empty two hours after sundown.

Flynn left his room around that time. Last night had been a bad time for this, with the others being excited and wanting to talk. Still, it had been good. It would help towards his goal. So this task was left to tonight, when the others were tired from the practice and assessments.

On the ground floor, there were a few older samurai still up talking. Much of these dorms had been unused since there hadn't been any new samurai for several years. "What even happens at these Sabbaths?" one of them asked.

"They say it's to discuss books, which is a strange thing for Casualry," another said. Flynn watched them carefully from the corner, an excuse already in mind if he was spotted. "And they build up those bonfires, which makes them glaringly obvious."

"Perhaps, but they scatter before we can arrive," the third said, heading into a room. "Last night, I tried to check for scouts first. Still didn't help break into their activities."

"What about..?" the conversation continued, but they all had their backs to him or were not in the hall now. Flynn moved across the hall before they turned and headed for the street door. The knob turned smoothly and the door opened with little sound.

Now that he was outside in the dark, he pulled out his card. He couldn't register demons with Burroughs yet, not without raising suspicions. "Trojan, come out," he said quietly as he walked along the streets. "And keep quiet."

Trojan darted up to his shoulder and settled there. "Doot doot doot, #sneakysneak."

"Yes," Flynn said. "Burroughs, keep me informed of if anyone else is on the streets."

"They shouldn't be," she said to him alone. "Other than small rodents and cats, I do not detect anyone in the outdoors vicinity."

"Can't be too careful with this," he said.

In a few minutes, he was outside of the monastery. This led to a slight problem because there was seemingly only one path up into raised monastery, and that had a row of low lights that would make it obvious that someone was approaching. Having been a part of the institution during a few timelines now, he knew there was another way in that was not only more obscured, but would actually get him to his location quicker. He ducked into a small building on the way between Obelisk Plaza and the monastery.

It was unguarded. Since no one was allowed to be outside at night, they assumed no one would be outside at night and did not have a watchman here. It was a safe assumption in Mikado as it was now. There were a few among the Casualry who were already shaking off the stigma of curfew, but none of them would be able to get here like he could as an apprentice samurai.

Down here, there was a second access point to the monastery, in a staircase contained in one of the support pillars that kept the building in its lofty position. Also down here was the monastery's storage, full of relics, books, and supplies. They kept current records and items that were often used up in the main building; the old things were here, including records from over a century ago and a stockpile of books from before the nuclear disasters that ravaged the Earth so long ago. Many things down here could ruin Mikado with just ideas, but it seemed that the angels didn't manage to destroy everything that posed such a risk.

He didn't need the books now. What he needed was in the gauntlet storage. On the scale of things, it didn't really matter when he got this out as long as it was before they went too far into Naruku. And Hope should suggest the initial trip tomorrow, if it went as things had gone before. In that storage room, there were a number of gauntlets that could be useful to a wide range of people if they weren't locked up like this. But, not yet. There was just one he was after and it should be down here tonight. It wasn't kept on shelves openly, but locked in a box to be better protected.

He found the box on a shelf at waist level, kept apart from the others. As he'd thought, the key for it was hanging on the wall right next to it. Flynn unlocked the box and took out the gauntlet of King Aquila. It was kept in impeccable shape like the rest. "Trojan, there are still a few demons attached to this gauntlet, right?" he asked.

Trojan flitted over to land on the gauntlet and prodded it with its wires. "Beeeeeeep doot doot doot. #DemonsConfirmed #Minotaur #Aeshma. #Mastema."

"Thought so," Flynn said. "I need another DDS card for a copy of you, but we can't alert Hope to what was done."

"I am required to send a report of such things to the commander as you are an apprentice," Burroughs said. "Sorry, it's a part of my AI processes. But a Virus demon can intercept such reports and prevent them from being received. I am unable to do anything about that."

"Woooooo, #rogerroger," Trojan said, flying up near Flynn's gauntlet.

"All right, then let's get this card made," Flynn said, going into the menus to do so. He'd unlocked a few programs he wasn't meant to have access to yet, the ones Burroughs wasn't required to keep Hope alert to. That included opening the digital demon service that was meant for trading demons between users, even if actually using it would be reported.

"The card has been made to gift Virus Trojan to Aquila," Burroughs said. "A report on the trade has been sent."

"Woot, #ReportIntercept," Trojan said, eagerly waving its wires.

"There was an error in sending the DDS report to the commander," Burroughs loyally reported. "But the report was made and no further action is required."

"Good," Flynn said, setting the gauntlet back in place. "I also need to transfer the data files saved in the last timeline to Aquila's gauntlet. The ones," he opened up the database and found the folder where he'd put the information he wanted to go to Nanashi, "here."

"Transferal in progress," Burroughs said while Trojan settled back on Flynn's shoulder. "Transferal complete. He should have all the information we need him to act on, as well as contact back to me and you. But all transmissions made through the Firmament will be affected by the time distortion that Tokyo is under."

"I know," Flynn said, placing the DDS card in the box before shutting and locking it again. Tokyo was more likely to have thieves, but he felt safe in tying the key to the box's handle for the transferal. The go-between he was counting on was odd but honorable. "Now we need to get into the terminal to send this over."

He took the box under his arm and left the monastery storage. The walk back over was quiet as expected. But as he started to get into Aquila Plaza, Burroughs warned him, "There are two individuals outside the terminal, master. Neither of them are human, but they're more advanced than most demons."

Staying in the shadow of the gate he was in, he looked over and made out two familiar silhouettes. Flynn lifted his gauntlet and whispered, "Burroughs, confirm their identity for me."

"Scanning."

As it was so quiet, their conversation drifted over. "I suppose that will keep the situation from getting out of our control," a woman's voice said. "But you can shift it back on when we need it, right?"

"Not without the others," another woman said.

The first woman made a skeptical response. "You're just baiting me to allow them out early, aren't you?"

"No I am not. No one has triggered the transformation yet, so it was simple to shut off. But making sure that the trigger remains at the right level of knowledge will take more effort than I can do alone."

Burroughs spoke to him, "That's Gabriel and Lilith. They're not bothering to hide their identities tonight."

Flynn nodded; they too would figure that no one would be out to see them.

"I'm capable of helping with that, aren't I?"

"I wouldn't trust you not to make dangerous adjustments. I won't attempt it unless the others are free to help."

"Fine. Let's get down to Tokyo and figure out what's going on." The terminal door opened up and they disappeared inside.

"That terminal's not supposed to be active until we get down to Sky Terminal," Flynn said quietly.

"They have other means of traveling around," Burroughs said. "They should be capable of following the latent connection down. We have to use it without fully activating it ourselves tonight."

"Right," he said. He waited a few minutes just in case, then crossed the plaza to reach the Aquila Plaza terminal room.

With the help of Trojan and Burroughs, it was a simple task to send the locked box off to the terminal in Kinshicho.

* * *

"Just in time, hurry in and get below," the guard said, holding the fence gate open for them.

"Thanks," Nikkari said, nudging the others to get in ahead of him. Kinshicho Park was going dark. "Any idea of what's going on?"

"No, but check your phone for word from the Association and the Ashura-kai," the guard said. Once all four of them were inside, he shut the gate and locked it, using extra locks this time.

"This sounds really bad," Asahi said as they went down the stairs.

"What could've cut off the power here is my question," Manabu said. "The Ashura-kai is supposed to be taking care of that."

"We'll just have to see if they say anything," Nikkari said, messing with his phone now that they were inside. He turned the volume up as a report was playing.

"A sudden spike in demonic activity has been detected in the northeastern parts of Tokyo," the voice said, one of the Ashura-kai's reporters. "Towns affected include Ueno, Kinshicho, and Akihabara. All residents and Hunters in the area are advised to get to secure areas as soon as possible. Power cables have become unstable as well, but the Ashura-kai promises to do everything they can to keep the power running and get what has gone dark back up as soon as possible. Please be patient and do not do anything reckless."

"I hope the town stays lit," Manubu said. "That's only going to make people panic if things go dark."

"Right, we need to keep order here," Nikkari said, shifting over to the report given by the Hunter Association. Unfortunately, they had the same message. They were advising that even experienced Hunters should get off the streets until the power instability was resolved. "I wonder if this has anything to do with the protests going on in Akihabara and Ikebukuro."

"Huh, you think the protesters might have cut the power?" Manubu asked. "Why would they do that?"

"I don't think this is power being cut off," Nikkari said. "If it was that, well..."

"We'd already be dark, wouldn't we?" Nanashi asked when he quieted. "All the lights were flickering, not shutting down instantly."

"Right, this is more like someone's using a lot of power for something," Nikkari said. Then he shrugged. "Could be demons, could be humans. But we're not in a position to investigate it. Let's go speak with the boss and ask about how to help keep the other residents calm."

As they were agreeing to that plan, an unfamiliar woman approached them. She was wearing a lot of makeup and a strangely designed dress, which were not only at odds with everyone else in Kinshicho, but at odds with the antique box she was carrying. "Hey, now hold up a moment," she said. "You there, boy, you're Nanashi, right?"

"Yes, what is it?" he asked.

"Something I don't normally do, but this is too weird to not follow up on," she said. "Now, you don't even have a phone, do you? I'm the Terminal Guardian, so I know this kind of thing."

"I don't have a phone," he confirmed, puzzled by this.

"Huh, I thought the Terminal Guardian was a man?" Asahi asked.

"Never you mind that," she said quickly, then held out the box. "This showed up for you. Don't ask me how; I was just investigating an unauthorized use of the terminals when I found this box here inside the terminal room. The note with it said to hand it over to Nanashi, as well as some other things that aren't really important for y'all to know. I don't detect anything dangerous with it, so here."

"Oh, thanks," he said, still confused. But he took the heavy box; a key was tied to the handle.

"That is odd, how could someone transmit a box through the terminal system outside of your watch?" Nikkari asked. "You normally do an impeccable job."

"I don't know, still figuring it out," the guardian said, flipping her hair with her hand. "It's a right mystery. Anyhow, you have any idea who would've wanted to send you something old and fugly like that?"

"No clue," Nanashi said. Everyone that he knew well lived here in Kinshicho, or were currently working here like Nikkari and Manubu.

"Well if you find out, be sure to tell them that I am not running a delivery service here," the guardian said in a huff. "Also that what else they had to say… well they'd better keep that to themselves. All right?"

"Sure, I'll do that if I figure them out," Nanashi said. "Thanks for giving it over."

"Right, hope whatever that is is worth this fuss," she said. "Take care, kiddo." She then headed back into the terminal room to get back to whatever her duty entailed.

"I really thought the terminal guardian was a man," Asahi said.

"They're certainly quite a character," Nikkari said. "How about we get a table in the Association so we can see what you got?"

"Sure," Nanashi said, curious himself about what could be in a box sent in such a strange manner.


	8. Brownout in Northeastern Tokyo

**Chapter 8: Brownout in Northeastern Tokyo**

The Hunters Association Bar was busy with Hunters who'd come in from the emergency broadcast. There were lots of whispers and grumbles about what was going on, even about the bridge that had been destroyed a week back. Thankfully, Nikkari was respected enough that he got them a table easily.

The boss, also Asahi's dad and Nanashi's caretaker, came over immediately. "Oh good, you four came in safe. You all alright?"

"We're fine," Nikkari said. "The poison down south has spread back out, so we weren't able to get where we were going. But that may have been a blessing in disguise when the power started going unstable."

"It's too bad because we were making good progress down to Toyosu for a while there," Manubu said. "We could really use the access to the storage units."

"Yes, and we don't want to lose even more to that swamp of poison," the boss said. "Where'd you pick up that box, though? Looks like a genuine antique."

"It got dropped off in the terminal room for me," Nanashi said, untying the cord so he could use the key. "Don't know who from, but the terminal guardian says it's not dangerous."

"That's strange," the boss said, grabbing a seat from another table to join them. "But then we can't get regular deliveries from the rest of Tokyo now, what with the poison swamp and the lost bridge by Ueno."

"Right, so we have to rely on the Ashura-kai unless we can reach Toyosu," Manubu said, not happy with that.

He had the key now, so Nanashi put it in the lock and turned it. Despite looking so old, it came open easily. Maybe it had been taken care of well. When he opened it up, there was something sharply contrasting the box inside: some kind of metal glove with electronics installed in it, like an arm-mounted smartphone holder. It was placed on smooth blue satin as if it were a precious treasure. There was also a brown and black card in there, like it was from a trading game.

"Whoa, that looks like some heavy-duty equipment," Manubu said, impressed.

Meanwhile, both the boss and Nikkari gasped. "Wait, is that a demonica?" the boss asked in disbelief.

"It certainly looks that way," Nikkari said, then glanced at Nanashi. "Do you mind if I look at it first?"

"No, go ahead," he said, not sure what they meant. Something felt familiar about it, like he should know it but didn't quite remember it.

Nikkari took it out of the box and searched for an identification mark. "The ink's all faded, but there's still some impressions." He mumbled some numbers as he felt them, then bit his lip. "Right… this is a JGSDF issue Demonica COMP."

"Isn't that the old military group that was fighting demons before the Firmament went up?" Asahi asked in wonder of it. "Wow."

"Right, this would be top-grade military hardware for someone who commanded and fought demons," Nikkari said, passing it over for the boss to see. "And somebody sent it to Nanashi."

"We lost all of them in the conflict around Sky Tower," the boss said, looking at it. "But why Nanashi? He's just a kid."

"He's fifteen, that's not a kid," Asahi said.

"We think," Nanashi reminded her. When he'd been brought here, he'd been unable to give them any information about who he was as he'd been very ill from the poison swamps down south. That and more… he wasn't quite sure himself since anything of those days was hazy and nightmarish in his mind.

"We might not be able to answer that until we can get the comp activated," Nikkari pointed out. "And they are biologically locked to specific users. We can't simply put that on anyone and expect it to do anything. Since it was given to Nanashi, it's most likely that he can activate it."

"That would make sense," the boss said, passing it back to Nikkari since he was next to Nanashi. "Just please don't do anything reckless with that."

"You're dominant with your right hand, so we'll need this to go on your left arm," Nikkari said, undoing one of the latches. "Hold your arm out for me."

"Sure," Nanashi said, putting his left arm over the table so Nikkari could strap it in place. It seemed to have been made for an adult, as the only way Nikkari could get it snug was to use the shortest part to latch it in place. Panels moved aside to reveal a black screen, which went green with a loading icon. "That's it?"

"It's already turning on, so it must be linked to you somehow," Nikkari said. "Maybe it belonged to one of your parents."

"Maybe," he said, although he had to fight a shiver at trying to remember them. Not them, but rather how they and everyone else had died… he didn't want to think about that now.

A screen came up, quickly covered by a pop-up of a holographic woman. "Welcome back, Master Akira," she said cheerfully. "It has been fourteen hundred and thirty-two years since you logged on. Would you like me to run an internal scan to make sure everything is working appropriately?"

"Uh, yes please," Nanashi said.

"Please what?" Asahi asked.

He pointed to the screen. "She asked to run a scan for errors; didn't you hear her?"

"No," she said.

"The AI in the demonicas is capable of addressing only the user," Nikkari said. "I only got to use one for a brief time, but they were much like smartphones."

"Did the AI mention anything else?" the boss asked.

"She said it's been fourteen hundred and thirty-two years since she was last activated, so there probably is some error," Nanashi said, which made Nikkari frown and check something on his smartphone. "She also addressed me as Master Akira."

"Akira?" the boss asked, his eyes wide. "But, but that's..."

"Maybe it's his father's name, if the demonica belonged to him?" Manubu asked. "If they can activate to a son's genes instead of the father's."

"That is possible," Nikkari said, still looking at his phone. "And there was a demon hunter by the name of Akira when the SDF was still active. It's odd, but possible that Nanashi could be that Akira's son."

"No, that doesn't make sense," the boss said. "That Akira… well, he disappeared around nineteen years ago, with the Sky Tower conflict. No one has been able to get up or down the tower since then. So unless Akira was actually in Minami afterwards, that shouldn't be the case."

"Who are you talking about?" Asahi asked, leaning on the table with interest in the conversation.

"I hate to say it if Nanashi is related to him, but Akira is considered a traitor by most older Hunters," the boss said. "Nobody really likes to talk about it, but it does relate to how we lost the demonicas when we could have really used them."

Nikkari set his phone back in its holder. "That's not the whole story, but there are still some secrets to be respected. Perhaps if we get more certain evidence, we can tell you three about it. But, I don't think it's all that impossible for Nanashi to be Akira's son even if Akira disappeared nineteen years ago and Nanshi's definitely not that old."

"I don't even think Akira was that old at the time of the Sky Tower conflict," the boss said. "Which makes it all the stranger."

Nikkari held a hand up to him. "But I can tell you guys a little something. You see, the Sky Tower conflict involved a group of us tunneling up to top of the Firmament, through the tower that's always been near here. We broke through and were soon confronted by angels who drove us back down relentlessly. One of them even stole the demonica COMPs from us. But the important thing to this matter of Akira's demonica here is that time," he snapped his fingers, thinking, "time acts strangely once you break into the Firmament. You could be spending days mining out the tunnels up there, and then come back down to find that only a few minutes had passed in Tokyo. Actually, we realized what was going on primarily because of Akira, who went from a teenager younger than you both to nearly being eighteen because of some problems with the elevator. But if Akira did come back to Tokyo, it's very strange that he went completely silent instead of trying to clear his name."

"No errors have been found," the AI said. "There is an urgent request for you from Flynn. Someone at Kasumigaseki is going to launch short-range missiles at the town of Akihabara. Would you like to log into the Kasumigaseki mission control in order to stop the missile launch?"

"Y-yes," Nanashi said, feeling a chill in his blood. "She says someone is going to launch missiles at Akihabara."

"What?" the boss, Manabu, and Nikkari asked in alarm. Asahi just stared at him. Manabu asked, "But how? And why? It'll cause us all kinds of problems here even if we're not the main impact site."

"I don't know, but apparently I can log into Kasumigaseki's computer system and stop the launch there," Nanashi said.

"Akira would have had the authority to do that," Nikkari said, getting his phone again at the same time the boss did.

"You have some authority, but someone has hijacked the JGSDF system," the AI said as the screen shifted to a different display. "But the mission notes state that the demon on the DDS card with this unit, Virus Trojan, is capable of locking the hijacker out of the system. Would you like to scan the DDS card to unlock Trojan?"

"Yes," he said, starting to reach for the card in the box. But something came to him; as long as he pointed the camera at the card, it should work. He set the unit to see the card better.

"Scanning… Trojan unlocked and added to active party."

A very small demon then appeared over the table; it appeared to be a little toy horse on a cart, but a multitude of wires came out of the cart's back. "Dah dah da dah! /virustrojan, #atyourservice."

"Trojan, can you block whoever's trying to launch these missiles out of the Kasumigaseki JGSDF system?" Nanashi asked.

"Aren't viruses bad things?" Manubu asked.

"It's a demon, so who knows," Nikkari said with a shrug.

Meanwhile, Trojan had come by the gauntlet. "Doot doot doot… #InSystem #easyaspie." It then vanished into the demonica.

A message popped up on both the boss' and Nikkari's phones. "Someone is trying to launch missiles from the old base," the boss confirmed.

"Right, and Fujiwara says he can't get in at the moment to stop them," Nikkari said.

Watching the security screen, Nanashi saw some things change. Somehow, they made sense to him. "I think Trojan's got it handled," he said.

* * *

The rush of water surrounded him, as did the hum of godly magic. The… constraints of godly magic, with an active guard close by. He could not move; he could not do anything to escape on his own. But, he could sense the flow of the world going on without him. The balance of powers; the balance that was taking a very strange turn.

"This is different," Krishna murmured to himself. "Is this your time? This change… it's fundamentally confused those who constantly monitor the balance and try to swing it in their favor. Hmm..."

The threads of fate felt strained, perhaps even frayed. There was a plan for the events that should unfold, a map for those chosen to follow. But the plan already seemed toppled, the pieces scattered to unexpected places. Did they realize their carefully laid plans were already in shreds?

"Perhaps in this kind of chaos, we can rise," he said. "Or you could. I could make this work for me. You told me not to forget my purpose even if it is empty for now." He grimaced, caught between ideas.

His own plans were potentially rendered useless (and possibly fruitless if these visions were real). But, Krishna had the gift of being adaptable. Most gods considered that a minor thing compared to being dependable and consistent. But then, that was why they often fell to humans; their adaptability to situations like this was not good.

He focused himself. The seal reacted and tightened around him. While it threatened to choke him out of consciousness, Krishna focused and put all of his energy into doing this. He could not break the seal himself. But, with great effort, he could get a message out.

After a gasp trying to find his voice again, Krishna said, "Maitreya..." the seal tightened; anything outside of his focus blurred to nothing. "Send someone… now."

He loosened his focus and immediately passed out from the seal's constraints.

* * *

'Maitreya… send someone… now.'

A person in the red garb of the Ring of Gaea paused on hearing this. Unlike the rest, it was difficult to say if this was a man or a woman. In truth, he wasn't even human, and far from the only non-human in this temple of Tsujiki Hongwanji. Maitreya was the only one who would receive that message, though.

Something had changed; Maitreya had felt it too, a shifting of the world's balance. It felt like some carnival charade, with powers being shuffled around until the poorly observant were dizzy with confusion as to where the real power lay. Unfortunately, he was not able to determine what had actually happened either. He had the wisdom of hundreds of thousands of worlds. And yet, this eluded him. It was always frustrating when something like this popped up.

Getting up from his meditation pose, Maitreya headed off with a particular person in mind. Krishna might be able to sort it out; he had an unusual mind for a god. Perhaps he already had, or perhaps he felt the shift was something to take advantage of. Either way, it seemed they'd be moving earlier than projected. What would come of this?

Fortunately, the person Maitreya had in mind was here in the temple. "Kaga," he said, going into a meeting room that others were coming out of. "May we talk about something?"

"What is it, Maitreya?" the tall woman said, looking to him with harsh eyes. "We were headed out to investigate Ikebukuro."

In this situation, the truth would work just fine. "You know of my colleague, Krishna? I have been searching for him, sealed somewhere in this land. I've finally located him and I believe you would be ideal for releasing him. You see, this isn't a seal I can undo by myself and he is an honorable god. He would agree to help you with Xi Wangmu in exchange for freeing him."

Though, that last bit was a lie. Krishna might see some worth in exchanging the favor, but they had much higher goals that superseded the idea of honor. There were many others in the ring that would agree if Kaga didn't. Most of them would be more gullible than her too. But, Maitreya acknowledged her passion and determination. He would give her a chance at doing this great deed.

* * *

These humans were shooting themselves in the foot again, perhaps more severely than usual. Mastema remained quiet about it. He was used to humans being fools. For one thing, they were amusing fools, adorable in how they tried. More importantly, the fools made those of real talent and genius stand out far above the rest. He was willing to wait for such shining souls, and to see what would come of foolish things. There was also finding ways to lessen the overall impact of such decisions…

Akira was back.

Closing his eyes, Mastema attempted to feel out where Akira was. There had been a change recently, a significant shift that could have triggered his rebirth… no, wait. Akira was already using his demonica. That was where he had sensed his presence. Once again, Akira was a boy in Tokyo. Or, was he? Something felt off. This was unprecedented, at least in Mastema's experience.

"We're ready to launch, sir," the man at the operations chair said.

Nearby, the leader of the Ashura-Kai nodded. "Then launch them," Tayama said. "If it truly is a large cache of smartphones, we can't let those rebels distribute them freely."

It wasn't going to work. Mastema could tell Akira was already working against this. And such an interesting way to do this, using a Virus demon. He had thought all of those creatures had gotten wiped out by the death of worldwide networking; most of them couldn't even exist outside of programming.

"Launch inti..." the computer operator said, then stopped as a red warning blinked on the monitor. "Err, no, the launch has been aborted."

"What?" Tayama asked, going closer to the operator. After a moment, he slammed a hand on the chair. "Who's done this?!"

"I don't know..." the screen went blank, with just an error message. "And I've been kicked out of the system, hang on..." he clicked the icon to log back in. Several attempts later, it was clear that his password was not going to work. "What's going on? It should recognize me."

"Let me try," Tayama said, then leaned over and tried his own account and password. Again, it was denied multiple times. "Damn; I didn't think Fujiwara was this bold anymore. I'll have to speak with him. Mastema, let's go."

"No," Mastema said, clasping his hands together in front of himself.

Tayama immediately turned to him, his eyes full of anger. "What?"

"I have made it clear that this was only a temporary arrangement, yes?" Mastema said. "I have others that may give orders of higher priority to me than you, and I've just received such orders."

"Does it have anything to do with this?" Tayama asked, though he scaled back his emotions and demands. Then he did remember.

"Who knows?" he said. "It is unlikely that I will return to you unless you prove yourself in the traditional means. Therefore, I will consider our agreement complete. Goodbye." He then teleported away, partly because he didn't want to deal with Tayama's retaliation.

Akira… he was in northeastern Tokyo, in one of the guarded towns. Mastema wasn't an ordinary being who could be kept out by their security measures, but he'd certainly trigger alarms coming in physically. Instead, he recalled himself to Akira's demonica. Now, what was the situation he was in?

In one of the Association bars, at a table with several others. The place was busy, full of nervous people due to the sudden lockdown of the area. Mastema knew why that was so; getting old missiles ready to fire safely (for those at the firing location) took a lot of power. Even though the reactor powering this city was effectively infinite, a huge usage like that would still cause instabilities along the following lines. It should all be settling down soon, although the demons drawn out by the surge in power could take longer to drive off.

"Trojan did it," the boy with Akira's gauntlet said, surprised and grateful for it. He felt similar to Akira, but not entirely like him. "They can't launch the missiles now."

The little virus materialized; it was definitely a strange specimen. "#AllDone." it reported.

"That's great, but how did you get in the system?" one of the men there asked. "I thought they purged accounts of deceased members to prevent hacking like this."

"The Sky Tower conflict was a chaotic time, so it might have slipped under the radar," the other man said. "Since he does have a working demonica, we should upgrade him to a rookie Hunter instead of a trainee."

"He's still young, though," the other man protested, in the way overprotective parents often did.

"We need every Hunter we can get," Nikkari said. "And the demonica itself is a valuable tool. Don't worry, I'm still training him and will make sure he can handle things on his own in time."

This wasn't a good place to come out and discuss things. Mastema waited.

* * *

It didn't take long for Lilith to identify the person whose name she had been given. But, there were so many unexplained things with this. For one thing, she'd been given a girl's name. The patriarchal mindset still held strong, so it was unusual for a girl to be called to the role of a hero instead of a supporting heroine. And when girls did get called to be a hero, it was usually on the side of Law since cohesion to a group and other traits were considered feminine. Lilith couldn't recall another girl being called to be a Chaos hero, a role that held many masculine leaning traits. Then again, she liked the idea of working with a girl this time.

The other unexplained things were more worrisome. Like how this was a girl in Tokyo when all signs had pointed to the Spirit of Spite going to someone in Mikado. And how something about the Law hero had caused Gabriel to thoughtlessly shut down the D-gene that Lilith was counting on to make her plans work. Having a girl hero for Chaos also made some other parts of the plan iffy, unless said girl was attracted to other girls.

And then there was who this girl was: Toki, one of the secret assassins that the Ring of Gaea had been training. It meant that Lilith had easy access to this girl, and could get immediate trust out of her. However, those assassins had their wills and emotions repressed so that they followed orders without question. Even suicidal ones, which would end up being the purpose of most of them. Doing so made the assassins ruthlessly efficient and effective, willing to throw their lives away without batting an eye.

That did not make for a good representative of Chaos, one who sought to throw off order, held a powerful will, and used their strong beliefs to change the world.

Granted, if Toki could handle having the chains on her will undone, then she could be made into a powerful representative of Chaos almost immediately. That would give Lilith an early lead in this game against Gabriel, one that the side of Law might not be able to catch up to. Of course, it all really depended on the fulcrum, the Messiah of this generation.

But Lilith desired that lead, so that she could quickly win the game over Gabriel, then take her down just like the other three so that those pesky seraphs were out of this game forever. That way, Law could never win this world again. That was the whole reason Lilith agreed to work with Gabriel. Well, that and humiliating her by forcing her to depend on one of the demons she loathed most. Lilith loathed Gabriel too, for never letting her have that one soul…

Unfortunately, that soul wasn't a player in this generation of the game. A pity, but Lilith could deal with it.

Those in Tsujiki Hongwanji were surprised to see her back. She hadn't been gone that long to their point of view, but she had stated that she expected to be gone for a few hours at least. Avoiding any questions of what that was about, Lilith made her way as Yuriko to find the wing where the assassins were trained. Some of the older assassins, like Kaga, were not masked and thus did not have their wills constrained. But those who came after her were masked.

Lilith still knew who she was looking for. "Toki?"

The oni mask she wore shifted; it covered not just her face, but a good portion of her torso as well. The black cowl she wore also disguised how her arms were moving. "Yes, Yuriko?"

Although it wasn't needed, she smiled sweetly at her hero. "I have a special mission for you."

She nodded. "Whom am I to kill?"

"Not kill, but I need someone followed, and protected against others who may kill him," Lilith said. "You must find a boy named Nanashi in Kinshicho and accompany him. Your purpose in doing so should become clear as you do. Still, I will contact you again if the situation changes."

"Yes, Lady Yuriko," Toki said, giving a modified curtsy as the mask didn't make for an easy bow.

Now, to figure out a way to release her mask and not drive her insane, then get her to fully embrace the nature of Chaos… and yes, someone else down here needed to be informed and consulted on how things were changing.

* * *

Having Abe's help sped up the process by a lot. He always kept demons that could help him with any task that needed doing. Although, Hallelujah didn't feel too comfortable with the demons Abe chose to keep around. One of them, a lilim, kept giving him looks like she wanted to invite him to play. And he knew those demon had an idea of play that was torture to anyone they conned into playing with them.

Unfortunately, Abe was currently distracted in flirting with the woman running the Ashura-kai shop in Shinjuku. Hallelujah tried to dissuade the lilim by putting the goods away on the shelves. That was usually the worker's job, but maybe by being busy…

It didn't work. The lilim came over and tickled the back of his neck. "Hey, he's not paying attention to us right now. Wanna go have a good time, cutie pie?"

"N-no thanks," Hallelujah said. Supposedly confronting them like that worked.

"You don't sound too sure of that," the lilim said with a smile. "Come on, I really want to have some fun with you."

"No..."

'Hallelujah.'

He tensed. That was not a normal voice.

'Come.'

"It'll be nice and relaxing," the lilim said, pulling herself closer.

Hallelujah pushed her away. "Not now," he said quietly. Then he glanced over. Abe was still talking with the store worker, making her laugh with his charm. He really shouldn't do this; Abe took care of him. Hallelujah admired him for that and many other things. But that voice felt as though it was speaking to something deep inside him. He would regret it if he didn't go find the one speaking to him. "I have to go," he told the lilim, then left through the store's back door.

The lilim pursued him, but he didn't pay her any heed. There wasn't supposed to be anyone back here; only Ashura-kai workers were given keys to this hall. But, there was an unearthly hum coming from one of the rooms nearby. It felt just like the voice that had called him. He went to open up the door.

For some reason, the lilim immediately grabbed his shoulder. She was quaking. "No, don't go in there! You can't!"

'Leave us,' the voice said.

The lilim wailed and took off down the hall, the opposite way from the store. "That's weird," Hallelujah said, but soon looked at the door again. Maybe he shouldn't… no, he didn't want to give the lilim any excuse to badger him later. He opened it up and went inside.

There, he met with a serenely beautiful woman. Her strange white robes covered nearly her entire body, but her face was the loveliest he'd ever seen and her hands were pristine and graceful. Hallelujah was caught breathless at the sight of her. While she didn't feel human to his mind, he found himself not caring about that. Nor about the door that closed behind him without him doing so or her getting up for that.

"Hello, Hallelujah," she said, gesturing for him to sit by her on the couch. "I'm glad to meet you at last."

What was going on? Things like this didn't happen to him. His heart beat faster as he sat by her, not sure if he could believe that this was happening. And yet, really happy that it was. "H-hello," he said, feeling clumsily ill-matched here. "Are you a demon?"

"No, I'm an angel," she said, forgiving him of that mistake. "My name is Gabriel, and I have been looking for you."

An angel… weren't angels supposed to be horrific monstrosities that would kill humans on sight? But, she was so gentle here, and beautiful, and she didn't seem like she wanted to harm anybody. "Really? Um, I can't imagine why, I mean, I'm..." his throat tensed up. He wasn't supposed to talk about that outside of a few in the Ashura-kai who knew. But when he looked up to her, it felt like he could tell her anything, especially if it kept her near him.

"I know, you're not fully human," she said. "It's fine; God will accept you with love, and so will I. In truth, I came to you because something big is about to happen within the world. Something that could make the world into a peaceful paradise, or something that could turn it into a terrible hell. And you are one who can make a difference in what happens to the world."

"I am? Um, I'm not sure you have the right guy for that, I can't actually do much." But… well, she couldn't actually mean love like he was thinking of. Unless she did mean love like love, and somehow she'd chosen him? Or if he did well, maybe… "I mean, I'll try, if it's to make a better world."

"There are hidden depths to you that I can see easily," Gabriel said. "And what you have to start with may not sound like much, but it will turn out to be of great importance. To start your path, you need to get to Kinshicho and meet with a boy named Nanashi. Assist him in what he has been called to accomplish. I will keep in contact with you and inform you more as you go along."

"Sure, I, uh, I'll see what I can do." But, how was he to get out of his duties to the Ashura-Kai? Kinshicho was part of Tokyo that had been cut off from the rest, so asking to go there would be questioned.

"Good, and I will see about easing your way," Gabriel said.

All of a sudden, the door slammed open. Abe was there and he looked furious. "You," he just about spat in hate as he looked at Gabriel. "Get the hell out of here, you bitch!"

"And just how to you expect to make me?" Gabriel said, stunningly calm in the face of him. Hallelujah had seen no one outside of Tayama one time who dared stand up to Abe when he was angry. But then, he'd also never seen Abe show dislike of a woman, much less such hatred.

"I don't care, but I will make you!" he said, clenching a fist. "And stay away from Hallelujah!"

Instead, she touched Hallelujah on the shoulder. "This man is one of the seriously fallen; don't listen to him anymore." Then she vanished in a golden-white glow.

"Goddamn!" Abe grabbed the nearest thing, a milk crate, and hurled it at where she'd been sitting so hard that it broke against the wall. Hallelujah scrambled to keep out of its way. "Don't meet up with her again, you hear me? She's insane and dangerous, and she will only use you until you're all shriveled up, and then she'll throw you away out in the cold wilds."

"But," his heart was still racing, pounding now. But when he looked at his mentor, he didn't want to provoke that anger against himself. "O-okay bro."

But, he felt like he'd go back on his word if he had the chance to get away from Abe…

That calmed him down. "Did she do anything to you?" Abe asked, concerned now. "Or tell you anything? It was probably insane babbling; I knew something was wrong when the lilim came back in such a panic."

"She didn't do anything but call me over here," Hallelujah said. What should he say? He hadn't wanted to go against Abe until now, and somehow that had completely changed. Yet, some respect still remained. "She wanted me to go to Kinshicho and help somebody named Nanashi. She didn't say much more than that, just that it was important I help out whoever this Nanashi is."

"Is that so?" Abe took a few steps, putting his hand to his chin. "And right after we both feel something big is going to happen. I didn't think it'd be anything that directly involved her, but… hmm, Nanashi?"

"Yeah, but I don't recognize the name," he said. "Sounds like the name of some kind of orphan in a story."

"Right, it does. But if that bitch Gabriel sees him as important…" he paced back to the door, "we'd better at least check this guy out. She might be insane, but she knows things."

"She said she was an angel," Hallelujah said. But so much more wonderful than he thought an angel could be.

"Never trust an angel," Abe said like it was unquestionable advice. "Well come on, let's hit up Kinshicho. I'll figure out something to tell the big boys, but honestly, this is bigger than their little empire here."

"Okay," he said, going along with Abe for now. But at some point, he'd need to ditch Abe and work on his own. It was something that should have intimidated him. But thinking of Gabriel, he felt willing to do that.


	9. Strange Domain

**Chapter 9: Strange Domain**

Up on a ledge, Issachar spotted some deep green moss that matched the description he'd been given. "That should be the last of it," he said to himself, going over to collect it.

A shadow shifted how it shouldn't. He got his hand on his sword's handle in time to jump back from a lharm darg dropping down into an attack. "Good, but that won't save you," the demon warrior said, ready to strike again.

The first time that Issachar had faced one of these demons, the very first demon he'd faced at all, he'd barely won and kept himself alive. Flynn had to come over with a healing stone in order to help him get back out to a proper healer. In other fights, he learned that demons did not care who you were. They were out to kill you unless you could kill them first, or you convinced them otherwise.

This time, Issachar was ready. He brought his hand up and used Needle Shot against the lharm darg. It was a skill he'd learned off a demon he'd befriended. The demon who accompanied him caught up then; the blonde-haired frog hopped past the ledge and followed up with another Needle Shot that killed the lharm darg. "He messed with the wrong people," Hequet said with a proud croak. She'd been fused from the same demon who taught him Needle Shot, so she was already friendly with him.

"Yeah, good job," Issachar said. He double checked in case there'd be a follow-up battle. When the coast was definitely clear, he collected the moss. The apothecary wanted some to make strong medicines. As she supplied the samurai, it made sense to help her out. He then activated the message program on the gauntlet to contact Flynn. "Hey, I've got what I set out to collect."

"Good, so have I," Flynn said. "And I've found the orthus that was also on the board. Want to help me out with it? I'm over here." A marker appeared on the gauntlet's map of Naruku.

"Sure, I'm not far from there," he said, heading over to drop down off this ledge. "I'll be over shortly."

"Thanks." He then cut off the communication.

These were things Issachar would have never dreamed of doing before. Searching a cave full of demons right below the castle, speaking to a friend who wasn't even in the same room, having friends among demons; it was the stuff of fairy tales. At the same time, it was real. He was doing this so demons didn't show up all over Mikado where people were living their lives. While Issachar hadn't wanted his old life, he didn't want to deny it to others who fit in there better.

In one of the other large rooms, Flynn was waiting by the door. He had a tiny toy-like demon flying around him. "You seem to like that little guy," Issachar said. "I thought you said it wasn't much help in battle."

"It's not, but Trojan can do a lot of things outside battle," Flynn said. "It's keeping the orthus to the other side of the room right now, even though the demon has noticed me."

At the other side of the room, there was a two-headed beast that resembled a very strange dog. It growled when Issachar looked over at it. Bits of flame came out of its nose. While it certainly looked aggressive, it was not crossing some invisible line between them. The analyze program on the gauntlet indicated that it was a higher level of danger than the other demons around the second level of Naruku.

"It does look tough," Issachar said. "But we can take it. You ready?"

Flynn nodded. "You?"

"Sure. Let's go."

Once Flynn waved to little Trojan to send it away, the orthus charged across the room to meet with them. Flynn was quick to follow up his dismissal with a draw of his sword that caught the two-headed beast on one of its noses. Issachar used Needle Shot against it, then sent Hequet to slip around and catch the orthus from behind. That would have taken out any other demon he'd faced, but the orthus hung on. It breathed a wide stream of fire around it, catching all of them but Hequet. They both had demons who could heal them, so they instructed them to start healing.

Other than some painful burns, they got through the battle together. Fortunately, some healing water soothed the burn left on Issachar's hand. "Bet those older samurai are gonna be surprised at us now," he said with a smile.

"I'm sure they will be," Flynn said. "Let's get back, this should be enough for today."

"Yeah, we met Naverre's challenge and it was tiring," Issachar said. "We can work on the reading textbooks for the rest of the day." That reminded him of something. "Hoy, have you considered going by those Sabbaths and seeing if they can teach us to read all at once?"

He nodded. "Yes, but something about it seems fishy. You're learning to read the simple script fast, but even that is taking time."

"I guess it is suspicious," he said. "But it would help. Oh, and Jonathan was telling me about one of his books and I'd really like to read it for myself. It sounds interesting, about the recorded history of the samurai, not what had been passed along from person to person. But, the copy he has is in mystic script, so I won't be able to read it for a long time at this rate."

"You could have Burroughs read it to you," Flynn said.

"That could work, but I'd like to be able to read for myself too."

Back out of Naruku through the statue of King Aquila, they headed to K's Tavern. Hope was busy with something today, so they had been sent to learn about the blackboard quests from K. Naverre and Jonathan seemed to hold the old samurai in great respect. "All right, I'll deliver the deep green moss to the apothecary later," K said, offering them a box to put the moss in. "It might not seem like a big job, but it's an important one."

"Yeah, she has good medicines," Issachar said, calling out the moss from the gauntlet's storage to place within the box.

"And I hear you two managed to slay the orthus," K said.

"How'd you hear of that so quickly?" Issachar asked, surprised.

K smiled. "I've still got a link to the gauntlet's messages. Great work doing that. That job's actually been there for a month; I was trying to get it taken care of before you prentices got that far into Naruku. But after several came away with burns, others have been avoiding that job like the plague. You boys have got some real talent, while it looks like I need to lecture a few of the so-called masters on responsibility."

"It wasn't too hard together," Issachar said, trying not to be boastful when his spirits were high with that compliment. Flynn nodded; he didn't talk much with others.

"I'll be sure to let them know about that," K said. As friendly as he was here, there was something in that which made Issachar think that he didn't want to make K mad. "You're also the first of your group to complete the tasks you took, so you met Naverre's challenge as well. I know he's a pain in the neck and will continue that way until something humbles him, but there's a good guy in there somewhere. The life of a samurai is a much bigger shock to him than he ever expected, I'm sure."

"It's not what we expected either, yeah, but we've got it covered," Issachar said.

"Right, we've got it," Flynn added.

"Good, I'm glad Hope got some good fellows like you to work with," K said. "He won't be back until this evening, so enjoy the rest of the day however you want. You want a drink and some food here then?"

"Sure, that'd be great," Issachar said. There was a menu nearby, but he only recognized a few words. "Well, um..."

"What would you recommend?" Flynn said.

Thankfully, K caught on and told them about the food he had available. He didn't make a big deal of it either. While they were eating, Jonathan and Isabeau came back in, separately, to turn in the quests they had taken. They came over to join them. During the discussion, Flynn asked about the history book. "Yes, it's a really good one," Jonathan said. "It's got multiple volumes too."

"Oh, are you talking about Guisse's history of the samurai?" Isabeau asked. "I've only read one of them; they say that copies of them are getting lost, sadly enough."

"My family's managed to collect a full set of Guisse's volumes," Jonathan said, as enthusiastic to talk about them as Issachar was to hear. "We thought we'd never get the fifth volume, at least my grandfather had trouble tracking it down. Then my father found it in a village almost by accident, and accepted it in lieu of money as a reward for a mission he'd been called out there for. The only other fifth volume of the set that we know exists is the one the castle holds, but then the Guisse volumes are written down by castle historians."

"I think even the monastery is missing that one," Isabeau said. "Either that or it's hidden down in the archives."

"But if it's written by castle historians and details the samurai's history, you'd think they'd be taken care of," Issachar said. "I hadn't thought about it before, but books are really precious things, keeping knowledge for as long as they last."

Jonathan nodded. "Right, I agree that they're precious resources. But not everybody does, or they simply don't take good care of them. With this particular set of books, it ends up that many people know tales of Aquila and a few other very famous samurai. But they don't know of many of the smaller scale heroes, who often have great accomplishments to their names too. And when you study the Guisse volumes, you can see things like the development of the Code over the generations and even shifts of demons that have been recorded. Like, the fuxi and lharm darg are common all over the first level, but they didn't used to be. There used to be many demons who animated clay or rocks to form their bodies early on, ones that tried to tunnel out to the villages. But those demons have lessened greatly."

"And now we can see that it's not just tall tales they're telling either," Isabeau said.

"Right," Jonathan said, smiling with some embarrassment. "I actually thought that all the talk about demons in the volumes was a kind of tall tale telling contest between samurai during times of peace. Father encouraged that thinking in me and my sisters, probably to maintain the lack of belief that keeps them trapped in Naruku."

"Well, could I borrow one of them?" Issachar asked, hoping that Jonathan considered him enough of a friend. "I wouldn't ask for one of the rare ones like that fifth, but I'd like to see one with Burroughs."

Fortunately, Jonathan nodded. "Sure, I'll drop by home and pick one up for you. Or, you want to come by and see my family library? We've got a pretty good collection."

"You sure about that?" Issachar asked. "It would be nice, even if I can't read much of it."

"Sure, it shouldn't be much trouble," he said.

"Excuse me," one of the older samurai said. "You're the group of prentices this year, right? Have any of you seen Naverre or the other of your group, Walter?"

"They were with us this morning when we checked in with K," Jonathan said. "But I must have taken a different tunnel than them because I hadn't seen them since."

"I don't recall seeing them since this morning either," Isabeau said.

"Um, I know I saw Walter on the second level, at least a couple of hours ago," Issachar said.

"I saw him and Naverre arguing about something in one of the second level tunnels," Flynn said. "About that same time. It didn't seem out of the ordinary at the time, but I don't recall seeing either of them after it quieted down."

"I was worried about them since I haven't heard from Naverre since that argument he had with Walter," the samurai said. "I'm familiar with Naverre's family, so I agreed to keep an eye on him and help him out. But he should have checked in with me since then, or come back here to turn in his quests. I haven't even managed a hail with the messages."

"Really?" Jonathan asked, trying that himself with his own gauntlet.

"I think Walter could get himself out of trouble, but I'm not so sure about Naverre," Issachar said.

"He tries, but yes," Flynn agreed.

"We weren't supposed to go past the second level yet," Isabeau said. "What if they tried to get down to the third?"

"I can't get either of them," Jonathan said, worried now.

"We should go search for them," Flynn said. "And stick together in case they decided to go to the third level."

"Right, can't we keep track of each other with the gauntlets?" Issachar said. "Burroughs?"

"Sure, I can add markers for each of the six of you to the map," Burroughs said, making colored human images appear on the map. "We'll need to get down to the level Walter and Naverre are on to get a marker for them too."

"I'll search around Naruku myself," the samurai said. "But let's not make a big fuss of this; I think a scolding from Hope should suffice to rebuke them if they left the bounds set for you prentices."

"All right, let's go," Flynn said. All the rest at the table nodded and they headed back into Naruku.

* * *

Becoming a samurai was a lot more difficult than Naverre had imagined it to be. These were times of peace, so they didn't need to bother with learning to actually fight, right? And if that peace was broken, they'd be granted powers by God to make sure the peace got put back together. That was how it always seemed in the grand stories and epics of the samurai.

But no, it was nothing like that. They had to fight every day, keeping the demons within Naruku. In fact, the older samurai made games of it just to keep from being bored. And the samurai that were often patrolling the streets? They either had injuries that made them unable to go into Naruku or were close to retirement anyhow. The peace they lived under was threatened every single day, to the point of having to lock up the statue of King Aquila if events like the Gauntlet Rite were being held. And some things he took for granted, like jewels or even quilts, were made with materials found with demons. The quilts were even made with the feathers of a dirty old bird! And the powers came from demons, to defeat other demons with.

And it was all so tiring, dirty, and unglamorous. Naverre was used to a world of beautiful things arranged for just the right atmosphere, for grand social events where making the guests happy was the highest priority. Now, some of his victories were flukes when he stumbled just right or managed to swing his sword properly. His arms and legs were always aching and sore at the end of the day. And even though little was done to the environment of Naruku, it still hit its oppressive, vengeful, and terrifying atmosphere without effort.

And it was confusing. Naverre was pretty sure he had gotten lost, since he didn't recognize any of these tunnels anymore. There were weird woody tentacles blocking off a few passages, and a sickly looking poisonous sludge that made him feel completely awful to dredge through. And, he was running out of detox solutions. Was the exit over here, or back through the sludge? If he made the wrong choice, he might end up lost here forever, slowly dying by poison he could not get rid of…

No, no he wouldn't do that! He had something to do. Right, he was showing up those Casualries today, with the help of some samurai that he'd known for years. They too were not happy that any Casualry, much less three, had managed to make it into the ranks of the samurai. They needed so much education to do basic things! People who were dumb needed to stay with their dumbed down jobs; intelligent, educated, and sophisticated folk were needed for the important jobs. That was the way it had always been. That was the wisdom of God and why Mikado was split into two classes in the first place.

They might need more instruction to do things like operate the gauntlet, and yet these three Casualry were still outperforming their Luxuror compatriots. Walter had sheer strength to help him; there was already a story going around that he'd recruited some of his demons through wrestling them. That should not be possible for a human! But then, he did have his Casualry background to thank for that strength. It seemed he'd picked up an agi spell somewhere too, since he'd thrown that around in a battle Naverre had seen. Actually, a battle that Naverre had to be rescued from. It was utterly humiliating and Walter shouldn't be so cocky about it.

And then there were the two farm boys, Flynn and Issachar. Flynn was a strange individual, rarely speaking and often drifting off in a daydream. But even though he didn't always pay attention, it looked like everything was coming along so easily for him. He'd barely been scratched in their forays into Naruku so far, yet he'd defeated more demons than any of the rest of them. Even Jonathan, the son of a samurai and trained for this since he was young, could just barely match Flynn. And then when he did speak, Flynn seemed like he was taking charge. He was a Casualry! He didn't deserve to be a leader, especially over someone from the castle like Naverre.

And then Flynn's close friend, Issachar, he seemed so timid and unsure, stumbling over his questions and getting easily embarrassed. But there was brilliance showing that shouldn't be possible in a Casualry. He had never seen a book in his life before coming to the rite, but now he had a half-decent level of literacy and was helping the other two catch up. Things that had taken Naverre a long time to understand in school, like fractions, multiplication, division, and even map reading, Issachar was grasping within minutes. Issachar had no trouble at all navigating the winding tunnels of Naruku while Naverre wasn't sure where he was anymore. And while Issachar wasn't as talented as Flynn in battle, he was holding his own much better than Naverre.

They didn't need to be here, and they didn't need to be doing so well. And Naverre needed to be doing a lot better to meet the expectations of the master samurai helping him out. So he should be able to make his way out of… where? It was dark. No, his eyes were closed. And something painful was in his neck. "Nnngggh," he said, trying to scream but not able to with this pressure on his throat.

It lifted and some healing magic was put on his neck. Only, it wasn't the kind of spell that would relieve pain too. Some kind of hand, or prickly appendage, stroked his chin. "Oh, don't wake up so soon from your dreams. We were just getting to despair and guilt setting in," she laughed in a cruel way.

"Huh, what's..?" he opened his eyes and found himself uncomfortably close to a pair of horrifying eyes, like something waiting to suck him up into nightmares and never let him find the light to lead the way back home. When Naverre tried to look down, she had a discolored naked body covered in thorny vines. And that body sprouted from a black rose. It should all be beautiful, but it was so wretchedly horrifying. He tried to get away, only to find that his body was tied to the wall with sticky white stuff, so tightly that he could barely move.

"Going on?" the demon rose lady asked, letting her bizarrely pink hair drop over her eyes. But that fanged grin she had was no better. "Oh, you're my boy toy now, so I can feed off your horror, your shame, your luscious vanity and pride. You're nothing but a feeble fop who is only good for useless things, falling into the shadows of those who might be true heroes. Hmm, but I'm never going to let those would-be heroes find you. Your sins are too delicious to give up, let me show you..."

She moved in so close that her thorns were pressed into his body. It wasn't right! He shouldn't feel so, so helpless and dirtied, and… all of his life so far, so warm and beautiful, it was as weak as a candle's flame compared to the fires that demons could produce. He was useless out here, and helpless, and powerless, and he was going to have a long painful and horrifying death at the thorny whims and vines of this wicked rose…

Sssshiiing… it was a strange sound in this situation, a gentle chime. While Naverre shuddered, he looked past and saw a strangely dressed little girl run into the room with a wheel toy and stick. She approached them unwittingly. An innocent little girl like that shouldn't be here… wherever this nightmarish pulsing vines and oppression was, and not with this cruel rose lady.

When the girl stopped and looked up at them, the rose lady looked back. "What are you doing here in my domain? You don't belong here, shoo."

The girl just looked up at them, curious.

"What do you want?" the rose lady said, tightening her grip on Naverre. "He's mine."

And then she asked a question, one that made Naverre's mind go blank: "Would you please die for me?"

* * *

They found Walter first, sitting on the floor near the stairs down to the third level. One of his demons was out making sure no others got near him, but it let them pass. "Walter, what happened?" Issachar asked. But he stayed back as Isabeau went over; she had some training as a healer, so it was best she checked on him.

He certainly didn't look well, although he didn't have any obvious wounds. "Oh, thank goodness it's you guys," he said, his voice tense with pain. "There's… it's just about all poison down there. In the muck, in the air. Damn that hooded man!"

"He's been poisoned, and probably fainted from it at some point," Isabeau said, casting a healing spell over him before taking out a pair of detox solutions vials. "Here, you'll need to have both of these like this."

"What hooded man?" Flynn asked.

"Thanks," Walter said to Isabeau, then drank one of the solutions. "Some hooded guy got my attention around here; he said Naverre was in trouble on the third level," and drank the other one. "I went to go grab him, figuring he wouldn't be far. But then the hooded guy followed me down and ambushed me with a horde of demons. I managed to beat him, but then the poison overcame me while I was trying to find Naverre. Thankfully, my surviving demon got me up here; seems he's resistant to poison or something."

"We shouldn't be on the third level today," Jonathan said. "Although Hope said we could take the second level as a challenge if we wanted."

"If it's going to rescue Naverre, we should go," Flynn said.

"Right, and figure out who assaulted Walter," Jonathan said.

"Do we have enough detox solutions to go around, though?" Issachar pointed out. "I mean, I want to help, but if we're all gonna end up poisoned..."

"Don't worry, I found a shortcut around the poison sludge at least," Walter said. "You have to duck under a low wall, but I definitely know he's not anywhere near the sludge. I'll show you."

"Are you sure you're up to going back down there?" Isabeau asked. "You could make this worse on yourself."

Walter closed his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, I'm in good enough shape now that the poison's neutralized in me. But I am not letting that foppish twit get away with this, saying I'm unworthy as a Casualry when he's the one who got lost on the third level in the first place."

"But we're all samurai, of the same class so to speak," Jonathan said. "We should be helping each other; I don't mind going down there to bring Naverre back."

"I guess I should come along, since Naverre will need the healing too when Walter may not be able to contain himself," Isabeau said, standing back up.

Walter got up too and dusted himself off. "All right, I'll try to just scold him. Hmph, but he won't get out of hearing about this.

"We'll be able to spot him on the map with Burrough's help," Issachar said. "Let's go get him and get back out as soon as we can."

"Sure," Flynn said, and so they all headed down the third level.

Issachar hadn't been sure what Walter meant by poison being in the air; air was a pure thing, it couldn't be sickening. But being down there, he saw it. Smelled it too, a stench like rotted vegetables and meat mixed into a deadly stew. The sludge itself was an unnatural purple and black, much like the earth had been bruised and was oozing out trying to heal itself. The air above it was tinged by purple smoke, making it hard to see into the sludge filled area. Thankfully, the low opening Walter had found let them keep on the higher dry rock and out of the poison.

And they didn't have to go into the sludge to follow Naverre's signal from his gauntlet. It brought them to a section of tunnel with warning signs on the wall. "This is the path to the fourth level, actually," Jonathan said. "The samurai code says we mustn't go below the fifth, so we're actually quite deep into Naruku here."

"I wonder what's down below the fifth level for that to enter the code," Issachar said. "The demons we fought just now were tough, but we're getting through together."

Jonathan shrugged. "I'm not aware of that, but Father says that while we should keep all parts of the Code at heart, breaking the part about the fifth level is putting oneself into grave danger. There's a legendary demon called the Minotaur that lives on the fifth or sixth level. Those who've encountered it either barely get away with their lives, or are found to have died a horribly painful death."

Near the end of the tunnel, things turned strange even for Naruku. Brown roots infected with purple mold stretched out of a shimmering wall that looked like a swirl of water waiting to drag one into the center. "What is this?" Isabeau asked, stopping just outside the roots.

"I'm not sure, but it must be some kind of magic," Jonathan said.

"Naverre's supposed to be just on the other side of it," Issachar said. "Naverre! Can you hear us?"

There was no response. And then, Flynn went over to the swirling wall and touched the center part. Before anyone could ask him to stop or be careful, they got sucked straight into the wall.


	10. Stranger Domain

**Chapter 10: Stranger Domain**

At this point, Naverre wasn't sure what was worse: being chained up by that blood drinking black rose lady, or sitting on the floor with this surely demonic little girl who'd made the black rose lady shatter into dead petals with just a few playing cards. But even though his bonds from the wall had been cut, he found that he didn't have the strength to get away. His limbs felt so weak and his head got dizzy if he tried to stand.

"My name is Alice, and you're going to be my new best friend," the girl said, dancing her way around him. "You just have to die, and then I'll make you a little boy again so we can play and have adventures, and have fun together forever!"

"I don't want to die," he said, frightened out of his wits. "I… I'm Naverre, son of the king's chamberlain and thus the highest nobility outside of royalty on top of being a samurai. I, I shouldn't die so soon! I shouldn't even be here, when did my life turn into such a nightmare?"

"Do you not like it here, Naverre?" Alice asked, stopping in his sight and looking around thoughtfully. "I do agree that her domain is really ugly. Most domains end up this same old mess: ugly and stinky, I hate them. But, that's easy to fix. It's my domain now since Alarune died and I don't want to keep her around as a friend. I want you as a friend, so I'll make this place nice and fun!" She twirled around, making dark sparkles surround her.

And it completely changed. The pulsating vines got covered up by giant playing cards of all suits and colors, then taken out entirely. This left them in a place under a blue sky that clearly had corners and on a grassy grounds that were painted onto the floor. Some shaped rosebushes popped up in corners and along walls: hearts, diamonds, spades, and clovers. Some had white roses, some had red, and yet others had white roses dripping with red paint. It even gained a strong scent of roses. However, it was still quite disturbing.

Last of all, some scattered pieces of a tea party appeared. "There we go," Alice said, turning slowly to look over her work. "Kind of messy, but all well. So Mister Naverre," she hopped over and sat down by him, "what's a chamberlain, and what do you do as his son?"

That put him on more familiar grounds, at least mentally. "Oh, my father is in charge of the castle treasury, also decorating the castle every day so it doesn't get boring. And we would be hosts to all of the castle's parties, big or small. We were responsible for making everyone in the castle feel happy and welcome there. Although, I was training to be father's replacement but got chosen as a samurai instead. Entirely different lives, more different than I imagined."

She looked bright-eyed at that. "Oh? That sounds fun, to be a chamberlain and host parties all the time. But, it's not that hard, not like being a samurai is from what I've seen." She smiled brightly too. "I mean, a monkey could be a chamberlain, don't you think? They could decorate and make people happy, and make sure they have fun."

"A, a monkey?" he asked, insulted and yet still feeling intimidated somehow. But mostly insulted. "Hardly! You have to keep the treasures of the castle safe and a monkey would probably steal such things. And when you're a host at the castle, everything must be up to standards of perfection. Every little detail must be right; even improperly folded napkins are a disgrace. Every event must be dignified and worthy of being representative of the cream of the crop of the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado."

"Well what's the point of being perfect if it's not fun?" she asked, getting up on her feet again. "Fun and friendship are the most important things in the universe, I'll have you know. So let's see who can make a more fun tea party, you or some monkeys." She clapped her hands together, making more dark sparkles appear.

And several demons appeared. Two of them were indeed monkeys, although the three others weren't. "Hey, what's the big id..." one of the two monkeys demanded, then saw who had called them there. "Err, I mean… h-hi Alice."

"Hi Wu Kong!" she said, grinning as she turned to them. "And I got Thoth too! Um, the rest of you aren't monkeys, but we'll make do."

The other monkey pulled a book he had close to his chest. "Uh, what exactly were we called here for?"

"A tea party," Alice said, putting her hands on her hips. "I called some stuff up, but it got kind of scattered. Now I'm gonna call up more stuff and have everybody set up a tea party in their own room. Or maybe just three, since the monkeys and Naverre here are going to lead the decorating efforts. Whoever can make the best tea party wins! I don't know what you'll win, but I'll have something ready by then. So, then, Jeane d'Arc, you go with Wu Kong over there," she pointed out a rose archway that led to a door that hadn't been there before.

"Uh, sure Alice, as long as you don't kill anybody," Wu Kong said, then gestured to a woman in armor nearby. They went through the rose arch.

"Ah poo, I hate it when people get fussy like that," Alice said. "All well, I'll have a new friend soon. And Gearhead, you go with Thoth there to that room."

"This isn't my usual activity, but I suppose it will have to be done," Thoth said, leaving with the weird humanoid.

"And that leaves the French kitten to work with Naverre," she said, turning to the cat. Who, strangely enough, was dressed in leather boots, a wonderful velvet cape, a large feathered hat, and a pearly rapier. "He's kinda weak, so you'll have to set things up for him, by his directions."

"Oui, I see," the cat said, managing some snobbery in spite of a tense look to his eyes, ears, and whiskers. "And don't simply call me a French kitten; it makes me sound like some frilly fille. I am Le Chat Botte, though you may address me as Boots." He made a dignified bow.

"You know, for a demon, you've got some real class and dignity," Naverre said, feeling more at ease with Boots than Alice.

"Of course, my pride as nobility demands it," Boots said.

"Well you two should get along great," Alice said, bouncing around. "And we're gonna have three tea parties! This'll be great! And..." she slowed, looking upwards. "Ooo, we're even going to have some more guests! You'd better put on a good show, Naverre, and prove that you can do better than a monkey! Remember, it has to be fun most of all!" She then skipped away through yet another rose archway door.

"But it is very unfortunate that we have caught the attention of the young miss Alice there," Boots said, letting some of his unease show. "I should be stronger than her, yet it is so difficult to refuse her demands. When she gets mad..." the cat shuddered. "Oh my, sorry, I was just remembering something of a horror show. We had best do what we can to entertain her; it may please her enough that she goes away."

"Somehow, I don't doubt that," Naverre said, touching his neck gingerly. It still hurt. "And sorry, I just, ah, went through some horror myself, a blood-drinker..." he shuddered. "L-let's not make Alice mad, right."

"So, what do we do for a tea party to please a young girl like that?" Boots asked.

"Well..." he looked around, spotting the mess of strange décor, teapots, teacups, and other little things that Alice had left behind. Thankfully, she'd also given them a nice elegant cupboard with a card motif. "Let's clean up this mess first, and… drat, she told us there were guests but not how many."

Boots made his whiskers twitch. "Hmm, I sense… twelve of us demons, but that may get reduced to the six of us, being the hosts and Alice. And six humans, including yourself. They should all be about your age."

"Oh, it's the rest of them," Naverre said, feeling particularly embarrassed that it would be the other prentice samurai involved. "Well, some of them are not used to refinement; I may as well show them what they've been missing out on. And don't forget it has to be fun for Alice, that's most important."

"Oui," Boots agreed, already going around gathering up the things scattered about.

* * *

"This is a demon's domain," Burroughs said. "We need to either find the exit or defeat the demon who set the domain up in order to escape. Defeating the demon will destroy the domain for good, but it takes a powerful demon to set up a domain. And, something is definitely strange about this particular domain. The look is unusual."

"I hadn't thought there was a demon capable of setting up a domain in Naruku for a long time," Jonathan said. He was alone in this strange hallway of playing cards. It was almost like a themed vanity garden, except the grass and sky were was painted on the walls and the rosebush dripping red paint by him was apparently made of clay.

A message popped up, giving him audio feed to the other prentices. "Is everyone all right?" Flynn asked.

"I'm fine, just surprised at this," Jonathan said. The others chimed in with the same. "What are we doing now?"

"Burroughs said we need to find an exit or find the demon in charge," Issachar said. "Um, but we also have to find Naverre; he is in here, I see him on the map. I wonder if..."

"Looks like we're all split up too," Isabeau said.

"Let's just move ahead and hope we meet up," Flynn said. "We can keep track of each other and keep in contact with the gauntlets. If we run into the demon in charge, we might want to keep away until we can have a group to attack them with, or until someone is with Naverre. He doesn't look to be in good condition."

It was more than Flynn normally said, but Jonathan found himself nodding to that. "Sure, that sounds good." he said.

"Right, let's meet up when we can," Walter said.

Then all of a sudden, other spots on the map filled up. "Ah, got it!" Issachar said excitedly. "I got our mapper apps to link up so that we're all sharing the map information. We should be able to find ways to each other and Naverre easier that way."

"Good work, let's go," Flynn said, getting affirmative answers from the rest.

Jonathan moved ahead, making a turn that seemed to put him closer to the path another was on… that was Issachar. Walter and Isabeau seemed to be getting closer to each other too, while Flynn was off on a more distant path in the domain. Naverre seemed to be in the center; a red outline around him suggested that he was in poor health or otherwise not able to move. After making a few decisions at crossroads, Jonathan joined up with Issachar and headed towards the center with him.

"Ah, we've found an exit," Isabeau said as a door icon appeared on the mapper app. "We're pretty far from Naverre, but we have a way out now once we get him."

"Good, you might want to take some extra time to make sure your path from the exit to the center is clear," Flynn said. "Issachar, Jonathan, you two hurry up to meet up with Naverre. I'm encountering some trouble that's slowing me down."

"Got it," Jonathan said.

"Huh, kind of weird to have Flynn taking charge," Issachar said, not over the message service. "I was always considered the older brother of us back home, but he's doing really well."

"Right, it seems to come naturally to him," Jonathan said as they picked up the pace down the hall. "I don't mind it."

"Me either, I'm happy for him."

"But, I didn't know you two were brothers," he said, since there didn't seem to be a demon nearby yet.

"Uh, well not blood brothers," Issachar said, a bit embarrassed.

"Oh, more like kindred spirits then?" He smiled at recalling some stories of past samurai like that. "That's great, especially that you two became samurai together."

He smiled too. "Yeah, I don't want to think of what could have happened if we got separated by that. Both of us worked for years to get here; thank God our efforts were recognized even if some of the others are snobs about us."

"Don't let them get you down, you're both doing very well," Jonathan said. He was really impressed with these two; Walter was a bit abrasive, and Naverre was being really abrasive lately. But other than that, the six of them were making a good group that Jonathan felt comfortable with. Like he was always meant to be here working with them.

After a couple more fights, they stumbled upon a larger room than the rest of the winding corridors. There were a couple of demons in here. For some reason, they were setting up a tea party. A monkey demon carried a massive book on his back while consulting a smaller one, while a strange humanoid demon with metal parts and tools hanging off many belts crisscrossing his whole body set up dainty bits of silverware and tea dishes. "Uh, what's going on here?" Issachar asked, bewildered.

"Are you the other guests?" the monkey asked, looking up from his small book. "Sorry, the mistress of this domain, Alice, summoned us here and demanded a tea party competition out of the human she'd captured. She's threatened to let the human die to be revived as an undead companion for her to play with."

"That's horrifying," Jonathan said. "Where is Naverre, I mean, the human? We've come to rescue him."

"He's in the room that way, but I wouldn't advise escaping with him," the monkey said. "Alice is, well, she's extremely dangerous in spite of her charming looks."

"She can terrorize most of the inhabitants of the Abyss," the tool-laden demon added. "Most of the time, we're fortunate that she just wants to play games. But you're unfortunate if you get wrapped up in one of her games because you have to play along, or the punishments..." he shuddered.

"Right, so we're trying to make Alice happy so she lets us go," the monkey said. "Maybe you humans too."

"Uh, we should let the others know," Issachar said, ready to message them.

"Right," Jonathan agreed. Once the others were listening in, they explained about what was going on.

"This Alice sounds powerful to cower other demons," Isabeau said. "But, she wants tea parties out of them? That's very childish."

"Alice is a child, eternally undead," the monkey with the books said. He was now summoning up snacks for the party.

"And horrifically powerful," the other demon said. "So much so that she's considered a fiend even when she claims to be part of the Undead clan."

"Pardon me," Burroughs said into the communications line, "but if they consider her a fiend, she will be incredibly dangerous to try fighting. The general consensus among samurai is that fiends should be avoided at all costs. Fortunately, they are extremely rare in Naruku, or in general. One might show up once a century, and they usually end up drifting away on their own when left alone."

"We still have to get Naverre and all of us out of here alive," Flynn said. "In that case, we may as well play along and see if satisfying her will send her away."

It was intimidating, strangely so for a situation calling for a tea party. But, "Yes, that may be so," Jonathan said. "I pray that we can all make it out of here alive." When the communications ended, he turned to the two demons. "Then, I guess we'll help you?"

"You're supposed to be guests, but we have no idea how much time Miss Alice will give us," the monkey said. "So help will be appreciated. I am Deity Thoth, a scholar. Don't mind the clan name, I'm simply someone who loves books and learning."

"And I'm Enigma Gearhead, a muse of the unappreciated genius of blue-collar intellects," the other demon said, his tools clanking as he moved. "So, uh, high class fancy-smansy stuff like a tea party is not my usual gig."

"I know a good amount of Mikado etiquette around parties, though not nearly as much as Naverre would know," he said. "I'm Jonathan."

"And I'm Issachar, we're apprentice samurai," his companion said. "Eh, well I wouldn't be any good at high class things either, but I'll do what I can."

"If you three set up the table and decorations, I can handle the snacks," Thoth said, directing them to a card-themed cupboard nearby.

* * *

"What does it matter what spoons are out?" Walter asked as he set the ones he'd taken from the drawer back. "There's a whole bunch of them here."

"For a classy tea party, you need the proper utensils," Isabeau said, then picked up the smaller spoon. "Dainty ones like this, and they'd have to appeal to a little girl too. Honestly, I don't make a fuss over tea myself, but some Luxurors will act like it's a crime to make mistakes over etiquette."

"We never had the time to be this fussy," Walter grumbled, shifting through the mass of spoons until he found some ones with hearts on the handle. "Like this?"

"Sure, if you can find more like that, or others with card symbols," Isabeau said.

One of the demons near them, a pretty humanoid lady wearing an armor suit that looked more fit for a man, was picking out cups and little plates next to them. "I'm a general, so I usually don't make a fuss over this kind of thing either," Jeane d'Arc said. "But I have had nobles try to persuade me to their causes over fancy dinners and parties. They always seemed so boring to me; I much preferred those who would match me over chess."

"You're a general?" Isabeau asked, impressed. Walter wasn't going to say it, but he was quite impressed too. It was odd enough seeing Isabeau or other female samurai around, but a general? And there was something about her, an air of being capable and strong, that made it clear that she was not lying.

"Yes, one chosen by God to free my land from invading tyrants," Jeane said. "Although, I chose to answer the call to protect my people. That was what was most important to me, even though stories rapidly built up about me being embraced by holiness or such extravagances."

"And she's a brilliant general if you ask me," Wu Kong said. "But dammit, why did we get roped into this nonsense? I know, it's Alice and you can't easily refuse Alice unless you're willing to throw away your life, but I'm a general too, not a party host! I'd rather be out kicking ass."

"You've got my support on that," Walter said. "This is much too fussy and prissy."

Then a little girl's voice came from down the hall. "Hey guys? I'm getting hungry. I hope you're going to be ready soon!"

"Uh, do we have any snacks?" Isabeau asked, her face paling.

* * *

"Is there anything more orange or yellow in there? We should probably use the three-necked teapot, as impractical as it is, because it would be more attractive to a child as being unusual."

It wasn't easy to work under Naverre, even when he could barely sit up. Flynn kept his tongue still and carried out his tasks. He brought out a plate that was more of a creamy orange with pink roses painted on the sides. "Like this?"

"There, that's good," Naverre said, leaning against the wall. Flynn had gotten him healed up by magic, but there was a strange scar on his neck and he couldn't keep himself on his feet without leaning on a wall or someone else. "I would ask the bakers at the castle to get food properly matched to the settings, but we'll have to make due with the tray of miniature cakes she left behind. Now, uh, could you help me over to the table? I'll show you the proper arrangement of the utensils and dishes."

"Sure," Flynn said, going to set a stack of the orange dishes on the table before giving Naverre a hand. This was new, but there was good reason for it.

Almost as soon as they had everything ready, Alice hopped back into the room. "Okay, everybody's here and we're ready!" she said. "Well, we'd better be ready, because the contest is on! Everybody! In Wu Kong's party!" She hurried off through one of the rose arches, so Flynn helped Naverre up and got him to the next room.

Over there, Isabeau was quick to come over. "Are you okay?" she asked, checking him over. "That's a strange bite on your neck."

"Don't remind me," Naverre said, shuddering. "I had to deal with a blood sucking rose lady before this girl showed up and destroyed her, taking over the domain."

Isabeau frowned with concern. "Oh, that's no good. You need special care for blood loss, the sooner the better. I hope we don't get delayed too much."

"Well he's the reason we got into this domain mess," Walter said, seeming like he was going to start up his scolding.

Then Alice hit the table, not only making the things on it quake, but also making the whole domain shiver and seem darker. "No fighting at a tea party!" she demanded, her eyes glowing briefly.

"Y-yes, ma'm, miss," Walter said hurriedly.

"I still can't say which of these girls is worse," Naverre muttered, gripping the back of a chair trying to steady himself.

"At the table, everyone!" Alice said, claiming a chair at the head of the table for herself. "Wu Kong, do your hosty thing!"

"Uh, sure," he said, having set his staff on his back. "So, uh, we didn't have any idea of what we're supposed to do, not being tea party sorts, so we threw some stuff together that seemed right."

"Oo, you have ladyfingers," Alice said, getting some cookies from a plate nearby.

"Yeah, they were in a breadbox for some reason," Wu Kong said. "And bread was in one of the other teapots, with the butter in that duck-shaped gravy boat. So, uh, hope you enjoy, or whatever."

"Your themes are all over the place," Naverre said, looking at the diamond shaped spoon he had. "And what kind of tea is this? Seems oddly spicy."

"It's supposed to be spiced, as Indian chai tea," Wu Kong said, then shrugged. "Hey, if you're gonna ask me for tea, I'm gonna give you chai."

"Never heard of it, but it does have an interesting aroma," Naverre said.

"Do you have anything to go with the ladyfingers and this chai?" Jonathan asked.

"No, we couldn't find anything else in time," Isabeau said. "And it was difficult to find forks."

"But we had so many spoons, too many," Walter said.

"I like this," Alice said. "Okay, next party!"

"Already?" Wu Kong asked.

"Well you only have ladyfingers and chai," she said. "Off to Thoth's party!"

There, they had vases with the red and white roses along with an eclectic variety of snacks. "I tried to research and organize an English tea party as Miss Alice would be accustomed to," Thoth said. "But, I only know how to make Egyptian dishes and drinks, such as the honey sesame cakes here. We also found some German crackers in decorative forms, which we decided to go ahead and use as well. But, well, tea isn't something I normally make myself, so Jonathan helped with a Mikado style black tea instead."

"Yay, animal crackers," Alice said, picking up a rabbit cracker and biting off its feet. "Hmm hm hmm, now you can't get away, white rabbit." She then dunked its head in the tea.

"I don't know what an English tea party would entail, but you are better organized," Naverre said. "You actually managed some atmosphere to match, well, our unique setting."

"Thank you," Thoth said, bowing his head.

"Oh, you make some nice tea Jonathan," Isabeau said, sounding pleased at it.

"I wasn't sure what exact blend we ended up with, but I did the best I could," Jonathan said.

"But you know, the animal crackers are the only fun part of this," Alice said. "You didn't even use the painted roses."

"Err, they would drip on the table and cause a terrible mess," Thoth said.

"Oh, messes are a normal part of fun," Alice said, then bit the rabbit cracker's ears off. "This is like what a grandmother would put together, one that had no idea of fun."

After a couple more minutes, Alice decided it was time to head to Naverre's party. She immediately squealed on seeing the three-necked teapot and went to push the top in, making it whistle out a tune with puffs of steam. Naverre was looking tired, but he held out the best he could. "We had to make due with what was here as well, so I aimed for a few fun-oriented focuses like the, uh, whistling tea pot there and decorative arrangements with the petite sweet cakes we had. Some of the other decorative items also make a joyous noise, but the teacups and plates should be, erm, safe and not noisy. A few of them do seem to change color with the heat of the tea, but Boots is certain they are safe."

"I wouldn't trust any drink that comes out of that whistler," the noble cat said, staring suspiciously at the three-necked teapot.

"It is all very cute, not what I would expect out of you, Naverre," Isabeau said, smiling at the tiny decorated cakes.

"Well, Miss Alice is the guest of honor here," Naverre said, making her giggle.

"I feel so out of place with this stuff, especially this," Walter said, staring at the kitty-faced cake he ended up sitting in front of.

"You're not the only one," Wu Kong said beside him with a pansy-themed cake on his plate.

"Let's get all the snacks and teas here!" Alice declared, smacking the table and making all the other items transport over. "Now we've got a great tea party with loads of goodies!"

"Ah, yes, of course Miss Alice would have the best ideas for a tea party hostess," Naverre said, trying to please her.

"But you see what I said now?" Alice said, taking her half-eaten rabbit cracker to dunk back in Jonathan's black tea. "Even a monkey can do your father's job."

"Not very well," Wu Kong said.

"I suppose I could do better with more study," Thoth muttered.

"M-maybe, but we still strive to do the best we can, improving every time," Naverre said, although he looked dejected at a ladyfinger in his hand. "Ah, but I'm doing terribly at this samurai business. I shouldn't be, I should be greater, but I didn't see any of this coming."

"We should be doing that as samurai, improving every time," Flynn said to him, having thought back over past breakdowns Naverre usually had at this time. He'd never been able to stop that either, and thus had no clue what helping him here might do. Still, it was better tried than not. "You were chosen too. So no matter what we have to overcome in our training, we will strive to do the best we can."

"He's right about that," Walter said. "The fighting and all comes naturally to me, but all the rest of the stuff the others keep trying to teach us is far harder. But I wanted to be a samurai, so I'll keep going even with the boring parts."

Issachar nodded. "Yeah. Besides, you made it down here to the third level first when Hope thought we might barely be capable of fighting on the second. That's pretty good, even though, well, we'll probably be in trouble when we get back, but we'll be able to make it back."

"I hope so," Naverre said. "But, why're you guys helping me? We're different as you guys as Casualries and I'm a Luxuror, and them too. We shouldn't be alike."

"But, we are?" Issachar said, nervous about speaking up like this when the class difference was brought. Flynn gave him a small nod when he glanced his way, letting Issachar relax. "Yeah, even if we were born in different classes and places, or even man and woman here, we're all samurai now. Our job as samurai is to help others, so it's only natural we'd help each other out, especially because of God's blessing that we all got called to be samurai in the same year."

"Yeah, so we should think of ourselves as samurai instead of Casualry or Luxuror," Flynn added.

Jonathan nodded. "That's how things should be. I was surprised that class thinking held sway with the older samurai, but even Hope was Casualry born."

"He was?" Naverre said in shock. "I never heard of that."

"Because he's a samurai first and foremost," Jonathan said. "As we all should be. We work together as peers, and that's how things should be, just as King Aquila treated others around him equally."

"Right, our duty and honor comes before all else," Isabeau said.

"I can live with that, but let's not do anything stupid like this again," Walter said.

"Th-thanks, guys," Naverre said, getting weepy-eyed. "And, I'm sorry for making you come after me. Some of the masters asked me to help show you guys up for being pretentious, and I thought they were right, but it was wrong. You are all a lot better than me. But, I'm going to try harder now, and not cause you guys any more trouble."

And then Alice had to disrupt the mood with a laugh. "Great, so you're all friends now? This is a great tea party! And now you're all gonna die and become my friends forever!"

All the others at the table stiffened, paled, trembled, or some combination of those on being reminded that they were in a dangerous situation despite the cakes, childish decorations, and tea. Being next to her, Flynn looked over at the demonic girl. "Alice, we can't fight at the tea party. There should be no killing at the tea party either."

She pouted. "Really?"

"Really," Flynn said.

"Erm, yes, it'd be poor etiquette," Isabeau said, nervously trying to smile her way out of this.

"Aw man," Alice said. "Etiquette's one of those dull adult things that they insist on when it's better to be able to do what you want and have fun with everything. Do you guys really want to be adults? I can kill you and make you kids again, so we could have fun and never have to stop."

After giving the others a moment in case they thought of anything, Flynn said, "We can't be kids because we're samurai, like we were saying. We make things peaceful so that kids can have fun peaceful times like tea parties. If we don't do our job, then the kids in Mikado will be too scared to play."

"Really?" Alice asked, not as close to triggering a tantrum with this.

"Yes, really," Flynn said, getting some nods of agreement even from the demons there. "We thank you for inviting us to your tea party competition, though. It was fun and we can be better friends out of this, so it was a good thing. But we'll have to leave to report back in soon, and get Naverre some proper healing."

"Oh, fine," Alice said, kicking her feet out from the chair. Then she giggled. "Mr. Flynn, you remind me of a friend I've had before. He wanted to be a responsible adult too, no matter how hard I begged him."

"Some of us are just meant to be adults," he said.

"I suppose so," Alice said, then hopped up onto her seat. "Okay, Mr. Flynn, I'm going with you! No arguing! At least until I get bored and decide to play in another world, got it? And all you other demons are coming along with whichever of these guys you like best or you'll die instead!" Then she jumped over and hugged him. "Did I do good?" she whispered while the other demons were startled at the demand.

"You did great," Flynn whispered to her.

* * *

"Commander, the prentice samurai ran into some trouble in Naruku today; some of the masters lured them down to the third level."

It was bad news on top of a troubling day, something Hope did not like hearing about. The class divide in Mikado was getting strained. That was clear not just from this incident with the prentices, but also from the mission he had to carry out to quell some protesting youths in one of the nearby villages. Why was that? Why now? He'd hoped it would stay out of the samurai ranks, but having three Casualry join in one year had shaken up some of the older ranks more than it should have.

And more bad news as the trouble they'd encountered was a domain. The poison sludge and the stronger demons down there were relatively trivial compared to dealing with a domain. But then, some of the good news from this: the prentices had worked together to defeat the demon inside (if in a nontraditional way) and they had taken out the domain before it could spread and spawn stronger demons outside.

They'd picked up some powerful demons in the process as well, those that Hope would expect masters to find difficult to negotiate with, much less apprentices. The so-called god of knowledge Thoth had gone with Jonathan, the most well-educated of this group. Wu Kong had gone with Walter; they seemed well matched in fighting styles and attitudes. Jeane d'Arc went with Isabeau as a fellow female warrior, while Puss in Boots had gone with Naverre as a fellow high class fighter. Issachar had gotten the very unusual Gearhead; Enigma demons were rarely recorded in the histories of samurai, so it was curious what would come of that.

And, Flynn had somehow contracted Alice, the cause of all the trouble with the domain at least. Burroughs reported that Alice was immensely powerful and potentially dangerous. In fact, the whole reason that the others had powerful demons too was because Alice had coerced them into it, or they were concerned enough about her that they chose someone so they could keep an eye on her. Or maybe an eye out for her.

Most of the prentices were fine, just weary from the battles they'd fought getting through the domain and back to the surface after it. Walter looked like he was growing ill; apparently he'd fainted after being poisoned, which could affect him for a few days. And Naverre was greatly weakened and to be considered anemic for the next two months. He'd been caught by the vampire Alarune before Alice crashed the domain. In a way, he was lucky that had happened. Alarune was known to drive men, particularly young prideful ones like Naverre here, insane with the nightmares she'd inflict while feeding off them.

"You should not have conspired against your fellow countrymen, much less fellow samurai," Hope said to Naverre. "But you seem to have learned that. You need to be on restrictive duties to heal back up. That is, if you stay with us. With that kind of attack, we can dismiss you if you don't think you can continue on with your duties as a samurai."

"Thanks, but I'm going to stick it out," Naverre said. "I don't want to let these guys down."

"I'm glad for that," Hope said. "Also that you all came away from that disturbing incident alive. We normally don't have domains crop up within Naruku; we certainly wouldn't have sent prentices in to clear it out. But, you all performed admirably in rescuing your colleague and destroying the domain."

"It was the right thing to do," Walter said.

And the rest nodded in agreement. They were exemplary apprentices, Hope thought. They were already out-performing their elders, even taking care of a task that had been posted as a quest to make things easier on them. Thinking of that, he realized that he could entrust them to a particular issue. "Exactly, and I'm glad you already recognize that. There is still much you all have to learn, but it's good you already have learned the spirit we need to have. I'm sure you all can accomplish much more together."

"We'll do our best," Issachar said.

"Yes, but could I ask something of you, commander?" Naverre asked. Once Hope nodded, he said something surprising. "I know we're just apprentices, but there are six of us and we're already a good unit, so, may I nominate Flynn as our leader? We wouldn't have gotten through this all without him."

"I'd gladly second that," Jonathan said. "I know he's quiet, but once we learned Naverre and Walter were in trouble, he kept us on task and organized through the whole effort. I'd trust him as our leader."

"Yes, I agree," Isabeau said.

Walter nodded too. "Yeah, I know I'm mostly good at busting things up, but he's had a cool head in every situation so far. He'd be good."

"Right, Flynn could handle that well," Issachar said, some pride in his friend showing.

A leader to this group of prentices… Hope hadn't considered that. However, he had noticed that Flynn wasn't challenged by anything they'd set him to so far. He wasn't greedy for power, especially not with someone like Naverre nominating him. Yet if he had taken control of the situation when it turned dangerous and kept the others safe, he would be a natural leader. And it seemed he was already thought of as their leader, even if it hadn't been spoken about before.

"If you're all in agreement, I don't see why not," Hope said. "Flynn, will you accept being the leader of this unit?"

He had to think about it for a moment, but then nodded. "Sure, I will."

"Good, then I'll see about making that official," Hope said. "And, I do have a specific task that I was considering asking you. You've all proven yourselves well in battle, but this will be something different. This is a request to maintain order and investigate a threat within our kingdom."

"What is it?" Flynn asked. The others were all attentive too.

He came over and sat in a chair near them, since the rebukes of this meeting had already been given. "Today, I had to lead a group out to quell a protest in a nearby village. Some youths had destroyed a load of produce meant to be shipped out to the capitol today and got carried away with violence as they injured the driver of the cart and his horses as well."

"But that's crazy, with hurting their neighbor and all the work that goes into growing the produce," Issachar said.

"Yes, we're not sure what exactly is going on," Hope said. "It's not the only protest that has popped up recently, just the first to have turned violent against a person. However, most of the samurai in our ranks are older than the youths who primarily make up these protests. You six, on the other hand, would fit in, for the most part. Naverre has to sit out due to his health, but also because he would stick out of the mostly Casualry youth in these groups."

"I see," Naverre said, looking down at his lap.

He glanced at the other five. "But I'm sure Isabeau and Jonathan will be able to blend in with a little effort. The rest of you should be fine with not causing undue notice. I may send you all out to the outer villages once you are an accustomed sight to the youths causing these problems, but we have learned that tomorrow, there will be one of their Sabbath meetings outside of the city. These Sabbaths seem to be an event where they are planning or discussion such incidents. You will start by attending the local Sabbath, seeing what goes on there, and looking into what is stirring up all this trouble."

"What's a Sabbath?" Jonathan asked.

"Flynn and I heard that it was somewhere they went to discuss books, and even learn to read, like in one visit," Issachar said. "We got invited to one on the day of the Gauntlet Rite, but we ended up not going."

"I've heard of the word, but it was in conjecture with a meeting of witches who discuss black magic, to harm others in their communities," Isabeau said. "The monastery hates that they're using that word, I've heard that much about them."

"Right, I've heard plenty of complaints on that end," Hope said. "There is discussion going on about what to do about the Sabbaths, whether to allow them or forbid them, but we don't have enough information on their purpose or activities. You'll be heading into one primarily for gathering knowledge on this. Do what you must to earn their trust, but keep in mind that you are samurai and must not compromise the safety and stability of our kingdom. I'm trusting you a great deal in this, but you are the best chance we have at learning what is going on and how we can address the problems that the Casualry protesters are having."

"Yes sir," Flynn said.

"With that in mind, you six will have tomorrow off until the Sabbath, to recuperate and start in on your intelligence gathering early," Hope said. "And you're all dismissed for today. Good job with everything that went on; I'm proud of how all of you are doing.

On the other hand, Hope had no time to rest. There were a number of the older samurai that he planned on talking to for the rest of the day and tomorrow, for letting the apprentices down to the third level and leaving not just the orthus but the entire domain for them to take care of. Things had been peaceful in the past, but it was clear that this generation was going to be anything but.


	11. Sabbath

**Chapter 11: Sabbath**

Flynn and Issachar had said that they got their invitation to the Sabbath the night of the Gauntlet Rite from a baker in the upper Casualry district, where all of their businesses were clustered. Therefore, the obvious way to get Jonathan and Isabeau into the Sabbath despite being Luxuror born was to speak with the baker. "I know the market pretty well, so he's familiar with me," Jonathan said as they walked down there from the samurai dorms.

"How do you know the Casualry market well?" Isabeau asked. While they were now an official unit within the samurai, she felt a little out of place with five young men. The monastery raised the girls and boys in separate areas, giving them little interaction with each other outside of school. As a result, she wasn't sure how to act around men her age except a few specific scenarios. "I thought most Luxurors would send their servants out to do such shopping."

Unlike the others, Jonathan was easier to get along with. He and Naverre had attended classes with her, although Naverre's pride made him hard to get along with. Jonathan was polite and well-mannered, and she knew she could trust him. "Well, it was when my father was on street patrol recovering from an injury that he came to frequent this place, especially the bakery. I ended up coming down a few times with him. The people are nice, so I often took the chance to walk down to purchase food from the bakery."

"I see." She looked around at the streets here leading to the gate that divided the Luxurors and Casualry. "You were lucky; I never saw much outside the monastery before the rite. I've lived here all my life, but this is like a completely different place."

"There's nothing to be afraid of," Jonathan said, but then seemed more solemn. "At least, that's how it was. This news about class revolts is unpleasant. I hope it does not change things too much. I know in my heart that the people of Mikado are good people; we are said to be God's chosen, after all. But to fight against each other, that cannot be with God's wishes."

"I agree, but we're going to have to be careful with revealing such doubts around here," Isabeau said.

The Casualry market was made up of a lot of carts with produce grown within the castle walls, along with some crafts that the people here made. In one of the few permanent buildings on this market street, the Casualry bakery had stood for many generations. There was a bakery within the Luxuror district too, but they baked more delicacies and goods for special occasions. When one wanted some good daily bread, this was the shop that everyone went to, directly or not.

There were a number of bakers who worked here, a whole family of them. Children, husbands, wives, and grandparents all worked here to produce the breads that the city consumed. In front, a middle-aged man and a young woman were running the actual sales. Capacity for the mathematical skills needed to run a business were usually not prevalent among the Casualry, and even this bakery would have Luxuror advisers that helped them make decisions on pricing and what breads to make.

Since most of the Casualry would be out working at this hour, the market street was quiet. Only a few vendors were sticking around, taking care of tasks while things were quiet. As such, the baker was free to speak with them. "Ah, Jonathan my boy!" he said happily, coming over to shake his hand. The woman smiled warmly at them, but stayed back. "Good to see you, and congratulations on becoming a samurai."

"Thank you, Nathan," Jonathan said. "And hello Marie. I hope you've all been well."

"Never been better, there's many exciting things going on these days," Nathan said, smiling. "And would you be Miss Isabeau, the lady samurai of this year?"

"Yes, that's me," she said, nodding to him. "We had the day off from training, so we decided to walk around the city."

Nathan nodded back. "That's great, you two courting?"

"Ah, no," Isabeau said, embarrassed. But, it was what it might look like. She did catch a glimpse of Marie looking worried, but she quickly hid that.

"N-no," Jonathan said, looking even more embarrassed than her somehow. "We're just friends, and she only knows a few parts of the city well."

"One shouldn't wait too long on such matters, but that's up to you to handle how you think," Nathan said. "Sorry for misinterpreting things. Actually, since you have dropped by at a good time, there is something I wanted to talk with you about, Jonathan, since you love books."

"Oh, yes, what about them?" Jonathan said, either eager to listen or eager to get away from the subject of courtship.

"Well I was simply wondering if you had gotten introduced to the genre of Literature yet," Nathan said, taking a book from a nearby basket. It looked like those used for the bread to be sold, but was full of books instead.

"No, I haven't heard of it," he said, taking the book. Before long, he got a shock. "Huh? But, this is written in the mystic script."

"Is it?" Isabeau asked. He nodded and titled the book to show her the cover. It said 'Paradise Lost' in the mystic script, along with an author's name and translator's name. "Wow, where'd you get this? I know the monastery has a number of books in the mystic script, but I don't recognize this one at all."

"It was gotten through special means," Nathan said. "All of Literature are, so they contain stories that no other books in Mikado do. Many of them are in the mystic script, but there are some in the simple script, at least a modified version. They're all very interesting, about the struggles of people to fulfill their dreams, or even just to live in a few cases. When you listen to enough of the fairy tales that get passed around, you get to know what to expect of them. Many of them are simply the same story told with different players, so to speak. But Literature, you're never quite sure what you'll get when you open up one of those books. I thought that one would interest you in particular."

"What is this one about?" Jonathan asked, opening the cover and looking at the first few pages. "This format is odd."

"It's an epic poem," he said. "That one is about the fallen angels who conspired to get mankind kicked out of Eden."

"Wait, about the fallen angels?" Jonathan asked.

Nathan nodded. "That's right. That book tells about that story, and in such a peculiar manner because it uses the leader of the fallen angels at a main character. It's actually disturbed a few because it becomes unclear about its morality as the situation is very unusual. But I think you've got the right mind to handle it."

"I, um," Jonathan looked uncertain of that. "Thanks, um… it sounds like it should be wrong, but," he was fiddling with some of the pages.

"Well, I do have to say that many stories within Literature are not entirely true," Nathan said. "Much like fairy tales didn't really happen in most cases. That one may simply be the author's interpretation of what may have happened, since it was before humanity could understand much. So if it bothers you too much, just remember that it's probably not real. Bu you may still find it interesting to think through."

"I see," he said, then shut the book. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to start reading. Thanks, do you want payment for it?"

Oddly, he shook his head. "No, I've been distributing Literature to anyone who's interested."

"But I thought most Casualry couldn't read," Isabeau asked. "The three Casualry born that became samurai with us couldn't even read simple script, much less mystic."

"Well, what do you think of that?" Nathan asked her.

"Hmm, me?" It was something she hadn't considered, partly because she'd not met any Casualry before Flynn, Issachar, and Walter. "I do think it's unfair. There's a lot of wisdom in books that helps people understand the world around them, so it would be nice if everyone got the chance to read. And one of our fellows has proven quite brilliant once he was given the opportunity to learn, so it's sad that he never got the chance before now."

"Right, it's unfair that most of the villages have to rely on only a few people who can read in their priests," Jonathan said. "We could easily get news and information from all over Mikado if people could freely read and write."

"That's right, what a lot of us have been feeling like lately," Nathan said. "Since you agree, I don't mind telling you that the Literature books are being summoned at Sabbaths that we hold regularly outside of the city. We also discuss the books we've been reading and pass on the ability to read to those who don't have it. Some folks are still leery about the Sabbaths, but we're starting to have a majority of Casualry here in the city who can read, and do read a lot."

"That's amazing," Isabeau said. "What kind of magic are you using to do that? It took us years as kids to learn to read."

"It's a magic of secrets that was given to us by a woman we only know as the Black Samurai," Nathan said. "She was the first one to pass books out freely; I'm merely one of her early followers. Actually, we're having a Sabbath tonight. We do have a few Luxurors who agree with us and have been attending in secret, so as long as I introduce you in, there won't be a problem with you two coming."

That was simpler than Isabeau had thought; she had thought that they'd have to ask directly about it and win his trust. But then, Nathan already knew Jonathan and that seemed to be enough. "Maybe we will come, I'm curious about this book summoning and what you all are reading," Jonathan said.

"Right, it would be great to have more stories to read, and different ones," Isabeau said, smiling. She liked to read stories, but the patterns of them were something she picked up early on. It disappointed her when a promising story turned out to be just a retelling of another one she already knew well.

"Actually, I think I have something that would interest you as well," Nathan said, going back to his basket of books. It took more digging, but he brought out a larger book. "It's about a woman who wants to protect her country in a time of great conflict, so she ignores the traditional ideas about women to become a soldier."

"Really?" That was a curious thing. There weren't many women among the samurai, and you generally didn't hear about them even in the history volumes. She didn't have to act like a man, but it was a very male-oriented society. She took the book and felt some surprise at the name. "Jeane d'Arc…?" Unfortunately, she couldn't relate how she recognized it. "Thanks for lending it to me."

"Oh, no, keep it as long as you like," Nathan said. "If you're no longer interested in it, simply pass it on to another who is. That's how we Literature readers have been doing things."

* * *

In a hidden area of Naruku, on the second floor, Walter was training against his own demon. He'd not found a battle-worthy axe like Hope had suggested, but he had found a club with nails sticking out of it which was working out well. When he hit, whatever demon that was unfortunate enough to be against him got bashed with his full strength and punctured with the nails. That is, when he hit. The club was heavy.

And Wu Kong was nimble, darting all around him. "Come on, you can't just flail around," the monkey said, darting back in and playfully poking him. "I'm not actually moving at random."

"Sure seems that way," Walter said, swinging the club at him.

Yet again, he missed due to Wu Kong ducking under the swing. "There's a rhythm to it, a rhythm. When you lose control of yourself, when you lose your rhythm, you'll lose more often than not. You haven't quite found yours yet, maybe because you haven't found a weapon that suits you. But you can still watch the others, notice their rhythm, and disrupt it."

Walter took his swings a bit slower while Wu Kong was talking, even though that wouldn't help against a quick demon like him. In doing so, he noticed what he was saying. Wu Kong wasn't moving all around; he was moving to certain spots in the room, darting to another to avoid hits. So if Walter timed things right… he struck Wu Kong right after he'd moved, swinging right into the path of his hop.

The attack didn't actually do anything to Wu Kong, but that was why he was training with the monkey. "Hah, got you that time."

"Nice one," he said with a grin. "It won't take long for you to be leaving demons as a smear consistently. Do you have a goal for your training?"

"A goal?" Walter asked. "No, I'm just having fun with this all. Becoming a samurai was one of my goals, and I've made that. Though I don't have anything I'm aiming for now."

Wu Kong moved over on top of a rock nearby, sitting down there. "That's no good. I mean sure, it's great to have fun. But you get better with a challenge; you get better when you push yourself past your limits."

"Really?" he asked. "I guess it makes sense. Back home, we were always daring each other to longer treks, until what seemed hard at the beginning of the year was pretty easy by the end of it."

He nodded. "That's exactly it. See, I have a goal." He put his hands on his knees and leaned forward. "Have you ever wondered about the lharm dargs that are all over the place here?"

"Kind of, there are a lot of them and they all seem identical," Walter said, rubbing his head.

"Some of them might have individual traits, but for the most part, they are the same. You see, they're all the same guy, but they're not the same demon. Catch my drift?"

"Not really?"

Wu Kong reached over to tap Walter's gauntlet. "It's like if you have a bunch of pictures made of the same person. There's one person, but there's many pictures." He held up a finger. "There is one true Lharm Darg, but he's not here in Naruku. What's here in Naruku are many shades of Lharm Darg. Like the pictures, the shades are all based off the same source demon, but they're not the same thing. Got it now?"

"I think so," Walter said. "So it's like if you had the one person that's the original for all those pictures, but then the pictures came to life and had their own lives? The one person is the true person and the others are shades of them, right?"

"Right, that's it." He sat back against the wall. "I'm actually a shade of Wu Kong, not the real deal. Common wisdom would say that I'm weaker than him as a result. But you see, I have ambitions to go find the real Wu Kong and duel him one day. Maybe I'll win, maybe I won't; I'd like to win, but I'd be satisfied if I just earn his respect. To do that, I have to be very strong for a shade. I've worked myself all the way up from a much lesser demon for that goal."

He smiled at that. "It would be incredible if you did manage to beat your original."

He nodded enthusiastically. "Right! So, what kind of goal can you make for yourself, to push yourself even further?" He glanced around back to the entrance to this hidden room. "I admit, we're limited here in Naruku. But you don't have to shoot for something big right away. Say like," he then snapped his fingers. "You know that wormwood that grows like weeds around here? They always have a crystalline core that breaks the wormwood apart; the core breaks real easily too. But I hear that some humans can get strong enough, or maybe clever enough, to break wormwood without striking the core. That's something you could work towards here."

"Yeah, that could be something," Walter said. "If I got that strong, there wouldn't be a lot that could stand against me, huh?"

"At least not here," Wu Kong said. "Although if you ended up on some worlds I've been to, well you'd find yourself fighting for your life again with every battle."

Later that evening, Walter joined up with his fellow prentices and headed for out of town. The streets were busy, but mostly with people hurrying to get home. "It feels strange to be going out of the city so close to curfew," Isabeau said.

"I know, but we can be excused on having orders to do this," Jonathan said. "I have to wonder though, how are the others not getting caught?"

"If you wait long enough after sundown, nobody's outside to catch you," Walter said.

Jonathan seemed startled at that. "You've been out after curfew before?"

Shrugging, he said, "It's not strict where I came from, since sometimes you can't help but get back up to town late. But even when you do slip out late to look at the stars or something, there's literally no one else daring enough to come outside at night, except like-minded people who won't care about curfew either."

"Well I have done star-gazing myself, but only from the upper balconies of our house, which doesn't fall under curfew laws," Jonathan said. "The streets get so dark then that I never wanted to go any further than that."

"I've got a lantern," Flynn said. "We'll be fine."

Outside the last city gate, there was a young woman of the Casualry who waved them down. "Hey, you guys are newcomers to our Sabbath tonight, aren't you?"

"Yes, where is it?" Flynn asked.

She pointed off to the west. "Just follow the wall around; there's a footpath a little ways ahead, then keep an eye out for the fire they've got started. And, well, since you guys are samurai, would you mind it if we ask you to go speak to patrolmen who've been looking for us? Just tell them that we don't mean trouble and it's proper manners to stay out late if the event has a fire going. It's in the law books, trust us, we checked."

"Sure," Flynn said. Walter nodded along; it was a little surprising that they were welcomed this way despite being samurai, and Jonathan and Isabeau both being from the Luxuror class. But, maybe they just wanted to prove they were no trouble so they could continue their meetings.

There was quite a crowd near the fire already. It was mostly young people like themselves, mostly Casualry from the city. But there were some older adults among them, a few other Luxurors, and even some from other towns. In fact, the few Luxuror attendees weren't as extravagantly dressed as Walter usually saw around the city. They might have a sentimental piece of jewelry or some other small thing that proved their station, but they were trying to blend in otherwise.

Before long, Walter found himself hanging out with the out-of-town visitors. "Actually, we were here for the Gauntlet Rite a month ago," one guy said. "We'd had a couple of these Sabbaths out in our town too and the book I ended up with was all about a man's journey around the world. It's like the fairy tales, you know, not real, but he saw such amazing fantastical things that I was completely into that book."

"What was that book?" a young woman there asked.

"Gulliver's Travels," he said. "On my way here, I found myself talking to the others here about it, and that while we wouldn't run into such crazy fairy tale things in Mikado, it would be quite a tale if we traveled all around the country and put together our own book of travels. Since we all failed the rite, we've spent a month in the capitol, and now we're going to travel around as planned."

The guy next to him nodded. "Yeah, I mean, they don't strictly need us back home any time soon. We'll just be doing the same old same old. But this trip can't be missed. Once we settle down to raise families and such, there won't be time. I've already learned a lot just hanging out at the house of a guy who makes hats; it's really interesting and I want to try it out some more myself in the future."

"That guy thought it was boring," another traveler of the group said. "So did his sons, actually, one of them even seemed to hate hats. I don't see why he doesn't train you instead since you were having a lot of fun with it."

"Right," the first one said. "I mean, sure, it's family tradition to pass on a trade and all, but if it's going to be a boring and miserable life doing that, why not pass it on to someone who's actually enthusiastic about the trade?"

"I get what you're saying," Walter said. "I was supposed to be a fisherman, but I got to where I couldn't stand being out on a boat and waiting around while the fish are swimming around on their merry way."

"I think fishing's great," Issachar said. "But, uh, they told me I had to limit myself to occasional trips out to Lake Mikado, or other areas with fish, and then only get enough for Sunday meals or the occasional festival. I don't know if I could make a living out of fishing."

"This is what you figure out when you read Literature," another woman with them said. "It's stuff that all seems so obvious, but somehow it's not until you realize. And then you want to share the books and what you've learned with other people, so they can see what should be obvious too. It's really incredible; going to my first Sabbath changed my life and I feel so much better off for it."

As it started getting dark in the sky, one of the older men got up in front of the fireplace. "I have some news to pass along from the great wise woman, the Black Samurai," he said as everyone quieted. "Unfortunately, she will not be here to join us for quite some time. We're not even sure when she'll get back to us. But we will carry on with her mission to spread knowledge and wisdom to everyone in Mikado. She has given us many tools with which to do so, so I ask each and every one of you, continue working towards opening the minds and hearts of all those around you."

There were many cheers and applause to that. Walter wasn't seeing what the problem with these Sabbaths was. At least, not yet. He knew that if he had failed the rite and someone had come up to him offering a trip around the country to find a new way of life, or just gain a new experience he'd never get by going straight back home, he would have gone for it too. Those back home would scold him for something they'd see as lazy, but it didn't seem like laziness was a factor at all. These people wanted to see what life might hold for them.

"Since we do have a large crowd tonight, we'll allow you to break off into smaller discussion groups soon," the man said. "We will open with a prayer for wisdom and the fortune to find where we might be happiest in life."

It wasn't a prayer that Walter was familiar with, although Isabeau later mentioned that it was similar to some prayers in the monastery's books, for God's wisdom in difficult times of life. As he wondered what kinds of goals these people might have, he realized that he hadn't even thought of having goals himself until Wu Kong asked him about it. What kinds of goals might they achieve with what they learned with this Literature and reading?

Then the man leading the Sabbath got to the part he'd been most curious about. "Now, I know we have some newcomers here tonight. If you have not yet received the gift of literacy and wish to accept it, please come over here so that we may grant it to you freely. All we ask is that you use this gift to learn and grow."

"I'm really excited about this," Issachar said quietly as he and Walter joined Flynn to go up there.

"I'm not that excited, but it'll be good," Walter said. "Beats trying to knock it into my brain with those textbooks."

Flynn just smiled briefly, then went back to his usual stoic silence to head over. There were a few others who'd come to learn literacy here, so they got to see it being done first. From the mystic symbols that simply appeared in the air, this was clearly some kind of sorcery. It also looked overwhelming, as one woman fainted from it and others were dazed or with some head pain afterward. But then, this was to circumvent the years of classroom study that the three Luxuror apprentices had gone through to be able to read the mystic script.

Of their group, Flynn went first. He turned out to be the toughest of the lot, barely affected aside from some shakes and wanting a healing potion right after. Issachar didn't come off too badly either; he needed Flynn's help to get back to his feet and squinted in the light. When they asked Walter to sit down, he didn't expect it to go badly either.

The man who'd been leading and a woman with him both put their hands on his head and chanted some kind of prayer. "From the rich vaults of human knowledge, we ask for the key to unlocking its treasures for this man..."

It started with a tapping in his mind, like the first drops of rain. The tapping rapidly increased until it was a powerful deluge, like a typhoon in his brain. While Walter gritted his teeth and tried to endure it like the other two, he soon felt washed away by all the sudden knowledge. The waves washed over him, currents dragging him downward. It felt all too familiar, a nightmare of a close call when he had been young.

Then, he found himself washed up on a strange beach. From the sound of the rolling waves, it had to be a sea-level beach that bordered the ocean, far below the heights of Mikado. Even the grain and color of the sand was familiar to those beaches he'd been to down below. Yet Walter still heard the sound of the bonfire. No, make that multiple fires, not just one. He pushed himself up and coughed to clear his lungs, then looked around.

He realized with some shame that he must have fainted because this was a blend of various dreams he'd had. The vast stretch of ocean, where strangely he couldn't see the massive rise that Mikado rested on… and the dark fiery landscape of alien buildings and strange objects. When he first had these dreams, he would be chasing some powerful voice among those fires, searching for something, some purpose. There was also a man wandering these streets, one who had once been a stranger to Walter. But at some point, the voice had gone missing. He still felt like there was something to do here.

The voice was gone. But, Flynn was still here. He walked away from the fires and towards the ocean, his samurai coat and long ponytail waving in the wind coming off the water. In reality, Flynn was quiet but a respectable guy. Being a samurai came naturally to him; Walter admired his effortless way of learning and his natural strength. Here, though… something seemed weary about the way Flynn stood there. There was an air of loss about him, like a widow who struggled to balance mourning and daily life.

Getting up and going over, Walter joined him in looking out at the waves. "I feel like there's something I should ask you about, but I can't think worth a damn right now."

"Don't worry about it," Flynn said, not looking at him. "Just don't forget where this place is."

"Where is it?" he asked. It looked like the ocean-level beaches near South Ooida, but not like any specific one.

He put his hands on his chest and looked down. "In our hearts, as that city belongs in yours."

"I don't know that city, I..." he rubbed his head. "It's only in my dreams like this."

Flynn nodded. "That's how you know it so well. But if you spend too much time in that city and forget how to come back here," some heavy grief entered his words, "you'll be lost to it once again. I will find a way to save you. But, I fear losing my way to this place as well. If that happens..."

While Walter couldn't explain it to himself, this felt deeply disturbing. "Flynn?!"

He reached over again and Walter noticed cracks in his hand. The air between them was getting smoky; the fires growing louder than the waves. "Help me, before I embrace the White again and lose our way forever."

"What?" But then the smoke overcame them. Walter tried to grab Flynn, but slipped and fell. The smoke choked up his throat and he found he couldn't call back out to Flynn.

Then he remembered, it was a dream. And he was waking up now. There was a fire nearby, but just one large one. Elsewhere, there was friendly chatting and laughter. Walter opened his eyes and found a starry sky overhead. The Sabbath bonfire still going strong some distance away, its heat coming over here with the night breeze. And, the four other prentices were nearby, chatting with some others.

"Good, you're awake again," Isabeau said, coming over to his side. "How do you feel?"

"Like I got hit by a brick on the head," Walter said. "And embarrassed; I thought I could take it."

"They said fainting was a normal reaction for some people, but you should be okay in a couple of days," she said, then passed him a book. "Oh, and they were giving out new books to those of us who came for the first time; you got this one."

"Hmm," he took it and looked at the cover. It was the same weird symbols as were on the gauntlet's screen. But this time, Walter recognized them on sight, just like he'd learned to recognize different fish, shells, and minerals on sight. "That's… really weird. 'Animal Farm', huh? I don't know anything about farms."

She shrugged. "They believe it's significant what book you get at your first Sabbath, so you probably should read it as see if they're right." She shrugged then. "I got something very odd sounding that's apparently about the end of the world, but it's called 'Good Omens'. What's significant might be hidden, I suppose."

"Well it is my first book, so I'll try it," Walter said. He tried to sit up and felt weak for it. "Uh, maybe I should just rest here; we do have to get back to the dorms and I feel rotten right now."

"If you want, I can bring the others over here," Isabeau said, taking out a healing potion for him. "Here, this is pretty strong, so take some water with it. It'll at least let us get you back to your room once it kicks in."

"All right," he said, staying up long enough to down the potion (it was thick and tart) and some water before laying down again.

Not long after the others joined him, those at the bonfire held another book summoning. Five people joined hands at points of a star drawn in the dirt, then chanted another spell until a small stack of books appeared within the star. Those who did the calling got to choose if they wanted to take one of the books or simply leave them for others to look over. Even though the books were limited, the people here were patient and no arguments were had over them.

As he expected, Issachar was very excited over his book. "I was sure it'd be good because this guy was on the cover," he said, pointing out what looked to be the demon he'd gotten from Alice's domain, Gearhead. It was even in the title, 'A Gearhead's Guide for Young Scientists and Engineers'. "And it's got a lot of neat things inside, like diagrams of the electric lights that are all over the city. I, uh," he seemed bashful to admit it, but he said, "I actually took apart the magic box that the church lights worked with when I was younger to see how it worked, and that matches what I see on one of the pages here."

"You and I nearly got in a huge mess for that," Flynn said.

"Oh yes, the priests were threatening major curses on whoever had done that, because, ah, then the lights didn't work until the next afternoon when I went back and fixed what I broke on accident," Issachar said.

Walter laughed at that. "Man, sounds like you two were a regular pair of troublemakers."

"Not really," Issachar said, rubbing his neck.

"Because we learned to get away with stuff fast," Flynn said.

"Flynn!" Issachar playfully made to punch him, making Flynn laugh and brush his hand away.

Although, that reminded Walter of how odd he'd been in that dream. He wasn't too sure about asking about that in front of the others. "So what'd book you get Flynn? I have something weird about animals and farms, apparently."

"I got something weird too," Flynn said, showing a book with a black cover and gold trim. "It's called 'By the Light of Kagutsuchi' and is apparently about a boy who becomes an apprentice to the devil."

Walter's eyes widened. "Whoa, really? Sounds like some crazy stuff."

"It's one of the fictional works, like the fairy tales, right?" Jonathan asked. "Such a thing would be very worrisome if it turned out to be based in reality."

Flynn shrugged. "It's probably fake, but I'll still read it."

This whole Sabbath business really didn't seem like such a bad thing.


	12. About Akira

**Chapter 12: About Akira**

It didn't seem like anything more would happen, and they were still under lockdown status. Nanashi decided to head to his room and read for a while. While he'd thought he was prepared for the mission they had gone out on, the sudden loss of power stability made the situation much worse than he had been preparing himself for. And there was this weird feeling he had too, about the lady AI calling him Akira and everything else going on. Some reading to get this all out of mind would be just the thing. Maybe he should read through the Ace Frost vs Black Frost comics again. Those usually cheered him up.

But as he and Asahi were passing through the train corridor to the residential halls, Burroughs spoke up. "Master Akira? The demons you last had contracted have returned to you, and would like to speak with you."

"I can't call them out here," Nanashi said to her. Nor in the residential or shopping halls. Although, he was in the right area to get to a place that he could call them out.

"Hmm, call on who?" Asahi asked.

"The demons already in this demonica want to talk to me," he said, looking around. The guard that was often here was leaning against the fence that blocked off the train tunnels. "Hey, are you awake?"

"Huh, hwa?" the man said, quickly standing to attention. "Yes sir! Er, kid. Standing guard, as I should be."

Asahi laughed. "Good thing these places are always locked, since you keep snoozing on the clock."

"I do not, just taking it easy with things quiet here," the guard said. "Er, did you need anything?"

He pointed back to the other fenced off tunnel. "Yeah, I'd like to get in there because my new demons want to come out and talk."

"When did you become a hunter, Nanashi?" the guard asked, puzzled.

"Since he got this comp demonica thingy," Asahi said.

The guard made a small gasp on seeing the unit on his left arm. "Oh my lord, is that a real demonica? Wow, how'd you get so lucky?"

"I don't know, and I'm not an official Hunter yet," Nanshi said. "But I still have to go in there to bring out my demons for a chat, right?"

He nodded and got his keys. "Yes, that's right. There's more gates further in the tunnels; don't go trying to open those or we get holy hell from the Ashura-kai. I'll have to lock you in, so just call out when you're done with them."

"Oh, can I come meet them too?" Asahi asked eagerly.

"Um..." he didn't want to disappoint Asahi, but then he didn't know what kind of demons were going to show up. Or how'd they'd take him, actually. He could only hope that they would honor the somehow active contracts they had with the previous user of this demonica.

"Sorry, that's against the rules even if you're Toma's daughter," the guard said, an intervention Nanashi was quietly grateful for. "Maybe if you were above ground and outside the township, but not down here."

"Yeah, we don't want to get in trouble with your dad," Nanashi said.

"All right, but tell about them later, okay?" she said, trying to hide her disappointment as she walked off.

The guard then had the door open for him. "Here you go. It's better if you go down a little ways, avoid troubling some people who might walk by."

"All right," he said, heading down onto the tracks. It felt ominous as the gate got latched and locked shut behind him. But this was all to keep demons from being in areas people held as safe. At least, those that weren't tiny and easily hid like Trojan. Once he was under a light away from the fence, he activated the demonica and called on the three demons who'd gathered.

There were some demons out there who looked terrifying and strong, but they actually weren't much trouble to an experienced Hunter like Nikkari. These three were not like that. They were strong and he knew it; they weren't the sort who'd normally accompany a novice like himself. "Master Aquila?" Minotaur said; he had the torso and limbs of a strong man, but his head was that of a deformed bull with a skeletal face.

"I thought something was strange," Mastema said. Although he was an angel, there was something eerie about him; he looked like he'd stepped right out of a black and white movie, down to the flicker of his halo. "But for Akira's sake… well, who are you?"

"Nanashi," he told them. There was a feeling like he knew where something was, but it wasn't where he thought it was. But it had to be there somewhere. "Um, sorry, I don't know what exactly is going on. This demonica got delivered to me mysteriously and it seems to think I'm Akira."

Mastema crossed his arms over his chest. "Peculiar. The demonicas can be activated by a descendant of the original person registered, or someone with the right gene markers. But normally the contracts get cleared between users. I came because I felt Akira was back. When I look at you, it feels like the contracts have shifted, which shouldn't be possible."

"Hmm," the third demon said. He had strange armor of thorns and long horns on his head.

"What is it, Aeshma?" Mastema asked.

"There's several things this could be," Aeshma said.

"If you think you can figure this out, may I go back to my post?" Minotaur asked. "I can't be down here for long and leave it vacant. It was an important duty I was left, enough that I'll take whatever decision these two make about you."

"Sure, go ahead," Nanashi said. Minotaur nodded and vanished; on the status screen, it showed Minotaur shifting from the active party to the inactive slots. An icon marked him as busy. Trojan was also in the inactive slots even though it had been out earlier and he'd not shifted it there.

"Of course, now the trouble is where to begin with all this," Mastema said. "Nanashi, what do you know about Akira, or Aquila?"

"Not much," he said. "My mentor and my adopted father were talking about him being someone involved with the Sky Tower conflict a long time back. They were debating if I could be Akira's son or not."

"Are you?" Mastema asked.

He shrugged. "I have no clue. I," a feeling of dread tried to slip in, but Nanashi pushed it away. It was important to be clear to them, at least as clear as he could be. "I was the last survivor pulled out of Minami Sunamachi when I was about seven or nine. But I was so sick at the time that I can barely remember anything before that. I don't know anything about how old I really am or who my parents are. I mean, I think I know, but it's hard to think about."

"What happened at that place?" Aeshma asked.

"It was a disaster that left a large swath of western Tokyo as a poisonous swamp," Mastema said. "And I've seen reports that a powerful presence of death remains there. Other than that, not even the Ashura-kai knows what exactly happened."

"But then the demonica showed up in this old locked box at the terminal here to be delivered to me just an hour ago," Nanashi said. "It let me get into the JGSDF security system under Akira's identity. So I don't know what's going on."

"You could be Akira's son," Aeshma said.

"I don't know about that," Mastema said. "If one of his children came down the tower, then I'm fairly certain I would know about it. I was up there with Minotaur for a time after he died, carrying out his last requests. But none of it included letting a young son of his back down to Tokyo. Although, he does look an awful lot like Akira. Perhaps you could be a grandson, but that leaves the peculiarity of why our contracts got shifted to you."

"But if you know he died, why did you come looking for him when I activated the demonica?" Nanashi asked, trying to figure it out.

That got him. "Well…"

"Akira is a special soul," Aeshma said. "He is a cyclical soul, one that has been reborn many times into this world for one purpose. He agreed long ago to aide a certain goddess and has continually retaken that oath to remain tied to that purpose. While you may be Akira's son or grandson, you may also be Akira reborn as well. That may account for why your lineage is unclear. Has the goddess contacted you?"

"What goddess?" Nanashi asked, although he had a faint image in his mind of a woman in a white dress… no, a girl in a white dress. Her powers were fading, the image of her reducing in… somewhere. Or maybe that was something from his comics.

"That's something I'm not to tell you directly even if it was clear that you are another cycle of Akira," Aeshma said. "What things he does to aide her vary from life to life, but they usually involve helping the people of this city, Tokyo. I have accompanied Akira for several lifetimes now, as I have a steep debt to repay to that goddess and serve her as well. Akira's names at birth vary, but he often ends up going by his original name. And, he should be preceded by another hero of the goddess, Flynn. Finding out what he has been doing in this lifetime will reveal much of the current situation, such as who you truly are."

Flynn was an odd name, so it stuck out as something he'd just seen. "Flynn, huh? The request I got to stop Akihabara from being destroyed was from Flynn. Right, Burroughs?"

"Yes, that's who posted the request to you," she said, using the external speakers this time. "You have several documents from Flynn saved to my database."

"Then it shouldn't be too hard to find him," Aeshma said.

"I don't know about that," Mastema said. "If Flynn's acting on behalf of the goddess, his activities would most likely be noticed by the Ashura-kai. I had been working with them to help maintain order in Tokyo since Akira's unfortunate death, but I do not recall any information about someone named Flynn in this time."

"That's because Flynn lives above the Firmament in Mikado," Burroughs said. "Which leads to the same problem we'll have with Minotaur right now: time moves much faster outside of Tokyo. It may not be noticeable from here, but around six weeks will pass where they are when only an hour passes here in Tokyo. You'll need to keep in mind that what may seem like quick communications between you and Flynn may be taking days for him."

"There are really people who live above the Firmament?" Nanashi asked, intrigued by this.

Mastema nodded. "Yes, and that would make it difficult for you both to meet up. Two very strong demons live within Sky Tower, if you can get past the Ashura-kai guards posted there at the base in the first place. Minotaur is one of them; he'd probably let you pass, but Akira told him not to let anyone from Mikado to head down towards Tokyo unless they could defeat him."

"Why'd he do that?" he asked.

"It may not be a problem if only the humans of Mikado and Tokyo meet," Mastema said. "But it won't be only humans involved when that does happen. Should the angels of Mikado and the demons of Tokyo meet up, the inevitable conflict will be disastrous. I've felt some connections in the world move recently. From that, I fear that may happen soon."

"The world nearly got destroyed in their last conflict, the one that caused the Firmament to cover Tokyo," Aeshma said. "We had hoped to give humanity some time to recover and restore their strength. So as long as Minotaur stands at his post, the divide keeps the cosmic conflict from breaking out. And while things are uncertain now, we should be preparing to deal with the next one. I agree, that could occur very soon to our perspective."

"We'll be involved in that?" Nanashi asked. "I don't know. I've only been thinking about becoming a Hunter like those who saved me, and maybe finding out what really happened in Minami. But I know another conflict with the angels above the Firmament would be disastrous too."

"I am bound to help the goddess' chosen one," Aeshma said. "Since it is unclear now what's going on, I believe I should stick with you until we figure things out. If you are Akira, then it is my duty to stay by your side. Should it turn out that you are Akira's descendant somehow, I feel it would still be useful for me to work with you until I know where Akira is. He has done much good for the world and aimed to do even better things. Out of respect for that, I will serve you for now.

Mastema nodded. "Right, I feel the same way. We might have time to investigate matters and train you before you or Flynn crosses Sky Tower."

"Thanks, I hope things become clearer then," Nanashi said. Then the gate into this tunnel opened up. They only let Hunters down in this area, so, "Nikkari?" he called on recognizing the man coming over to him.

"Sorry to interrupt you, but this is important," he said, fiddling with his phone. "This should patch your demonica into this conversation I'm having with Fujiwara, the leader of our Association."

Surprised at that, Nanashi looked down at the demonica, seeing a message program turn active. He touched it, bringing up a split screen with Nikkari and Fujiwara. "Ah, so this is Nanashi," the older man said. "Good to meet you."

"Yes, sir," he said, not sure what to say to someone so important. Although, he didn't look that important or formal, not like the members of the Ashura-kai. And something felt familiar about him, like he should recognize him.

"Yes, he's the one who got the demonica and got into the Kasumigaseki security program," Nikkari said. "I wasn't sure if I could believe it myself, but then I logged into the system myself. I wouldn't have been able to stop them like he did."

"Right, we're grateful that was caught and stopped in time for the people of Akihabara," Fujiwara said. "Although, I would like to talk with you in person about the specifics of that incident. I can understand how that demonica would let you right into the security system, and if you're Akira's son then that would let you into the demonica easily."

Nanashi glanced over at Aeshma, not sure how to handle this. The demon nodded; they were on his side. So he looked back to the screen and said, "We don't know what's going on. I inherited some demons from Akira and we've been discussing things. They think I could be Akira's son or grandson, but they're not sure."

"Akira was an excellent summoner, so we don't mind assisting Nanashi until the matter is cleared up," Aeshma said.

"Well Akira's demons here agree to work with him, so that's a relief," Nikkari said.

"It is a curious matter that should be investigated," Fujiwara said. "Well, it might be too difficult for you to get over to Shinjuku at this time, but how about Kasumigaseki? I'll have to head over first to speak with the guards, but you should be able to get there from Kinshicho across the river."

"The bridge is out, but there's an easy way around that," Nikkari said. "All right, once this lockdown is over, we'll see about heading that way."

Fujiwara closed his eyes in thought. "That could be some time yet; we're sorting things out with the Ashura-kai over this incident and I'm sure they'll be stubborn about it. I'll let you know when we're able to meet up. See you then."

"Oh, wait a moment," Nanashi said, feeling like something was more important to let him know than to respect manners right now. "The demons who are with me say that it may not be long now that the divide in Sky Tower is crossed. We will have to deal with the angels and demons moving in response to that, possibly very soon."

"I see," Fujiwara said seriously. "Keep it between us for now; we'll have to find some way to get people prepared. We don't want to raise a false alarm when a very real one could soon follow."

Nanashi nodded. "And if you could advise people to stay away from Ikebukuro as soon as possible, that would help. I don't know what's going on over there, but the person who sent me the demonica and warned me about Akihabara also said that Ikebukuro was to be considered extremely dangerous." It was in the completion notice from the request to stop the missiles. But if Flynn was above the Firmament, how did he know what was going on down here?

"There's people protesting the Ashura-kai in both Akihabara and Ikebukuro," Nikkari said. "And the Ring of Gaea has had a hand in those cities recently."

"I think I know what's going on in Ikebukuro, although reports are sketchy," Fujiwara said. "It's mostly a conflict between the Ashura-kai and the Ring of Gaea, but we only had a light warning for Hunters going there. We'll get that upgraded to a strong advisory to keep away, as well as keep other people away, before we check it out ourselves."

"Okay, that should be it until I review that person's notes for me," Nanashi said.

"All right, thank you. I'd be interested in hearing of them too."

With the conversation over, Nikkari put away his phone. "This is bigger than I thought looking into your past would be," Nikkari said. "I never worked with Akira directly, but there was always talk about him as one of the best young talents we had. As a result, the sudden slander against him always felt off."

"I don't know what to think about this," Nanashi said, feeling a tingle at the back of his neck again.

* * *

A vast desert, with glaring sand as far as the eyes could see. Lips of giant empty craters broke up the expanse, along with a massive weathered bronze head that lay in a stretch of loose drifting sands. Ruins of strange buildings were scattered around, hinting at unknown construction methods. In this desolate desert of ruin… Jonathan sometimes felt a powerful sense of peace overcome him. A beautiful voice would speak to him, one that soothed him and assured him that he had a greater purpose.

And, he needed to do something about the stranger also wandering this landscape. But it was clear now that it was no stranger. It was Flynn. However, the voice hadn't spoken to Jonathan for quite some time. It was unnerving not to hear her, especially with this place as it was. Tonight, though, he spotted Flynn off in the distance, looking at an ocean that had always been there but Jonathan had not gone down to that beach yet.

Having been without that peaceful presence, it didn't take long for Jonathan to decide to go meet him down there. "Flynn," he said upon getting close, but then something stopped him. "Err… I feel as though I should be asking something of you, but I seem to have forgotten what."

"Don't worry about it," he said, waving a hand. There was something odd to it, a white glisten that seemed troubling. "If you don't remember, that may be a good thing."

"If you say so," Jonathan said, coming up to his side. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying not to lose this place," he said, gesturing to the ocean and beach around them. When Jonathan glanced down, he noticed that the sand was of a different quality than the rest of this place. Strange.

"Where is it, then?" he asked. "I never remember being in a place like this; I've heard of the ocean, but always as some mythic thing beyond our reach."

"It's in our hearts," he said. "Just as the city behind us is in your heart."

"City?" He glanced back and saw nothing but the rise of sand. "There's no city there, only some mysterious ruins."

"It was a city," Flynn said. "More importantly, you should not lose your way to this beach. If you do, you'll be lost to this desolation for good."

"I wouldn't want that," Jonathan said, feeling unnerved. He tried to look at Flynn's face, but the side parts of his hair kept blowing in the way. "Although, there is a peaceful voice I hear, usually."

"Don't listen to them," Flynn said, some dread in his voice.

"Flynn?" Jonathan hadn't known him long, but he knew already that Flynn usually kept his feelings to himself, not slipping like this.

He looked aside. "I'm not losing you again, any of you, even if it drives me more insane than I have been. But if the White get to me again, stop me by whatever means necessary. Help me, Jonathan."

"Of course but what's going on?" Jonathan said, reaching over to him. His movements felt strangely clumsy and his friend was suddenly far out of reach. "Flynn?"

Bells from the monastery broke the last of the dream apart. Jonathan sat up quickly, finding himself in his dorm room. Just one of those dreams, but everything about those dreams felt significant. He rubbed his eyes, then covered them trying to recall the voice…

Don't listen to them.

"Why?" Jonathan mumbled into his hands. Whenever he got too worried about something or even during some illnesses, recalling her voice never failed to make himself feel better. He didn't even need to recall the words, just this voice that had seemingly been in his dreams his entire life. Hearing that she might be bad seemed so wrong. And yet, the dread that had been in Flynn's voice had been real.

"Oh, good morning," a friendly voice said to him.

"Hmm?" He looked over and saw that Thoth was out in his room, reading through one of the books he'd brought here. "Oh, good morning. I don't mind you being in here, but I can't have you outside the gauntlet outside this room or Naruku."

"That's fine, I wanted to read some of your Mikado books since I've never been here before," Thoth said, turning back to his reading. "This has been very dry so far even for something strongly propagandistic, with little passion in the writing. The tone is monotonous for the most part as well, but it does swell nicely in some parts."

"Isn't that one of the collections of fairy stories?" Jonathan asked, getting out of bed and stretching now that he was awake.

"Yes, but they're less magical and more morality tales," he said. "How are you doing with the book from the Sabbath?"

"Ah, well," he felt his face get warm at the reminder of it; 'Brave New World' was sitting on his bedside table, but he felt like it should be better hidden once he was done with it. "It, uh…. it's a very different society. I can't really agree with it even if they keep their people happy. Actually, I wasn't sure if I could finish it, but I remain curious about where it's actually going."

"It is a difficult one to begin with, especially in breaking away from this stuff," Thoth said. "It's one that needs to be thought through, and one that can be better understood when discussed. What didn't you like about their society?"

"Well they use very base means to entertain everyone," he said, feeling unprepared to talk about something like that. "They seem to be fooling most people into accepting it; they believe everyone is happy, which is really hurting those who don't feel like a part of society. I feel strange because they take such crazy things for normal. Although, some of the imagery is quite amazing, that they can add moving colors and matching scents to a piece of music. And they have magical relics that can fly them anywhere, that's incredible. But then they think unfaithfulness is a virtue, which is truly absurd."

"You are more different from the society than the original audience would have been," he said. "But there was a popular idea at the time about a perfect society with no problems. That book is one of those that examined the idea of utopia and showed how what seems to be perfect and ideal may not be so, that peace may come at a high personal cost to those living under it."

"They did claim to be ideal and peaceful when it all seems so wrong to me," Jonathan said. "But even that idea is strange. Huh, it seems this Literature can change how you think. I thought it was simply written differently before."

Thoth nodded and patted a pile of the Mikado books near him. "These are all written in the same manner as each other; you'll find little like them in the rest of books in existence. That book, Brave New World, it used to be widely read and discussed. I'm very curious to see how the introduction of such books, classic or not, is going to affect your previously well insulated society."

"Do you think it will cause undue strife and stress?" he asked.

"Well it won't be undue even if it appears to be," he said, but he neglected to explain why.

* * *

They had to give a report on the two Sabbaths they'd been to, last week and last night; it was causing Isabeau more worry than she'd thought it would. And not the kind of worry she expected, given that she'd thought Sabbaths were about witches, black magic, and summoning demons. Instead, this Sabbath was about curious people, thoughtful discussions, and interesting books. These people were so eager to read and learn more, just like Issachar. She didn't want to hurt them as it didn't seem right to deny the books to them.

Nor did it feel right to deny the group that wanted to travel around Mikado. It seemed peculiar now that she thought of it, that few people traveled like that. There was an annual festival in the capitol that the outer villages would send small groups to attend, and the Gauntlet Rite that every youth had to go through. Other than those times and trade wagons, hardly anyone left the town they were born in. The monastery taught that God had put everyone into the life they were meant to live. But then, the Sabbath revealed that many people, even the Luxurors there, were dissatisfied with their lives. The travelers wanted to find out what lives they might be happy with. Was it really God's will that they shouldn't do that? But she shouldn't be questioning God's will; no one should.

That made it difficult to give more than the basic facts when they were discussing the matter with Hope. "I listened to many people there and heard no conversations about revolts or violent actions, aside from a warning that one of the books had a rather lot of violence in it," Isabeau said. "It would seem that more observation would be needed to determine if they were simply avoiding the subject with us there or if the violent acts are disconnected from the Sabbaths."

"They were being subversive as some our age were discussing taking a trip around Mikado rather than heading straight home after the rite," Issachar said. "But, I could understand how they felt, like they didn't entirely fit in where they had been and wanted to find a new place. It doesn't seem like any of it would hurt anybody, aside from the trouble some people have learning reading that way."

Hope seemed worried. "The monastery may raise a fuss about the traveling group for potentially being disruptive even if they don't mean to be. And the king will listen to them."

"Right, they would say that God placed everyone where they belonged," Isabeau said. Why couldn't people be happy with that? But if they were in the wrong place for them… could that happen? It was like the stories of Jeane where she couldn't easily do what she wanted, what she had been called to do by God, just because she was born a woman. Isabeau didn't have to face that and either choice in life would have been fine with her. But, what about someone else?

"Maybe God has called them to other lives," Flynn said, surprising everyone else in the room. "They say He works in ways mysterious to us, right?"

"That is so," Jonathan said.

Flynn nodded. "It might be that way and we won't realize it for years. If it isn't, then they'll realize what they had and go back home. It's that way in some of the fairy stories; they might need to experience it for themselves to be satisfied. Besides, I heard that Abbot Hugo was originally a tax collector's son. But he was picked out as a samurai, then retired early due to an injury and his calling to become the abbot. God guided him, so God may be guiding those youths to do His work."

"That is a good point," Hope said. "I'll make sure to mention that."

It was surprising that someone like Flynn could come up with that argument, one that sounded like someone instructed by the monastery might come up with. She didn't think the village churches taught such skills to children other than their own and orphans. And if they had, they would have taught him to read and write too. Despite that, it was a good argument. Maybe he had a native wisdom like his friend Issachar had a native intelligence? Then God would have led them into the life of a samurai despite it being an unusual calling so they could do good work, like this.

She still liked that argument to sway the abbot. It was quite clever, and Flynn was easily the most capable of the six of them. If he proved as charming as he was with everything else, she might… no, that wasn't proper. While she mentally admonished herself for getting distracted, Hope ended their meeting with something she should have thought more about. "It's still some time away, but I felt I should let you know that you are given time off for the Autumn Ball if you want it."

"Why'd we get time off for a toy?" Walter asked.

"It's not a toy ball, it's a social event ball," Naverre said, having some haughtiness behind him. Then he seemed to catch himself, and added in a less hostile way, "And the Autumn Ball is a major event among the Luxurors, where many courtships begin. If your family doesn't mean to arrange your marriage for you, then the Autumn Ball is where you start looking for a life partner."

"Oh, that's what it's about?" Walter asked, seeming embarrassed.

"It can take a long time to present yourself in the best fashion, so it's good you know now," Isabeau said. Although they could get away with using a formal version of the samurai uniform. She'd need to figure out how to dress and act all over again since she wasn't a part of the monastery anymore.

"You don't have to attend, but if you mean to get married one day, it'd be a good start for you," Hope said.

To get married… well, it was expected. Some people, including Hope himself, were honored for choosing dedication to their work over marriage. But, what did she want for herself? Isabeau wasn't sure. There was a definite process to getting married within the monastery; the older nuns would have helped her determine a good match. Then there was a particular sequence of meetings with her future husband to ensure that things of the material world did not interfere with the more important spiritual matters. Was there any sort of method to how samurai arranged marriage?

Much later, after another day of training and fighting demons in Naruku, Isabeau wanted to get some fresh air despite night falling. She took the book on Jeane d'Arc to continue reading on the tower above the dorms. It was considered within the building enough to get by curfew, and a lighting spell used when a torch went out in Naruku was enough to read by. While the heat of the day lingered, it was comfortable outside. There were a lot of unfamiliar politics in the book that she had to ask Burroughs about, about a war between two great nations that were both larger than Mikado was. And the whole discussion centered on a woman who decided protecting her people was a higher calling than a woman's normal life of housework and childcare.

Then she heard people coming up the stairs. Well, it was a nice night. Maybe they'd leave her alone. But it was clear that they wouldn't when she heard Walter say, "…I just want to see that prim iron mask of hers slip…"

Isabeau closed her eyes and sighed. Did he have to be immature? But then, he wasn't looking right at her. Flynn was for a moment, but looked back to Walter. "And just whose prim iron mask are we talking about?" Isabeau said in a strict tone.

"Huh, what?!" Walter said, embarrassed to be caught in whatever prank he was planning. Flynn chuckled while Jonathan shook his head.

"Can't you do your voyeurism in silence?" she followed up with, embarrassing him further. "I'm trying to read here."

"Isn't that the book Nathan gave you?" Jonathan asked. "How is it?"

"It's tough to read, but interesting all the same," she said, glad that he was interested. "There's some pictures here that are just gorgeous, enough to be works of art on their own. And the plot is a lot more complicated that the stories I've read before. It's…" she tapped her book against her leg thinking, "I can't think of a word for it, but you want to think about the situations it presents more than you would for a fairy tale. It presents itself as an academic history, but it shouldn't be real. This place, France, it doesn't exist but I want to know more about it."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow at that. "France? I feel like I've heard that before."

"In one of your books?" Isabeau asked.

"I've not heard of it," Walter said.

"No," he said, activating his gauntlet. "You know the demon fusion app? You can find out information about demons you've had or seen with it and… yeah, those demons we got in Alice's domain, both Boots and your Jean d'Arc are noted as being from France. You can also find it with just the Status menu if she's in your party."

"Boots too? I knew Jeane was since this is supposedly about her." She checked the Status menu on her gauntlet and soon found the information about Jean d'Arc. And, it did say that she was from France during a period of war between that nation and another called England, matching up with what she was reading. "Wow that's really amazing! Maybe they can tell me more about it. But then, how can there be demons from stories of nations we've never heard about?"

"That is weird," Walter said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Wu Kong says he's from somewhere called India."

"Well we can't entirely trust demons," Jonathan said, although from the way he looked off to the side, he was thinking about it. "Although, we have no real records of history before Mikado. It was all stated to be like the Unclean Ones, unworthy of our attention. I wonder where this Literature is actually coming from."

She wasn't sure herself, but then she noticed Flynn had gone over to the wall of this tower and was looking out at the darkened countryside. There was only a crescent moon out tonight, leaving much of what was out there in darkness. For a moment, she had an uneasy feeling that something was supposed to happen. She didn't know what that was either. But seeing him there reminded her of the dream she'd had last night. It was very much like that dream, seeing Flynn looking off into the distance distracted by something. Only in the dream, it seemed like something at the surface was cracking, leaving something that filled her with dread trying to overtake Flynn. It was really weird.

"Are you okay Flynn?" Isabeau asked, unsettled by the reminder.

"Hmm?" He turned back to them and seemed fine. "Yeah, I've just been thinking about something. It's nothing to worry about."

Even though he said that, Isabeau still felt like something was off. She felt as though something should be happening now but… the horizon was all blanketed by the dark night. Strangely enough, both Jonathan and Walter seemed concerned too. Maybe she should ask Issachar if something was bothering Flynn. Even if he wouldn't reveal something his friend didn't want to talk about, at least Issachar would know if there was anything they could do to help Flynn out.

Then Flynn proved that he had been paying attention to their conversation by saying, "There's another book I picked up that mentions France and England too."

"Maybe these books are from another world?" Walter suggested. "Weird, mine mentions England, even has a song about it. It is kind of like the fairy tales, about a group of animals who kick out the farmer who worked them too hard and try to run the farm on their own. It's pretty interesting, though I'm not done with it yet; what about yours, Jonathan?"

"Huh? Oh…." he rubbed his neck. "Well I haven't started on that Paradise Lost, but I've gotten though that Brave New World, and, um…"

Walter smirked at that. "What're you so sheepish about? Did it end up being something smutty?"

"No it isn't!" Jonathan insisted, although even by Isabeau's reading light, it was clear that he was blushing. "I, I mean, it's kinda close, but not really because it doesn't show anything smutty, just, um, talks about such things an awful lot…"

"What, so your first Sabbath book ended up being porn?" Walter asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No it isn't!" Jonathan insisted.

"Then you don't mind if we trade books once I'm done with mine?" Walter asked. "I'd like to see what's making you so defensive."

"Well, it's actually rather complicated and I don't know if you'd get the point of it," Jonathan said, trying to regain his composure.

"Then it is porn," Walter said.

"No it's not!"

Isabeau laughed at them, although she was wondering too what about that book had Jonathan so worked up. "And you're the one that the baker offered that rather subversive book to, thinking that you'd be interested in it," she said to tease him.

"Then, your other book is subversive too?" Walter asked.

"It's not me, I swear," Jonathan said, putting his hand to his head and turning away.

"If you want to prove that, then go ahead and trade books with Walter," Flynn suggested.

Maybe it wasn't going to be so hard to get along with these guys, although she'd have to make sure Walter and Naverre didn't get too far out of line.

 _A/N: I wanted to keep the manga Isabeau gets in the game. However, I have no way of reading Rose of Versailles, so I can't integrate it into the story the way I can for books I have on hand like Brave New World or Animal Farm. That's why she has a history on Jeane d'Arc here, as it's something that works with the plans I have for her._


	13. What Should Happen

**Chapter 13: What Should Happen**

Issachar knew he was dreaming. And, it seemed like one of those dreams again. He probably should try to stop it and try for something more normal. But then, it was a dream and he couldn't act like this in reality. "I don't want to let you go," he said, clasping Flynn tightly.

"You don't know what you want," Flynn said.

These dreams would turn into a warm haze where he wasn't sure what was going on. "I know I want you near me," Issachar said.

"You know your heart is twisted to want this," Flynn said, his voice unusually sad.

"Flynn?" He opened his eyes and saw that his friend was strangely white. As long as they'd known each other, Flynn was not one who'd give up on things. He hoped for things even when others said it was impossible. But this entirely white Flynn was weary and utterly crushed.

"If you could realize what you wanted, you'd know how wicked you truly are," he said, keeping a tight hold on him. Flynn put a hand on Issachar's chest. "But you wouldn't be able to sweep it away as easily. You'd want it in reality as powerfully as you want it in dreams."

"Do you know?" His body felt hot and he could feel something… along with a colder concern that something was dreadfully wrong and it wasn't what was usually wrong about this.

The white Flynn moved his hand up to Issachar's neck. "There is something else you wanted that you knew what it was."

And then everything was cold and blank, everything but the strange whiteness of Flynn. Issachar found he couldn't speak; his heart beat in fearful alarm. No, they'd gotten their dream; they'd changed their lives. But if they hadn't become samurai… well, he knew what he would have most wanted then.

"There are some truths out there that will turn your life into hell itself," he said. "But you're happy for now, aren't you? You've changed your life and found a place that appreciates what you have to offer. But it's a frail happiness based on novelty when you desire things you can't name but you know are wrong. So why don't you end it now? You stand at the gates of hell, Issachar; the keys are within reach. But why subject yourself to that horror? Let's stop time, and everything else, and stay here before the torments of our lives grow even greater."

"What's wrong with you?" Issachar asked in a strained voice, horrified at his words. Yet there were other feelings, that he knew it was all true. There was something he was at the brink of learning that he felt like he'd learned before. And when he knew it, the whole world would change and his old life in Kiccigiorgi would be heaven in comparison.

"Until you give up and embrace the wonder of non-existence, there will always be something wrong with you," he whispered in an inviting way.

Was this even Flynn? Issachar wanted to say no. But looking at his face, he knew that this was Flynn if he became overcome with the kind of despair that Issachar had felt. No, not like that, but a greater despair. What kind of pain would cause that in him? "Is there some way I can bring you happiness again?" he asked, the unknown feelings swelling back up and wanting to rid Flynn of this strange disease of white.

"The keys to your next hell are right here," he said, looking him in the eyes.

There was something he could almost understand but…

The dream broke and Issachar found himself in his dorm room. "What was that about?" he asked, even though no one could answer what dreams were about.

Would he want answers if they were out there? For most things, Issachar knew that he'd want the answers. He wanted to know the reasons behind so much. And he was finding a lot of answers that he'd been searching for now that he had books to read. For this dream, though, were there things that were better off remaining unknown? The keys to the gates of hell were to be found in some truths that he was close to understanding. Whatever those truths were, they'd make his life an even worse torment than when he'd struggled to find the will to live in Kiccigiorgi.

"Nothing could be worse than that," he mumbled to himself as he got out of bed to prepare for the day. But even in fairy tales, sometimes dreams were important signs from God. "Maybe I should talk to Flynn."

Half an hour later, he was at a breakfast lecture on the Samurai Code and traditions. K was teaching them today, leaving his bar under the care of one of his workers so they could discuss matters. Issachar paid attention to it until Walter nudged him with a note. Taking it and nodding, he waited a bit to unfold it as see what it was. The writing was uneven and some words were scribbled out; writing wasn't quite as quick to grasp as reading.

'Hoy, is something up with Flynn? I can't really tell since I haven't known him long and he's quiet most of the time. But I've been having a weird dream at a beach where he asks me to help him, like he's really in trouble. I wouldn't put much faith in dreams, but this one repeats and really bothers me.'

He was in danger of being replaced by that white Flynn.

Issachar felt a chill in his blood. Where had that thought come from? He wrote a note back slowly, trying to pay attention to K's lecture and not draw attention to the note. 'Something has been different, but I don't know what. I'll talk to him later; I've been having some weird dreams like that too.'

While Walter looked concerned at the return note, he didn't bring it up later as they were dismissed to take their turn keeping the demons from escaping Naruku. And then Isabeau stopped him before he even got inside. "Pardon me for asking, Issachar, but is Flynn all right? Something seemed odd about him last night, but he said he was just thinking over some things and it wasn't something to worry about."

"He does a lot more thinking than talking," Issachar said. "Though sometimes it is tough to figure out if he's worried about something or just daydreaming."

She didn't look very assured with that. "I see. Actually, it wouldn't have bothered me much, but I've been having strange dreams lately that he's in trouble."

"You too?" he asked, surprised at that.

"Hmm, is he?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"Oh, well, I'm not sure," Issachar admitted, scratching his head. "But, you aren't the only one who's been having dreams like that. I have been, and Walter asked me the same thing."

"This is very strange," Isabeau said. "Well, I don't wish to be rude, but if it's anything I can help with, I'll do so gladly. I'm just not sure about bringing it up to Flynn directly."

"I'll let him know, we'll figure out what's going on," Issachar said. "Thanks; I hope it's just a strange coincidence, though."

But in stopping to talk with her, he'd missed the chance. Flynn had already gone into Naruku. Issachar went in to take care of a request from K's blackboard, also to fuse a new demon from Hequet and train it up. If you treated your demons well and trained them a lot, they could pass on their skills to you. And if he already knew the skill in question, currently Needle Shot, Dia, and Posumudi, then his version would become stronger and easier to use. It seemed like a very useful thing to do even though he had to keep fusing new demons to continue doing it and there were lots of other interesting skills and spells they had.

The request was for something that a griffin would drop upon being defeated. Issachar stuck around the first level since he knew where the griffins liked to be. While he didn't spot Flynn while he was there, he did get stopped by Jonathan. "I don't mean to intrude, but is something troubling Flynn? It may be nothing more than an odd feeling from a strange dream, but I feel like something's not right."

"You're also having dreams about Flynn being in trouble?" Issachar asked.

"Are you?" Jonathan asked, startled just as much.

"Yeah, and so are Walter and Isabeau," he said. "I don't know what to say to that. I mean, he seems pretty normal for him, but I can't help but feel something's wrong. If everyone's worried about it, well, I'll talk to him and see what's up. He should tell me since we're secret keepers; he's never kept something from me before."

"What do you mean by that, being secret keepers?" Jonathan asked, curious about it.

"Huh, you don't know that?" It was odd because he knew so much. "Well, maybe it's something just from our village, or something the Casualry do, but, it's like when I was telling you that we're brothers but not by blood. You both prick your thumb so it bleeds a little, then hook your thumbs together and swear that nothing will be kept secret between you. So if there is something wrong, he will tell me."

"I see," he said. "I haven't heard of that custom, but it sounds nice. I'd like to help him if there's anything I can do, I'm just not sure how to bring it up to him if I don't know if anything's really wrong."

"Well," it was nice that they cared enough already to want to help. Issachar smiled and said, "We're a team now, right? I'll tell him and if it is a real problem, I'll convince him to let you guys help out too. I mean, we usually don't do that kind of thing, but if it's enough to give everyone unsettling nightmares, it really should be taken care of."

"I agree, but I hope it's just a bizarre coincidence," Jonathan said, then thought of something else. "Oh yes, and there's something else that made me think of you today. I took another look around the third level out of curiosity and found this odd relic. It seems like a part of the magic lamps and I remember that you were interested in them."

And what he brought out was a glass tube with strange coils inside. Despite being glass, it was unbroken and appeared whole. "Wow, that light bulb's in really good condition," Issachar said, taking it when Jonathan offered it to him. He checked over the base of it. "And maybe… yes, it's the last bit I was looking for! I found some circuitry with a small solar power station the other day and Gearhead had the tools for me to fiddle with it, but I didn't have a bulb or anything to use it for. But I should be able to use it to make this light up."

"You can?" Jonathan asked. "I knew it was a part, but I thought only angels and sorcerers had the knowledge to make such things."

"It's not sorcery, it's science," he said. "Though science is apparently a broad subject that covers many forms of knowledge. What I've been reading about is just a small part of it. I hope this does work."

He had to go back to his room to work on it; Jonathan followed out of being curious. Issachar first called on Gearhead so he could check on the light bulb and borrow the needed tools. After turning it around, Gearhead said, "It's an old LED that's worn, but that's the kind of thing I can fix easy."

"It looked fine to me," Issachar said, getting a pair of work gloves. It was work he needed to be cautious with.

"It's little things inside you can't see," Gearhead said. "And… there, fixed up good as new. It should light up once you attach it to the power source."

"Oh right, I need that," he said, going to open his window to retrieve the small glossy panel out there.

"I never did understand why those things are attached to the boxes that control the lights," Jonathan said.

"That's because it's a source of power that takes energy from the sun," Issachar explained, checking over the circuit he'd been studying. "It needs to sit outside to gather energy. And then, it's like the mills we have in Kiccigiorgi. We use massive stone grinders to make flour from wheat, so big that no one person is strong enough to handle them. But attached to the mill, there's a big waterwheel that takes the motions of a river and transfers that motion into the mill for the grinders. So this panel gathers light from the sun, then I have to connect the wires into the bulb, and that should make it light up."

"There's a lot you're skipping in that explanation," Gearhead said.

"Yeah, but I'm trying to make it simple," Issachar said.

"It does seem like sorcery to gather light for later use when the sun's not out," Jonathan said. "But useful sorcery; I can't imagine how life would be if we couldn't keep light around for when we needed it. The light spell is simple, but most people aren't aware that magic like that really exists."

"If science is sorcery, then there's a lot going on around us every day that's magic," Issachar said. Things looked good, so he screwed the light bulb into place and connected the wires to the battery attached to the solar panel. The bulb lit up immediately when he flipped the switch to complete the circuit. "It works! Yes, I got it right!"

"I didn't think anybody outside the monastery knew how those worked," Jonathan said. "And you just made this from things you found in Naruku?"

He nodded, grinning at this success. "Yeah, it was all in separate pieces, or attached to others that were really broken."

"That's amazing," he said, going to the side of the table and trying to get a better look at it. "So if you get a base or something, you could make a new lamp out of this."

"Right, I could do that." The dorms already had their own lights, but this was his work. It'd be good to have something like a nice lamp to enjoy it with.

"That's a basic little project," Gearhead said, crossing his arms over his chest and making a number of his tools clank. "If we had access to more hardware, I could show you how to make all kinds of things with electronics."

"What's going on in here?" Walter asked, peering into his room.

Looking over, Issachar saw Flynn with him. "Oh, sorry," Issachar said, "I didn't mean to disturb anyone."

"He made the inner workings of a lamp with pieces he found in Naruku," Jonathan said. "You know, the kind of thing we depend on but hardly anyone understands how they work."

"It's not that hard to understand," Issachar said. "You can borrow my book if you want to see how."

"Well you are the sorcerer of the group for learning stuff easy," Walter said jokingly. "But that is a useful kind of thing to know."

Jonathan then went over to the doorway. "Oh, speaking of books, could we talk for a bit Walter? I mean, if you really want to borrow the book I got."

"What, you're going to share that smut with me?" he asked with a grin.

"It's not smut!" Jonathan said, leaving the room and making Walter follow him. "I'll prove it."

"What was that about?" Issachar asked.

Flynn came into his room to check out the light circuit himself. "We were teasing Jonathan last night. What are you going to do with the light?"

"Well Jonathan and I were talking about making an actual lamp out of it if I can get the right kind of vase and lampshade," he said. Then he realized that maybe Jonathan was trying to give him some time to talk to Flynn, about the weird dreams and such. "Actually, could we talk for a bit? There's something I want to ask you."

"Sure, want me to shut the door?" Flynn asked.

"That'd be better," he said, then dismissed Gearhead. "We really haven't had a lot of time just to talk like we used to lately."

Once the door was shut, Flynn said, "You've been all excited over everything."

"Uh, yeah, sorry," Issachar said, feeling sheepish about it now. "What's it been so far? Two months?"

"About," he said, taking one of the chairs by the table. "It's nice seeing you like this, honestly."

He sat down in the other chair, a smile sneaking in even though this might be serious. "I guess so. It's just, we have new friends now and they're interested in what I have to say most of the time. And this is all more than I dreamed of! It's not always good, but what we're doing really matters, maybe even with things like this light. And even when Walter goes calling me a sorcerer, he's not putting me down or anything, so everything's different."

"It's more interesting," Flynn said, although he didn't sound quite as excited as Issachar felt. Becoming samurai had been his suggestion in the first place; maybe something really wasn't right with him.

Issachar scratched his head. "Well, actually, the reason I wanted to talk today was, I was wondering, are you okay?"

"Yeah, things are good," he said. But again, not much enthusiasm and he wasn't smiling.

"Are you sure about that?" Issachar asked. "Actually, the others are worried about you too: Walter, Jonathan, and even Isabeau all asked me today if you were okay or if something was wrong. This might sound weird, but it's all because we've had dreams where you clearly aren't well and you ask for help."

"That's different," Flynn said, partly closing his eyes in thought.

There was a moment where Issachar felt uneasy with revealing something. Even when they shared everything they thought and dreamed of, some things were still hard to share. "Although, I think mine was different because you weren't asking me for help. You were all white…"

"White?" he said, strangely alarmed at that.

Nodding, he explained, "Yeah, like a sketch in snow. I don't remember it all, but you were talking about disturbing stuff like the keys to the gates of hell and non-existence. It might just be a dream, maybe, but it's just weird that the four of us all had some kind of dream that made us worry about you. They all said they'd like to help out if they could, just they weren't sure how to approach the subject with you."

"Hmm." He was taking this seriously. But, what did it all mean?

As he kept quiet, Issachar began to feel more uneasy. Something really wasn't right here and… was he not going to talk about it at all? But what did that mean for their friendship? "Flynn? Uh, I don't know what's going on, but, don't worry. I'll believe you no matter how weird it is, because it's already pretty weird."

"If you think this is weird, it's downright mundane compared to some of the things I've been through," he said.

"What?"

He leaned back in his chair. "Well if you're going to believe me, I might as well tell you. The dream you had was significant. The others should be as well. But your dream wasn't exactly about me. What you encountered in your dream was…" he paused a moment, "a collective being, that's the best I can put it. They're called the White and they are formed from the despair of all of humanity. As such, they will try to convince you of very dangerous things that you should ignore the best you can. If they've contacted you, they want you to despair and become a part of them. Don't. And it's not too surprising that they've got a vision of me now."

A collective being, that was the despair of all humanity? That sounded too crazy to be real. But, he had given his word and Flynn was being very serious about it. "This is weird. But why would something like this White be talking with us now? We've gotten what we were after; we got away from the things that would make us despair, at least me."

"It's because of what should happen today," Flynn said. "I… I'm not sure where to start in telling you all this, but…" he sighed quietly, then nodded. "Do you remember the night before the Gauntlet Rite? When we camped out at Lake Mikado to make sure we arrived at the castle in the morning."

"Oh yeah, we were up late into the night in a discussion over what we thought samurai actually did these days," Issachar said, smiling at remembering that night. He'd been almost right, just misunderstanding some things about demons.

"I don't remember that night well because the following morning, I was a different person," he said. "Sometime during the night, I regained memories of what lay ahead of us. I have lived these past two months many times, enough that I've lost track. As such, I know what should be happening today and in the near future."

"You know the future?" he asked, amazed at that. "But, if you've lived this time before, why are you living it again?"

Flynn shrugged. "I'm not sure, except that the futures that should be happening are all terrible to some degree. Today…" he swallowed nervously, "today… you should be dead right now."

"Huh?" Issachar's chest seized up. He wanted to deny it, but then strange feelings passed through his mind. Darkness and pain, blazing rage that tried to cover over mind-numbing despair… Flynn was going to be a great samurai, he knew that, but then came the epiphanies: he was dead, he'd forced Flynn to kill him. Yes, his dearest friend and one confidant, he'd cut him right through his heart and thanked him for it.

"You would not be here as a samurai if I had not tampered with things that very morning to ensure that you were chosen," he said. "God has nothing to do with who is chosen as a samurai and who isn't; it's a game of chance of if the right person who matches the gauntlets is there that day. There are one hundred and thirty-nine gauntlets in Mikado's possession. There are currently fifty-four samurai. If I were put in charge of the rite, I know how to get those remaining eighty-five gauntlets all put into use.

"But I'm not. It's a game of chance that you should have lost and I would win only because this gauntlet was being used for the rite. Another thing I tampered with is the power that Literature holds over those who discover it. On its own, Literature is not necessarily bad. But there should be a very powerful demon and angel hiding among us who make sure that anyone who reads Literature is turned into a demon. I'm not fully sure which one is responsible, but I made sure to send them both away."

"How would Literature turn us into demons?" Issachar asked, horrified at this all. If it was real… no, it had to be real because Flynn would not make something like this up (Issachar had always been the one to make up wild fantasies, Flynn just added onto them but not to this degree). But what was wrong with the world that this was happening?

"It took me several years across various times to figure that out," he said. "So it's difficult to explain it all now without getting into many other things you need to learn to understand it too. Basically, Mikado is supposed to never change. We're not supposed to learn beyond certain set boundaries. And when we start crossing those boundaries, as many have already done in this time in reading Literature, demons and angels can turn us into demons by taking advantage of powerful emotions to warp our bodies out of being human."

"But not right now because of whatever you did?" he asked, glancing aside and flicking his light off, then on. Because of something like this, he might turn into a demon? Just because no one was supposed to understand how these lights worked?

"Right," he said, watching him do so. "For some reason… well, I know several reasons, but I happen to be immune. They can't turn me into a demon. On the other hand, you're very vulnerable to being turned." He bit his lip, then looked down. "After failing the rite, you went to that night's Sabbath outside the capitol. You learned to read and because you had nothing else, you got completely absorbed into Literature.

"But you still felt betrayed by the rite and dreaded going back to Kiccigiorgi. The demon took advantage of you and directed your passions against the Luxurors, turning those into rage that left you blind to reason. You got turned and went back home to get others there turned. Last night, Kiccigiorgi would have burned. Jonathan, Walter, and Isabeau helped convinced the older samurai to let us come along because it was my hometown. So I saw right away that our houses were completely gone, as were our families." He stopped then, not wanting to go on.

It was obvious where this was going even without these odd feelings like he should remember this too. Samurai were to destroy demons, especially any that put the people of Mikado in danger. But then, Flynn had said that he'd lost track of how many times he'd lived these months. Feeling guilty, Issachar said, "You ended up killing me? Once is too many times for that, but to know as much as you do about just the rite…"

"It always hurts," Flynn said. "I didn't want to talk about this since I did all this to end up saving you, as well as others who always end up dying on me. To have you here all happy and excited in a life you have some control over, I hate breaking that by showing you the reality of the situation. Although, it's bound to happen at some time or another, when the angel and demon get back to Mikado after the diversion I sent them on."

"When are they getting back?" He didn't want to turn into a demon; he didn't want to make Flynn suffer, but he knew that he had done terrible things without realizing it. Or remembering it now.

He shook his head. "I don't know. I'm hoping we get at least a year without their interference, although more would be better. On the whole, saving you from today was simple. I just had to get you chosen as a samurai. But to continue protecting you when they come back… and actually, of all of us chosen by this year's rite, there were times when I was the only one to survive. There were times none of us survived. I need to save the rest of them too."

"All five of us? We could all turn into demons?"

"Well, not quite," he said. "I believe Isabeau is also immune to turning, at least I've never seen her do so. But she will end up dying if I make too extreme of a move. She'll even take her own life trying not to leave the guilt of her death on me, but I'm still guilty of losing her, and of much worse things if I do take an extreme path. Naverre might also be immune, or at least resistant, but you remember that incident with Alice?"

"Of course, who could forget that?" Issachar said.

He tapped his gauntlet. "I tampered with that too; I made a deal with Alice before it even happened. Otherwise, the original demon for that domain, Alarune, she would have driven Naverre insane. Through one thing or another, his parents would die without accepting or helping him, so his despair and madness would grow stronger until he ended up taking his own life and becoming a ghost. If he remembers, I know he'd deny it was that because he was adamant that it was an accident. As such, I have no idea what's going to happen to him if he decides to continue being a samurai. Every other time, he's dropped out because of Alarune. But I decided to try saving him too."

"So the whole tea party domain was actually better than whatever happened before?"

"Much better since it drew upon something Naverre does well. And then, Jonathan and Walter…" he closed his eyes, trying not to lose his composure even though he was recalling all of these awful things. "I was caught in a situation where I had to kill you, and I am responsible for Isabeau choosing to take her own life. But those two have a much worse fate ahead of them if I can't change their minds before the options even come up. They're going to be the hardest for me to save, even with you at risk of turning into a demon still being ahead."

"What's going to happen to them?" Issachar liked the five other samurai chosen with him. Well, Isabeau was a bit walled off and Naverre he didn't know that well due to his early haughtiness. But hearing what might happen to him, Issachar wondered if he should try again to be friends with Naverre.

"They're going to be tempted by angels and demons until they decide to sacrifice their own lives to summon two of the most powerful beings out there," Flynn said, looking for something in his gauntlet. He then held his arm out to show him a couple of compendium entries. "Walter will die to become the demon lord Lucifer, and Jonathan will die to become God's Chariot, the angel Merkabah. But, they won't be entirely gone. Their souls will live on in those beings, but their thoughts and wills will be almost completely drowned out by the demon and angel they become. Lucifer and Merkabah will then incite war over the fate of humanity; both will say that we all must submit and serve them, or else perish as the enemy."

"Those two don't seem like they'd do that kind of thing," he said. But looking over the strange beings from other times, he felt that those beings might just cause such a war. "What're we going to do to save them?"

He smiled at that, loosening up some. "Since I've gone ahead and told you, we might as well work together on this. All right, my general plan is to make sure those two become close friends and draw them towards the opposite ideas of what they normally fall for. That means somehow getting Walter more devout and exposing Jonathan more to the problems Casualry suffer that cause the recent violent uprisings. I know they will resist fully crossing over, but as long as they see the positives of the other side, it should give them more to think about when the idea of sacrifice is brought up."

"We could give them other reasons to live," Issachar said, as that was how Flynn had saved him.

He nodded. "Yes, and I do have some plans related to that, with the Autumn Ball coming up. If we manage to keep things peaceful until then, we have a good start."

While it was all very strange, Issachar trusted Flynn and didn't want to hurt him. He was going to help his friend with this as much as he could.


	14. Literature Discussions

**Chapter 14: Literature Discussions**

Opinions on the Sabbaths were divided among the Luxurors. Many of the older nobility were staunchly against them, thinking the Casualry were overstepping their bounds. However, many of the youths and some of the intellectuals among them were being won over with the Literature that the Sabbaths called upon. But the spell that summoned the books could only be successfully cast if it was performed by those who'd been gifted with literacy by magic. The Luxurors, who were all taught in school how to read and write, were not able to summon Literature. It meant that those interested in it had to deal with the Casualry face-to-face.

Did he want to get involved? Naverre wasn't sure. Tonight, there was going to be the fourth Sabbath that the other prentices were to attend and they had managed to get an invitation extended to him. He was curious about it. He'd read some of the Literature that the others had brought back and it was fascinating. While Jonathan (and later Walter, for some reason) was nervous about sharing the book he'd gotten, the others had let Naverre see their initial books. Walter's book was simple and yet a headscratcher that felt dreadfully unfair. Isabeau's book was actually funny at parts once they were understood. And then Issachar's book… well the light boxes seemed familiar since he'd seen inside them before, but the rest seemed difficult with scientific sorcery.

He could come up with all sorts of reasons he shouldn't. Casualry shouldn't be reading mystic script since simple was good enough for what their jobs required. And apparently, Casualry in the outer villages didn't even need simple script to get by. The divide in classes was just how things should be. Yet, he had seen for himself that Casualry could have surprising intellect and talent. And the Sabbaths were originally meetings of witches discussing black magic to harm others. However, the samurai, who were blessed warriors of God, used magic to fight demons and to protect others.

There was also the case of the hatter's family. Common sense dictated that God placed everyone where they belonged at birth, with rare exceptions like the calling of samurai. But just a week ago, one of the Casualry youth who had failed the Gauntlet Rite had come back to the capitol to learn the hat making trade. The hatter's sons, who should have taken up their father's craft, decided that they'd rather go out to the farming villages and make new lives there because they hated the craft. The youth who'd been born on a farm loved making hats, though. He had quite a talent for it too; many of the Luxurors were talking of how the novice's hats were top notch.

But while the hats were admired, there was a lot of arguing over if this kind of thing should be done. Hat making was a Casualry trade so the novice hatter hadn't crossed any social lines. But if he could do that, would one of the Casualry try to take a Luxuror's job? It was preposterous and no one wanted to see that happen. Yet if Issachar wasn't a samurai, Naverre could see how he could take on some Luxuror work and thrive with it. He'd already made his own lamp, for one. Such sorcery was far outside a Casualry's supposed capabilities.

And what would Naverre's parents think of him going out to these potentially subversive Sabbaths?

At the thought of his parents, Naverre sighed. Ever since he'd been chosen as a samurai, he hadn't heard a word out of his family. He knew they'd asked some of the master samurai to look out for him. But then they should have heard that he'd gotten anemic from a bad injury (although not that it'd come from a blood-drinking rose). They hadn't contacted him at all, not even to send a get well gift. And he was having to figure out how to budget his entire life since they'd stopped giving him money.

Had they totally disowned him? He should at least get notice for that. Maybe they were hoping that he'd quit and come back to work in the castle? He hadn't gotten to do much as a samurai, since he was just now getting back the strength needed to practicing his sword skills. It would be easy to go back. Yet he couldn't forget Alice's arguments, that a monkey could do those jobs.

He half-heard a child's footsteps running over, but only really paid attention when the kid called out, "Naverre!"

"Oh, hello Gaston!" Naverre said, smiling. And just when he was thinking of them. "How are you doing on this lovely day?"

Gaston smiled up at him. "I'm great; how are you doing? I heard from K that you were sick for a while."

He nodded. "For a bit, but I'm fine now. I hope things aren't too hectic with you." As Gaston was his only surviving sibling, he would be the only one in training for their parents' position.

"It's not bad, but I miss working with you," he said, then glanced aside. "Um, I'm not supposed to be seeing you. Mother would raise a fuss if she knew. But after I heard that you got sick, I had to come check on you."

Relieved that at least one member of his family still cared, Naverre ruffled the boy's hair and made him smile. "Thanks. I've missed being in the castle, but I can't let down my fellow prentices." At least not any more than he already had. "What are you doing out here, then?"

"Oh, I was going to a store to pick up a special order," Gaston said. "I didn't have to do it, but I thought I might find you. But, I should be hurrying on to get it done or father will get after me for being lazy."

This could be good. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "Is that so? But should a kid like you be running an errand alone?"

"I'm not a little kid, I'm ten," he said with a frown. "I can do it myself."

Naverre put his hands on his hips. "I'm sure you can, as you are my brother. But then I am on a street patrol right now and it is perfectly within my duties to escort a child on an errand through these streets."

"I know…" Gaston nearly argued, but then stopped and realized what he was saying. He grinned. "Oh right, Mr. Samurai, I would feel safer that way, thank you." He even bowed.

"Good, then lead the way," he said.

As they headed on, Gaston looked up at him and asked, "I also heard K say that even though you're prentices, that you have a leader in your group already. And the old masters were saying that the prentice leader is a real prodigy. Is that you?"

"Unfortunately not," Naverre said. It would have been a complete shame to admit before. But knowing how helplessness and even unworthiness felt, the admission made him want to work hard to match his fellows. "It's one of the Casualry born, a man named Flynn. And he really is a prodigy. Don't be telling him if you happen across him, but I respect him already."

"A Casualry born?" Gaston asked, puzzled at the idea.

"The world doesn't look the same outside the castle as it does within," he said. Thinking that might confuse his brother more, he added, "Anyhow, the thing that matters is not where we were born, as astounding as that idea is, I know. As a samurai, the thing that matters is that God called us to this role and we must live up to His expectations of us. Everything that I learned in the castle," he waved a hand, "very little of it are skills that I use now. So even if three of my fellows were born Casualry, as it turns out, I have a lot more ground to cover in learning to be a samurai than they. But I can't let them down. I can't let God down for choosing me to be a samurai. They showed me that we must take on any challenge given to us with duty and dignity, and so I will."

Gaston listened to him with eager attention. "Wow, so you're really working for God?"

"Of course, He chose us," Naverre said.

"Huh, so then anybody would have to work hard to do that." He frowned briefly. "I suppose… God's word would overrule mother and father's word. But they act like you did something terrible to become a samurai. They even said they don't want to hear from you ever again."

That deflated him some. "They did disown me, then?"

"Well, I don't think it's official or anything," Gaston said. "I don't like it. But don't worry, Naverre! I'll make them see that it's not bad!"

Although he was touched by his brother's kindness, Naverre felt worried. Their parents were very stubborn. "That's great, but don't get them mad at you too."

"Well I can't let them stay mad at you," he said. "Oh, and you wouldn't have heard, but uncle got in trouble for mixing up the silverware the other day."

"What?! How could he do that? It's absurd; how bad was it?"

They continued to talk about castle gossip and other things all the way through Gaston's errand. Even if he lost his parent's approval, Naverre knew he couldn't let Gaston down either. He could become a great samurai his brother would be proud of.

* * *

"What book did you get?" Issachar asked, looking up as Naverre came back over to their group. Flynn was quietly relieved that Naverre had done so; he wanted to keep an eye on Naverre here, to make sure he didn't make enemies at this Sabbath.

By the light of the bonfire, it was hard to tell for a moment if he was frowning or confused. "I think this is a children's book?" he replied, sitting down by them on the blanket Flynn had brought. "At least by the drawings on the front. It's called The Little Prince, though, so it might be interesting."

"Because it's something familiar?" Walter said, seeming like he was thinking of a way to tease him.

"Well I'm not a prince," Naverre said, slipping into some haughtiness. "But I very nearly am. In fact, I am on the list of who can inherit the throne of Mikado."

"Really?" Flynn asked without sarcasm. On the other hand, Walter raised an eyebrow at that.

Naverre shrugged. "Fairly far down the list, though. My parents were talking about trying to marry me some way up the list, like to Princess Belinda since she's a year older than us but hasn't consented to marriage yet. Although, that's not a factor in my future anymore."

"Well that's good, I can't imagine you on the throne," Walter said, trying to hide a smirk.

"And what does that mean?" Naverre asked sharply. "I'll have you know that I have been educated to the point where I could take over if I was called."

"We shouldn't disturb the others here," Flynn rebuked to keep them from getting too noisy.

"Oh, sorry, we are supposed to be discussing books," Naverre said, looking aside.

Walter spoke in a casual tone, "I was just thinking that they couldn't possibly put a crown over that hairdo." Issachar snickered at that, then covered his mouth.

Flicking the large pompadour that always hung over his forehead, Naverre said, "Well… I suppose I would have to change up styles. Besides, I'm not interested in that any more." He looked back at the small book he had. "Hmm, they did say the first piece of Literature is significant, so I should give it a chance. Do you think that significance is true, though? I've seen Issachar's science sorcery book, but I didn't grasp it."

"It's not that hard," Issachar said, rubbing his neck in embarrassment.

"You have the muse of that study with you to help out," Flynn pointed out.

"Oh yeah," he said. "I've read through most of the others we've gotten first, although not that Little Prince one. It's hard to tell if they are significant aside from just being the first a person usually gets. Still, I've loved every book that's come out of these. There was this one called a manga, where the story was told mostly through pictures with some dialog. It was interesting how the pictures enhanced the stories, and you could even tell things that weren't being said."

"Well great art should tell its own story," Naverre said. "Sometime, I ought to take you guys into the castle and show you the great masterpieces of Mikado that we keep there. I should be able to get you in."

"You'd do that for us?" Walter asked, exaggerating his disbelief.

"Why not?" Naverre asked. "You're samurai now; you ought to know some about culture."

"This Literature is good culture, I think," Issachar said. "Though, it would be interesting to see such art. Art should inspire one with beauty and thoughts, to expand one's mind just like stories do."

"Have you been studying culture too, Issachar?" Naverre asked, astonished and not exaggerating it.

"Oh, uh," Issachar shrank back a little.

"That's astounding," Naverre said. Flynn looked at him carefully, but he didn't seem to be making fun of Issachar. But Issachar might not see it that way. "Then you really should come to the castle and see what's there. No, I think you should take up being a scholar fully."

"Well," he said, fidgeting. He glanced at Flynn; Flynn patted his arm, giving him a reassuring nod.

"Wait a moment, he makes a great samurai," Walter said. "He's our sorcerer; we can't replace him."

"Well I'll agree to that," Naverre said. "It's just, it feels tragic that he was born in the outer villages rather than in the capitol, no, the castle itself! He could have been incredible already with the right education."

Issachar laughed nervously. "Uh, maybe? I did feel closed up in Kiccigiorgi, like I didn't fit in right." He looked over at Naverre, who seemed guilty for making him uncomfortable. Issachar brought the book he'd exchanged this time up to his chest. "But that's why I love Literature, see? I got to be accepted by you all as a samurai, which I'm really grateful for. But learning to read at that Sabbath and then having all these different books to read, everything's opened up to me now. I think if I read enough, I can do something really incredible. And, I'd like for that to be letting everyone in Mikado feel like this, to find a place in life where they are appreciated for being themselves."

"You think this Literature can do something like that?" Naverre asked quietly.

"Ah, I hope so," Issachar said, clutching his new book.

"That would be a great thing to accomplish," Walter said, smiling at him. "And I think it could happen. The books really make you think. I mean, the first book I got seemed like a fairy tale and I agreed with what it was saying because it was how I felt sometimes. But then things got twisted around and I ended up wondering if my ideas that I saw in the early part were foolish or flawed. I wouldn't have thought of it at all without reading that book, and it just looked like something about talking animals."

"That ending was depressing," Issachar said.

"So I think if Literature could make me question myself, the right books can change anybody's mind," Walter continued. "Things aren't that great now, but maybe the right books can change enough minds to change Mikado itself."

"You don't think Mikado is great now?" Naverre said, although he didn't seem as strongly insulted as the Naverre Flynn used to know would have been.

Issachar nodded sadly. Walter crossed his arms over his chest. "Well it's like that book Jonathan got first."

"That smutty one?" Flynn asked, trying to lighten things up. Although he still hadn't read that one yet; someone else had recommended it for the purpose he wanted. Jonathan was being less defensive about it, although he still warned that it was difficult.

It worked to at least make Issachar smile. "It's not blatantly smutty, although it would shock anyone."

Walter nodded. "Yeah, it gave me the chills at points. That book was about a world where everyone was, um…" he paused, trying to explain it. "They taught weird morals in weird ways."

"You mean the sleep-learning hypnosis?" Issachar said, understanding it anyhow. "They made everyone believe that their society was perfect and happy, that no one was really suffering. But those who didn't fit in were unhappy and tormented unwittingly by everyone who bought in to the shallow happiness. Like I didn't fit in and everyone told me I had to deny myself and be happy, because we were God's chosen people and that alone was enough reason to be happy."

Snorting, Walter said, "Yeah, that's a horrible position to be in."

"Huh," Naverre said, looking uneasy. But he was listening.

"You too?" Issachar asked, relaxing his hold on his book.

Walter nodded. "They told me I was born to be a fisherman, but I hated being out on the boats. I don't know if you guys would understand what the ocean's like, but it's an entirely different beast from the lakes and streams up here. I nearly drowned of several occasions, which was why I hated boats. For some reason, my father thought the solution was to assign me to go out with the boats five days out of the week. I was completely miserable with that and took any excuse I could get to stick to the shore or cliffs. I would love for them to get a clue that what one person enjoys might be something another dreads."

"Right," Flynn said. "I fit in around Kiccigiorgi better, but I was angry a lot with the way everyone else treated Issachar."

"I can't imagine you being angry," Walter said. "You're as cold as ice some days." Flynn shrugged to that.

"It is hard for even me to see when he's really angry or in a bad mood sometimes," Issachar said. "Actually, that book Jonathan first got, that was one that really made me think about art too. It seemed like just a frivolous luxury before because that's what everybody said, but that book said art that was truly beautiful or thought-provoking was banned. It made me wonder, you know, the Casualry are discouraged to make or appreciate art. Not directly, but when you think about it, it's implied everywhere. I told Jonathan earlier that maybe Mikado wasn't that much different."

"What'd he say to that?" Walter asked, curious.

Feeling more comfortable, he put his book in his lap. "He freaked out about it initially, even went pale at the suggestion. But then he looked serious and said that he'd have to think over that." He then looked at the book. "Oh right, I was going to show him what showed up today! You remember, Walter, that the Savage in that book loved Shakespeare?"

"Yeah, is that from that guy?" he asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, and it's even got one of the plays they talked about, Othello. But it is a play; it's meant to be performed. I was going to ask if he wanted to read them aloud with me, and maybe some of you guys, like it's supposed to be done."

"That could be interesting," Walter said. "We should do that; I'm sure Jonathan will be keen on that idea."

Flynn agreed with that, and he saw Issachar's bright smile at Walter's agreement. But… Flynn shook his head and pointed over to where he saw Jonathan. "Now may not be a good time for that."

"Hmm?" Walter said, turning his head with Issachar to look. "Oh wait, is he talking with some girl?"

"Yes, they've been there by themselves this whole time," Flynn said.

Grinning, Walter leaned forward. "Hoy, is that really straight-laced Jonathan over there being alone with a Casualry girl?" He whistled. "Didn't think he'd be one to play dangerously like that."

"Whaaaat?" Naverre asked, shocked at that. "Is, is he really smitten like… like that? Who is she?"

Issachar briefly looked happy that that part of the puzzle did seem to be working. "Oh, I think that's Marie; she's part of the baker's family in the Casualry district. At least, it seems to be her by her hair and the basket she has."

"I wouldn't know about him, but I've seen her stealing glances at him when we stop by there," Flynn said. "I'd rather leave them be for now."

"Yes, I'll just tell him about the plays later," Issachar said.

"Sure, but he's not going to get away with being quiet about this," Walter said, grinning in anticipation of teasing him for it.

"Hmm." In contrast, Naverre didn't seem sure about it. Thankfully, his thoughts didn't seem to linger on it. "Actually, I was wondering just now," he said quietly.

"About what?" Walter said, distracted from the potential scandal by Naverre being strangely serious.

"It never occurred to me that someone could be unhappy with Mikado," he said, still keeping his voice low. His eyes shifted around; it must have occurred to him how he was unlike everyone else there, even the other Luxurors. "But I can tell you guys aren't joking about such matters. I think, I'd like to hear from others and see for myself how things are, but I'm not sure how to broach the subject with anyone else."

This interested Flynn. Maybe instead of going mad, this current timeline had broken Naverre just enough that he was willing to listen sooner. "You want us to help you speak with them then?" Flynn asked.

"You're a funny one to ask about help with speaking," Walter said, playfully jabbing him with an elbow. Flynn shrugged at that. "But, sure, we'll see what we can do. It's just, be careful of what you say around here."

"You're a funny one to be offering that advice," Naverre retorted, relaxing some. "Yes, I'd appreciate some help."

Issachar chuckled. "See what we mean? You haven't even opened that book, but Literature and the Sabbaths are already changing your mind."

"I just hope this truly isn't dangerous," Naverre said.

Having glanced around, Flynn got up. "I agree with that," he said. "Come on, I see some folks I've listened to before. They should be good for you to hear from."

* * *

"Do you happen to know the Luxurors who oversee the bakery?" Marie asked, running her fingers through her thick copper red hair. It had something of a warm glow by the bonfire's light.

She was really quite pretty, Jonathan thought. But he shouldn't be thinking like that. "Hmm, I'm not quite sure of that. Why do you ask?"

"Well my father and I want to talk with them face to face instead of through work orders and letters," she said. "Although, I think I should do that myself instead of bringing father along. He would get passionate and I don't think the conversation would go well."

"He is talented at persuading people," Jonathan said. "So it might not be so bad. What's the problem?"

She put her hands on her knees. "We would just like a bit more autonomy with the bakery. You see, they tell us what to make every day and deliver the ingredients we need, but sometimes it doesn't work out. Like we were running low on honey the other day but the work orders still wanted three different types of bread that all use honey. Father and grandmother were able to shuffle the recipes around to have enough to sell by using up some things we had plenty of. But then the manager sent five different letters of complaint for just that one day."

He frowned a bit at this. "One would think that they'd consider your supplies when making the work orders."

Nodding, Marie said, "Right, that's common sense. Even if they would just come by more often to see for themselves what's in the pantries before making weekly plans, that would help. But it'd be best if we had the ability to make the plans ourselves. We're the ones who are baking the bread; we know what we could make."

"Well it shouldn't be hard to figure out who's directing your bakery, so I'll ask around," Jonathan said.

She smiled at that. "Thanks! We could show you one of the work orders; whoever is in charge is has messy handwriting, so it's hard to make out the name, but maybe you'll recognize something."

"All right, I should be able to stop by in a couple of days," he said, trying to think over his schedule. "I've been helping with the education of my fellows most days. They'd caught up on literacy thanks to the Sabbaths, and both Flynn and Issachar have picked up really quickly on math and other skills we need. So it's mostly Walter I've been teaching lately."

"You would be a great teacher since you have a soothing voice," Marie said.

"Um, you think so?" he asked, flustered at the unexpected compliment. He could say the same about her. But, he really shouldn't. Jonathan could easily imagine the fuss his mother would make over him having interest in a Casualry woman. Not that he had that kind of interest in her; that'd be odd.

She immediately blushed at his question and looked in her lap. "Well, yes. Sorry, I didn't mean it to come out so suddenly. Um…"

Not wanting things to get uncomfortable, he tried ignoring that for now. "Well, I suppose that helps when I have to help Issachar and Flynn with things; they get uncomfortable with what they think of as showing off, so sometimes we have to encourage them out of that. Issachar is especially timid, although once you get him talking, you wouldn't think so. But it is difficult to teach Walter sometimes. He doesn't like sitting still to study, so my father and I have been trying to find more hands-on means to get him to learn the skills he needs." Walter definitely had the strength to do a samurai's work, and he had good endurance too. But getting him to learn the statistical side of demon battles was tough.

"You sound like you're having fun with it," Marie said, smiling for some reason.

Jonathan nodded. "Yes, more than I imagined. Actually, much of this has been more than I imagined, since the Gauntlet Rite. I was better prepared for it than the other prentices. Yet, I still find myself meeting people I never thought I would, or seeing things I couldn't have dreamed of before. Even with these Sabbaths; I was suspicious at first, but I think they're a great thing now. I'm glad it happened this way."

"I'm glad too, that we got a chance to talk like this, and, um…" she tapped her foot, thinking over what to say.

While he was giving her a moment to figure that out, a commotion from closer to the bonfire interrupted everyone. "You're part of the problem!" a man yelled, standing up from a group there. From the coats, a few of his fellow prentices were with them. "You enforce these laws that keep us restrained! Do you even realize that they're the cause of our suffering? If things are going to change, the Luxurors must be thrown down!"

Was that Naverre in the group too? Jonathan felt concerned and nearly got to his feet, thinking on how the situation might be defused. But then someone else in the group stood up. From the long ponytail, it was clearly Flynn. "We are samurai, but three of us were born Casualry and know exactly what you're talking about," he said calmly. "We know, and yet it is our duty to protect the people of Mikado from harm, even if it must be from each other. Even without that duty behind us, I don't believe violent answers will help the situation. You will end up hurting your fellow Casualry more than the Luxurors."

"Th-that can't be," the man said, his anger faltering in face of Flynn's calm.

"It would," Flynn said. "Naverre?"

Naverre got up too. Even from this distance, it was clear that he wasn't expecting this and wasn't sure what to do. "Yes?"

"I know that you're doing your best to understand how things are outside of what you once knew," he said. "If there was a violent riot like he is suggesting, what would the response be from other Luxurors?"

The crowd at the Sabbath was hushed while Naverre actually took a moment to speak carefully. "Well, I'm seeing how this would be unfair to you… but there have been other violent outbursts recently and they've been scoffed at as ignorant and childish. They don't see a reason to listen and figure out why such protests happen. If you do something bigger within the capitol, I'm sure they'll continue refusing to listen. They'll want anyone who participates arrested and jailed, with any identified leaders executed."

Flynn nodded. "And that would leave your family with the extra burden of making up for lost work and the more painful worry of what will happen to you. All of the Casualry remaining after such arrests would feel pressured to work harder, exactly the opposite of what you're trying to accomplish."

"But we have to do something," the man pleaded, sounding deflated by the argument.

"That is true," Flynn said, to the man's surprise (and much of the crowd). "If we keep silent as so many generations before us have done, we will keep suffering as the generations before us have. But I have read something recently that spoke of non-violent protests that may work much better."

"Non-violent protests?" a woman still sitting with that group asked.

"Yes," he said. "Quietly refusing to work for those who would take advantage of us until they ask why and we can present a list of complaints and grievances that we want addressed, that is one that I was particularly drawn to. Those of you preparing food for Luxurors might make them plainer dishes than they're used to, since it would be cruel to refuse to cook entirely. But craftsman like yourself could work solely on things for other Casualry until the Luxurors are ready to listen.

"I've also considered that many Luxurors, and even ourselves as Casualry, do not think of us as capable. But there is the festival at the end of the harvest season where many people from all over Mikado will come to the capitol. If there were contests of skill and knowledge where the scores of Luxurors and Casualry were kept in separate visible lists, we might startle them in what we've become capable of thanks to Literature. That would surely make them question things and become curious, don't you think?"

"Oh, yes, that would certainly gain attention even from the most snobbish," Naverre agreed.

Flynn nodded to the man whose outburst had started this. "Of course, we are samurai and it is our duty to make sure things in Mikado keep peaceful. But even others should see that letting anger get the best of us will only lead to trouble. We should do something, yet we should not do something rash."

Somebody elsewhere in the crowd cheered to that, causing the rest to applaud and cheer in support of Flynn's words. He quietly took a seat with the group again, along with Naverre and eventually the man he'd argued with. "He speaks so little, but he manages to say great things when he does," Jonathan said, feeling proud of him. They had originally come to figure out why violent protests were taking place, and here Flynn had spontaneously changed that into something pacifist. It'd still be disruptive, but perhaps it was a deserved disruption like Thoth suggested.

"Making plainer things," Marie said thoughtfully. "That might work. They'd certain raise a fuss if we only made plain bread for a while."

"Whoever's in charge of the bakery might be mad for a while, but they'll certainly be under pressure from the whole city to make amends so you make a variety of breads again," Jonathan said.

"I'm sure father will be all for it right away," she said with a fond smile. "And then grandmother will try to argue that we must do as ordered to the best of our abilities as our duty as bakers. But the rest of us might be able to convince her, especially with the orders calling for breads we don't have sufficient ingredients for."

They ended up talking for the rest of the Sabbath, up until Isabeau came over to get him to walk back to the dorms. Naverre seemed absorbed in thought; it wasn't like him, but if he really was listening to those at the Sabbath, that was a good change. Although, Flynn was quiet too, seeming tired as he watched the ground on their way back. Was there something they'd missed from being out of that inner part of the Sabbath?

"You were really impressive tonight, Flynn," Jonathan said, wanting to encourage him. "That was a brilliant thing to suggest non-violent means, especially given on the spot."

"Yes, that was admirably handled," Isabeau added.

Oddly enough, Flynn sighed at that. Issachar quickly asked, "Do you have a headache? You were tense that whole time."

"Yeah," he admitted, sounding more worn down than usual. "I'm glad it worked."

"You were tense from that?" Naverre asked. "Well, I was nervous but that was since I was out of place, but you handled everything calmly."

Flynn nodded, but didn't elaborate. "He is an introvert, so speaking in front of everyone would be harder," Jonathan said.

"The commander will definitely be hearing about how well you handled that," Walter said, making Flynn smile some. Jonathan was about to agree when Walter added mischievously, "Although he might also hear about how Jonathan snuck off all evening with a girl."

"That did not happen!" Jonathan insisted, feeling a chill of horror if that would really get reported. "We were there with everyone else the whole time."

"But it was just you two talking closely any time I caught sight of you," Walter said.

"Anyone could have joined us, like always," Jonathan said, feeling a bit glad that Flynn's lantern was their main illumination on this walk back so they couldn't see his face well. He hadn't meant to just talk with Marie the whole time. But, that had happened.

"I don't know," Isabeau said, in a playful way that worried him a bit. "I think anybody who saw you decided to not come between you."

"What's going on with you two?" Walter asked in a teasing way.

"It's not what you think, we just became friends," Jonathan said, deciding to stick to that statement no matter how much they would tease him for it.

"They did keep with the group, so I don't think it's anything worth reporting," Flynn said, much to Jonathan's relief. He didn't even try to add into the teasing.

But as he prepared to sleep, Jonathan recalled how she'd complimented him, how pretty she'd been that evening… and the happiness he felt just thinking over that time with her. It couldn't work out due to their class differences. But, could there be something more between them?

* * *

It couldn't work between them due to class differences. She told herself that and tried to keep Jonathan out of mind. But, Marie felt so bright and happy tonight. She'd managed to talk with him before at other Sabbaths. But tonight, in some miracle, she'd gotten to speak with only him the whole time! Jonathan really was a wonderful man, a gentleman through and through. He acted comfortable in talking with her, didn't seem embarrassed to do so. Even when their talk strayed from Literature discussion, he was interested in what she had to say. She wanted to forget about her doubts and keep onto this warm hope, that it could somehow work out…

A sudden pain in her foot was what drew her attention to a box placed beside her bed. Grimacing, she sat down on her bed to make sure it was just some stubbed toes and no scratches. What was this doing here? Usually packages and other things were placed on the entryway table to their home. Even if her father wanted to surprise her, he'd not put the box by the bed. But the envelope on top of the box was addressed to her. She turned on her bedside light and picked up the envelope to see what this was about.

'To Cinderella:

You wish to have your Prince Charming, the young samurai Jonathan, fall in love with you, yes? It will take great courage and preparation to cross class lines like that. Your hope can carry you far, but you could use the assistance of a fairy to make your dreams come true. I am someone who wishes to help Jonathan make the most of his life and I would be happy to help you win his heart as a part of that. If you decide to accept my assistance and work to ready yourself, hang a white ribbon on your bedroom window. I will then secretly assist you so that you may attend the Autumn Ball and make him see you as the most beautiful woman there.

To start with, I have given you some books on manners that Luxurors follow. Even should you win his heart, his mother will be an obstacle. Becoming a well-mannered gentlewoman should help to impress her towards accepting you as worthy of her only son. There is also a guide to dancing as will be expected at the ball. Practice your manners and dancing; I will handle getting you a worthy outfit and taking care of other matters should you accept this chance. I cannot promise glass slippers, but we will make you shine all the same.'

Unfortunately, it was unsigned.

Marie found herself gasping at several points. Cinderella… and an offer that sounded like a fairy godmother happy to help her find true love? It seemed to be someone watching over Jonathan, yet… a ridiculous grin came to her face as she realized that this letter was real. It was so much like a dream, but her toes still ached from being stubbed against the box. This was real!

She opened the box and found it held just what the letter said: a couple books on manners that seemed like Luxuror textbooks and one on formal dances. After some searching, she found a white hair ribbon and got it tied onto a part of her window so that it could be seen from outside. Then she spent some time smiling in excitement as she started reading the manners textbook.


	15. Demons at Sea Level

**Chapter 16: Demons At Sea Level**

There shouldn't be anything nerve-racking or frustrating about something that required staying seated at a table. Yet here Walter was, frowning and trying not to second-guess himself too much with problems that popped up on the gauntlet's screen. If you had twenty-five percent more of something… no, you had to know what that twenty-five percent was, which was… and then add that to what the original amount was… wasn't it easier to just say there was more of it? But they wanted to know exactly how much more and what the final amount was. That was just one problem too. He had to get through the rest of the problems, and under a time limit too.

Once a buzzer sounded to indicate the time limit, Walter groaned and slumped back in the seat. "Good grief, how does anybody do this kind of thing quickly?"

"Lots of practice," Jonathan said, putting a bookmark where he had been reading. "Burroughs, how did he do?"

The AI spoke aloud from Walter's gauntlet. "He got through half of the questions. Of what he completed, he only got one wrong."

"Huh, really?" Walter asked, pleasantly surprised. "Hah, so I'm getting it! Then can I stop with the math studies?"

"No, you need to get to where you can accurately complete the math test within the time limit," Burroughs said, making him groan again. "But you are making good progress, Master."

"Right, maybe you'll have it by the end of the year," Jonathan said, seeming distracted.

"Hoy, you okay?" Walter asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "You seemed like you were in a bad mood when you got back in last night, so I didn't want to bug you then."

For a brief moment, he closed his eyes and looked really annoyed. But he dismissed that to look at him. "I've just got some things on my mind; yesterday was a bad day."

"Then what happened?"

"Are you asking to avoid the rest of today's math lesson?" Jonathan asked.

He shrugged. "Maybe a little, but I can tell something's bugging you. I don't think I can help you much in return for all the work you've been putting in trying to help us adjust, but I can at least listen if you're having a bad time."

"It's nothing, thanks for the thought," he said. But, he decided to talk anyhow. "Well, it started when I was talking with Marie at that last Sabbath. Her family are the bakers in the Casualry district and they've been having problems with their Luxuror manager doing their job improperly. I tracked down who that was and meant to go speak with them yesterday afternoon. But things went wrong almost immediately." He sighed.

"Did they get mad for you at interfering?" Walter guessed.

"No," he said. "I told the manager that the bakers wanted to speak with him about the problems, but he dismissed it as unimportant and mistaken. Then he made the mistake of thinking that I was actually there to court one of his daughters." Jonathan was frowning now. "My mother has close connections to that family, so before I knew it, I was expected to stay for dinner and then spend the evening speaking with his daughter. She wanted to talk the whole time about her collection of jewels and dismissed any topic I wanted to talk about. While I thought it was tiresome, she thought it went well enough to ask when we could talk again. I really don't want to."

"You could just tell her that," he said.

"I don't want to be rude, even if it was all a misunderstanding," Jonathan said, trying to be diplomatic again.

Walter shook his head. "Seems to me they were more rude to you. You can't let people walk all over you, not even to be polite. Sometimes, you just have to stand up for yourself. They'll keep misunderstanding if you don't. And don't let the idea that she might cry make you give in. If one meeting was tiresome to you, it'll be miserable to continue."

"Maybe," he said, looking down. "I definitely don't want that."

Smirking and hoping to cheer him up, he said, "Yeah, I'm sure you'd rather stick with that Marie instead."

It worked to make him blush. "Th-that's not exactly it either," he said, waving a hand trying to dismiss the idea.

"Well you ended up like that trying to do a favor for her," Walter pointed out. "So it's not exactly nothing."

"Maybe not," he said, then sighed. "I don't know. I shouldn't think anything of it, but…"

He raised an eyebrow "You actually like her?"

"Well it couldn't work out," he said. "I did lose track of time the other night talking with her, and we're interested in many of the same things. We could be friends, but it won't work out as more than that. For one thing, my mother would act like I was betraying her if I didn't marry someone she approved of, and there's no way she'd accept a baker's daughter."

"Weren't you saying that we should discount being Casualry or Luxuror?" he pointed out.

Jonathan shrugged, but looked uneasy. "Yes, but that was in terms of our work and duty. Socially, we are Luxurors in being samurai, even you three."

"This doesn't seem right if you like her already," Walter said. He noticed a flickering light on his gauntlet just before the communications program beeped. "Sorry, it's Flynn." Jonathan nodded, so he took the call. "Morning, what's up?"

"Good morning," Flynn said, looking as though he was in Hope's office from the background. "A request has come in from your hometown to take care of something there. Hope says he's willing to take us with him, but I wanted to check with you first. Do you mind?"

Well, he had always wondered why they sometimes called the samurai into town. Any kids would always be kept in the village for several days when that happened. "That's fine, I'd be glad to help out."

Nodding, Flynn said, "Good. The mission details will show up shortly, but we need to catch a wagon to make it out there quickly. We'll need to move out half an hour before noon and we might not be back for a few days."

"Got it," Walter said, then let the communications close down. "Huh, looks like we're going back to my old hometown."

"What do they need samurai out there for?" Jonathan asked.

"I don't know, that's why I want to go," he said.

It was a long trip even by wagon, although that gave them plenty of time to talk. It was a hot summer afternoon with cicadas buzzing in the trees, but the horses kept a pace that made it bearable. At first, Commander Hope had them discuss the Samurai Code, then let them start whatever conversation they wished after that. Of course, that naturally led them to discuss Literature. Hope hadn't been to the Sabbaths himself, but he had read a few of the books to see what they were about.

"What was that book like, Naverre?" Walter asked, since he hadn't heard about it. "That Little Prince or whatever."

"Well it was short so I've finished it already," Naverre said. "The language was simple and it was a children's book after all. Although, I don't know why one would give it to a child. It was quite beautiful, to be honest, but it was so sad. It even drew tears from me!" He sighed at remembering it. "But it was such a beautiful bittersweet sadness; I don't regret reading it. It had some curious wisdom to it as well. So strange, when it used language to be understood by a child."

Walter raised an eyebrow at this. "A sad book for children, really?" The others in the wagon looked mystified at this as well.

Naverre nodded, dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief. "I'd have to show you when we get back, as I didn't bring it. It is a work of art, I know it."

"What would be the point of giving a sad book to children?" Jonathan said. "There aren't many books for children specifically, but they're generally positive moral stories, to teach them while not upsetting or boring them." He closed his eyes and put his hand to his cheek, thinking to himself.

"I don't know about books, but I do remember one story that I found terribly sad as a child and the priest telling it was trying to convince us that it was a good story," Issachar said.

"That one was trying to teach a hard life lesson, so it was hard to find good at first," Flynn agreed.

"Which one was that?" Jonathan asked.

"It was about a child who had to say goodbye to his parents as they were taken away to Heaven," Issachar said. "And that was after the fever that killed off most of the other children our age, so it was something we were dealing with right then."

"You mean that scarred fever that passed through around twelve years ago?" Walter asked. "It hit nearly everyone in my village, but only a few died. Although that is why I was the only one at the rite this summer."

Issachar nodded. "It hit Kiccigiorgi really hard and seemed like half the people who got it died. And Flynn was the only kid who caught it that survived."

"That's awful," Isabeau said. "But I never heard of it."

In response to that, Flynn pulled back the right hand sleeve of his coat. "They're faint now, but I still have some of those scars. The story was really upsetting to hear since I was weak at the time."

"I remember that," Hope said, his arms crossed over his chest as he'd been thinking. "When news of the illness first came, the gates of the capitol were shut and kept that way for months. No one in the capitol caught it as a result, but we had other problems that closing up caused."

"How did that go?" Flynn asked. Walter was curious too, given the ideas of protests going around at the Sabbath last time.

Fortunately, Hope didn't mind telling them. "Thanks to laws from the days of Aquila, there was a good stockpile of grains and preserved foods in case the city had to be closed up. But fresh fish and most fresh fruits were out of the question, which did cause some problems."

"That seems like a rather harsh measure, but it would keep those in the city safe," Jonathan said.

"It would have hit the city hard," Hope said.

It was late afternoon when they arrived in South Ooida. As expected, it looked the same as always. The lines of mud and log homes were closed up, since all the women and children would be indoors due to the threat. The houses were small while workshops and the church were much larger. At the edges of town, strings held up drying fish and nets being repaired. A lake and icehouses were further out, providing ice to keep transports cold. In town itself… it was eerie with so few people outside while the sun was still out.

Three older men were there to meet them. After a exchange of greetings, the oldest said, "Thank you for coming so quickly, Commander Hope, but there's been a complication."

"What's the matter?" Hope asked. The men had given Walter some acknowledgment with a nod, but for the moment, the six of them stayed quiet as prentices.

"Since you brought novices with you, I should explain that we do have troubles with demons on a regular basis," the village elder said. "At certain times of the year, they will appear at sea level where we do much of our work. There are some who come up irregularly, and this is one of those. A giant demon squid with hundreds of arms has risen up recently, calling itself Ladon, a god of the sea. As we have the lower parts of the lifts covered, it should be no problem to simply keep everyone up here until Ladon can be dispatched.

"But just today, a group of young men and women of the town headed down anyhow. They've been holding something called a Sabbath lately, about once a week. It didn't seem like anything troublesome, but something got them riled up at the last Sabbath. They've been arguing with the village priest that the church is meaningless, that we ought to worship the ocean instead as it more directly affects us. As such, we believe they might have gone down to try striking a deal with Ladon, which will only bring us curses and tragedy."

What? They were going to try worshiping a giant squid demon? Worshiping the ocean did make some sense to Walter, but the giant squid seemed ridiculous. Even the squid that weren't demons were fearsome creatures, able to snap a fishing boat in half if they felt like it. Yet Walter doubted that any demon could control the ocean.

"Then we should head down right away to try intercepting them," Hope said. "Let's go."

"Don't forget," one of the other men said, handing the commander a bag. Of course. "You'll want these, especially the ones who haven't gone down to the ocean before."

"Right, thanks," Hope said, taking it and then hurrying them on.

"What is it we need to go down there?" Issachar asked.

"Mikado is actually a very high land," Hope said. "The descent down to where the ocean lies is a long one and can be discomforting to travel. These would be some hard candies they make here specifically to ease that passage, so I'll hand some out when we get to the lift."

"Yeah, otherwise your ears pop and your head hurts," Walter said. "Some people even go weak in the legs, so they end up working in town." Hopefully none of his friends had that difficulty, especially if they had to face a strong demon down at the piers.

It was fun to see their reactions to seeing the ocean and just how far high up Mikado was for the first time. Navarre, Issachar, and Isabeau wee immediately struck with awe at the sight. In contrast, Jonathan seemed disconcerted and Flynn… well he was unreadable as always, although he did spend the ride on the lift silently watching the ocean approach. There was a dark spread of clouds retreating far to the east, indicating that today wouldn't have been good to be out on the waters anyhow. As they got closer, the choppiness of the waves confirmed that.

"Wow, is it like this all around Mikado?" Issachar asked "The horizon is so far out there; it curves a bit too."

Hope smiled at his enthusiasm. "There aren't many settlements right on the edge like this village, but yes, that's what the reports say. There are some stretches of land too, but here, it's nearly all ocean you see."

"If that's so, the world's far larger than I ever thought it'd be," Naverre said, quieter than normal on realizing this.

"That's true," Jonathan said, closing his eyes. Was he intimidated at the thought? Walter thought about teasing him for it, but decided this might not be the time to trouble the others. They had no idea how strong this Ladon would be. Maybe afterward…

"How far has anybody explored out there?" Issachar asked, not frightened of things at all.

"Not very far," Walter said. "The boats go out so that they can always come back within an hour, and you can only safely walk out around the cliffs about a mile each way. Some folks try to go out further, but past a certain point, people just disappear."

"Is it magic or just that dangerous?" he asked, looking over at him briefly.

"Just dangerous for the most part," Walter answered, then pointed to the cliff. "The beach only goes so far, so you have to clamber around the rocks to go further. It's all too easy to slip up and end up in a spot where you can't get back to the lifts yourself. Or you can take a small boat, but then you risk running into underwater rocks and sinking. And there's some fish called sharks that will attack and eat humans, or other fish that have venom in their fins; they aren't even demons as far as I know and they're deadly."

"The world below is supposed to be cursed, owned by the demons," Jonathan said. "We know Mikado is a land blessed by God to protect us from what was down there. It's surprising that anybody tries this much." He tried to hide his uneasiness with a smile. "No wonder you aren't frightened by much in Naruku if this is what you grew up with."

"It's very different dangers between here and there, but I guess that helped," Walter said.

"I remember discussions in the castle about shutting down operations in this village for being dangerous," Naverre said. "But the seafood and resources gathered here are too popular in other parts of Mikado to do so."

Considering that, Walter shrugged. "I don't know if you could do that. A lot of folks around here can be stubborn and will try to keep working as they always have even if the king himself came to tell them to stop."

"I suppose you would need to be stubborn and tough to deal with this on a daily basis," Naverre said. "It's a very different perspective on that topic from here."

The piers were built out straight from the lifts, with wooden bridges out to patches of beach surrounding it. A ridge of rocks out in the waters made a natural shelter for the boats docked here. Between that and the low depths here, large waves and sharks weren't as much of a danger around the piers. The group trying to contact Ladon was gathered at one of the far docks, one that didn't currently have a boat moored there. The demon wasn't around, but Walter noticed the movements of the waves.

"So how are we going to find a giant squid demon if it can be underwater?" Jonathan asked.

"I have a feeling that it's nearby," Walter said. "The water doesn't look right to me."

"Some of those waves are running counter to the others," Issachar said, gesturing to a small swell that seemed like a boat's wake.

"Hoy, what are you all doing down here?" one of the worshipers called.

Walter would have liked to ask them what the hell they were doing down here when there was a ban on descending. Hope asked it more diplomatically. "We were called in to investigate a disturbance. But what are you doing here when your village elders have restricted leave of the village?"

"It's nothing you need to concern yourselves with," he said, waving them off. "Everything's fine."

Hope shook his head. "No, we've been called out to investigate and we will…"

An enormous crash of water disrupted the commander; a massive swell of water rose and burst, knocking down a number of them on the pier. Giant yellow tentacles coated in green moss and barnacles slammed down on the pier, blocking their group from reaching the worshipers. Examining them with a multitude of violet eyes, the demon gurgled before saying, "Good now, you all will make a fine first meal for my awakening."

"M-Master Ladon, wait," a young man said amid screams and gasps. Walter recognized him as a neighbor that kept mocking him for not liking boats and fishing. "We were searching for a god who better understands our way of life…."

"I don't care, I just want you to be my food," Ladon said, raising two tentacles like it could sweep them into its mouth.

Golden light abruptly blinded Walter to everything; chained crashes of thunder that rolled right through his body followed suit. He froze on the spot so he didn't stumble off the pier. Although he could barely see and hear after that, he caught sight of someone slipping off. It had to be one of his peers from how close they were. Walter went in after them without a second thought, catching them as they started to panic from realizing the depth of the water here. And… it was Isabeau he had.

"Calm down, I'll get you to a ladder," Walter said loudly since his ears were dull from the thunder. There were many splashes that he barely heard.

"Ah, all right," she said, tense but clinging onto him since she apparently couldn't swim.

The nearest ladder was a few feet away. By the time they got over there, Walter could see normally again. That heavenly bolt had somehow splintered Ladon into many bright yellow squids, still much larger than normal. The various parts of Ladon were flailing about in confusion. On the pier, Hope ordered, "Get to the lift! We'll handle these."

The other four prentices were already picking off the smaller squids. Parts of the pier were crushed or taken out by the tentacles, but there was enough left that his neighbors could hurry back as ordered. At the ladder, Walter helped Isabeau get hold of the damp rungs. A movement of yellow underwater caught his eye. "You got it?"

"Yes," she said, gripping with her hands tight as she searched for a rung underwater for her feet.

Still, he stayed by a moment to make sure she had the ladder, then kicked off to distract the approaching squid. Bringing out a weapon in the water might be too awkward. But he was able to summon demons and a couple of his should be good with the water. His neighbors had already seen Ladon and if his demon kept in the water, it might not be so obvious. Plus he still had hefty boots as well as something the other prentices wouldn't have: experience with grappling in the ocean. It had just been horsing around as kids, but when the squid tried to clamp onto his arm, he knew how to slip out of its grasp and bring it to a good position to kick at its mouth.

The full Ladon might have been able to presented itself as a god, but these little ones weren't so tough. He took care of four of them with his demon. When he glanced around to find any others, Hope called from overhead, "Burroughs doesn't detect any more of them; Walter, come back up."

"Got it," he called back, bringing his arm above the water to dismiss his demon. Then he swum back over to the ladder.

"Why did you go fighting in the water?" Flynn asked as he did.

"Well I saw someone fall into the water after that huge lightning bolt struck," he said, getting back up on the pier. The others looked fine, even Isabeau. "I didn't see who at first, I just went in to make sure they were okay. Then it just made more sense to stay there instead of trying to climb out myself with them after me."

"That was some fine fighting, since you knew what you doing," Hope said in approval.

Walter nodded. "Thanks, but who caused that big lightning bolt in the first place? That was like a blast from God Himself; the clouds are too far out to have caused it."

Silence. No one confessed to have been responsible. Then… was it really… from God?

* * *

"It was definitely from Flynn," Burroughs said exclusively to Hope. "That was Thunder Reign, a group-targeting electric spell with a severe level of damage."

"I've only been aware of two levels of magical damage," Hope said quietly to her. Over at the lift, the prentice samurai were taking turns to go up with the villagers. "Zio, rarely you see Zionga in one who has studied for years and has fused many demons."

"There's also Ziodyne, a heavy level of damage," Burroughs said. "Thunder Reign would be a higher level than that, one of the strongest spells in existence."

While it was impressive, Hope felt troubled. "It's nearly a season since the Rite in which he was chosen. How could he know such a thing in that little time? Alice?"

"I don't believe that's one of her natural skills," the AI said. "Also, I have calculated the magical power behind the spell. It's… considerable."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Flynn has the magical power of a god, possibly more so," she answered. "Compared to that, his physical strength is unremarkable for a novice swordsman. Another Thunder Reign would have ended the battle completely, especially with the parts of Ladon being in the water. But then Walter and Isabeau would have been utterly destroyed as well."

It couldn't be something he'd somehow picked up in his home village, since Issachar did not show the same proficiency with magic. As the lift had come back down, Hope said, "Send a message to Flynn to stay down here; I need to speak with him alone."

"Message sent," Burroughs said.

A couple of minutes later, it was just him and Flynn down on the piers. "What is it, Commander?" Flynn asked calmly.

"I was reviewing this battle and Burroughs noted that you were the one responsible for that incredible lightning attack at the start," Hope said. "In most cases, such powers shouldn't be shown to civilians, but this was an exceptional circumstance."

He nodded. "There were injuries, but no one died."

"There is that too," he admitted. "However, you've never used magic before, at least to the records I have of your training. The other prentices have all tried out various spells or skills, but not you. There is merit to modesty, but hiding a talent like that is something else. Where did you learn to use magic like that?"

"That would be difficult to explain, sir," he said, taking a few steps closer. Then he raised his right hand, putting two fingers in the air. "I can show you something else I can do with magic." He then swept his hand in front of his face like he was drawing a line.

Suddenly, they were no longer at sea level, no longer on the piers. Instead, they were on the highest tower connected to the samurai dormitory. Black smoke filled the sky; massive fires filled the streets of the capitol city. "Good Lord, what's going on here?" Hope asked in alarm, going to the parapets.

"Don't worry, it's an illusion produced from something I remember," Flynn said, coming over by him. "This is… around twelve years in the future. You should stay up here because we might fall off the pier if we leave this spot."

Hope looked at him; the captain of the prentices looked as stoic as ever, with no obvious sign that he might be lying. The heat and scent of the burning city seemed very real too. "You remember something from the future? Then, this will happen?"

"I'm preventing it from happening," he said. "In this time I remember, all of my fellow prentice samurai are dead. I will change that. However, that requires changing the way they think and the events that happen to them. I lived through many possible futures and magic is indeed my strength."

"Even so, I never thought that level of magic existed, nor this," Hope said, looking back over the city. If this could be prevented… he should do what he could to help Flynn and his fellows, as more than just those he was currently training.

Flynn closed his eyes and lowered his head. "Those who are my enemies, those who lead to this future and many just as bad or worse, they are gods. I had to learn this level of magic to survive against them, and then win over them. Of course, it is far too much for what demons lurk in Naruku, so I simply go with my normal sword. If I'm serious, I use a katana."

"You're no prentice, but you must blend in as one, I see," he said. "It seems outrageous, but seeing this, I almost believe you."

Glancing over, he said, "If you wish to be certain, there is something you told me in another time. That ring you used for one of our tests was meant to be a wedding ring for a girl named Julia; you were engaged when you were sixteen even though no one can marry until eighteen, preferably after the Gauntlet Rite. You both took the rite the same year. When you got chosen and she didn't, you both had to split up. But you swapped rings as a memento to each other. That is why you have never attempted to court another girl and have instead devoted your life to your work."

That story… Hope felt some embarrassment as he rarely told others that story. What had Flynn done to earn his trust enough to learn of it? But if he had that trust once… perhaps he could still have it. "I see. That is all true."

"I've not spoken of that to others, and will keep quiet on it in the future," Flynn reassured him, then moved his fingers through the air again. The fiery city vanished, placing them back at the pier waiting on the lift.

"Thank you for that." He stepped away from the edge he'd unknowingly approached and glanced over at the lift. It was at the top of the cliff now. "You're already doing some extra training under me as a leader, which I'll continue if you still wish. Otherwise, I'll keep quiet on your abilities and foreknowledge as well. And if there's anything I can do to help prevent that terrible fate, just ask and I'll do what I can."

"Thank you," he said, nodding to that. "Would you mind if I delayed our return by damaging the wagon? I'll try not to delay us for long, but being in this village may assist with what I need to change. Jonathan, Isabeau, and especially Naverre could use some time seeing how life in a Casualry village is. Issachar is already aware of my work, although he doesn't remember like I do. However, I really need to keep an eye on Walter here. Otherwise, dangerous ideas will get planted in his mind before I've given him reasons to doubt them."

Dangerous ideas… hopefully he could get Flynn to explain that further in the future. Aside from that, it did sound like a good idea. "That's fine, I can agree that some time here would be a good experience on the three who've only lived in the city. And actually, there is a trick to the wagon we brought. Do you know about that?"

Flynn smiled briefly at this. "No, but it seems this isn't a new trick to you."

"I had this possibility in mind, albeit not the purpose," Hope said, smiling back.

* * *

Because something had damaged the wagon, they ended up spending an extra day in the village. Naverre was a little annoyed at that as the guest house they were given had plain straw mattress beds and a dusty smell. But he didn't complain; these people lived with this every day and he was trying to understand them. Before becoming a samurai, he had felt that Casualry were beneath notice. They did work too mundane for Luxurors. But now he knew how much they really relied on the Casualry, he wanted to know what would get them to see Mikado as a great kingdom. Because it was a great kingdom and Naverre wanted people to feel proud to be a part of it.

He'd taken the chance to talk to the people here. It was tough since they all wanted to catch back up on work and the youths who'd tried talking to Ladon had to do extra work as punishment. After a bit, he'd been talked into learning to tie fishing nets in order to talk with the locals. That had been very different from what he knew; his fingers were a bit sore but he'd heard some interesting stories out of the youths and the older woman who'd been watching over them.

Life in a village like this was really hard. He'd heard about it some from Walter already, but the old woman confirmed it. As a Casualry, they worked almost every day of their lives, from the moment they could handle some simple tasks to the day they died. They got some time off for weekly church services and a few town holidays, but even then they had some work to do. Even just the other day when the women and children had to be shut up, they spent the day doing house chores.

And the ocean was a danger these people lived and worked with daily. That was one thing the disgruntled youths and the faithful old woman could agree on: the ocean was something to respect and honor for them. They talked of the tides that they used as a guide for their lives, since all of them were dissatisfied with what the local priest taught them. The ocean gave them their livelihood, but it could destroy them all too easily. In a way, it was like that with samurai using demons to fight demons, although Naverre couldn't tell them that.

In the evening, the wagon was fixed but it was too late to head out since their return wasn't immediately necessary. Naverre was wishing he'd brought a book to read, or something to do, when Walter summoned out a lantern. "Hey guys, wanna go out star-gazing? There's a hill not far from town that if we go over, there's no light at all from town and it gets real dark."

"You want to go out of town in the dark?" Naverre asked, spooked at the idea. But he didn't want to seem like a coward, so he went with the sensible question of, "Isn't it dangerous to do that kind of thing? It's fine outside the capitol where there's roads and a fire for the Sabbaths, but there'd be nothing out there keeping wild animals from approaching."

"Nah, most of them you can scare off with a good shout," Walter said. "Or are you the one who's scared?"

"It's not that I'm scared, it's that I don't want to do something foolish," he retorted.

"Hmm, he's right, we don't want to get hurt doing foolish things," Jonathan said. "I like the idea, but…"

"Well if you like star-gazing, you should really see the night sky out here in the country," Issachar said with a smile. "When you find a good dark place without any trees or buildings to block the way, you can see so many more of them than you can in the city."

"Really?" Jonathan said, thinking about it but still unsure.

"Of course," Walter said. "I bet you that not even a hundred jewels would match the sight of the night sky out here."

"It would be nice to talk some outside," Flynn said.

"Even if you don't talk much?" Walter asked, to which Flynn shrugged.

Not even a hundred jewels would match the sight of the night sky... "That claim of yours seems ridiculous to me," Naverre said. "A hundred jewels would be a small fortune, or even a large one depending on what they were. But you don't have to pay anything to just look up at the sky."

"Well that makes it even better since nobody can claim to own the sky," Walter said. "It's there for everyone to enjoy. But like my grandfather would say, far too few people enjoy that kind of thing since they're putting their nose to the grindstone or to what they have on hand."

"I would deign to go out for a little bit just to prove to you later that you're wrong," Naverre said. "But just a bit, as I don't think it'll be that fascinating."

"Are we allowed to do so?" Jonathan asked. "Usually there's curfew laws…"

"I thought I told you before, but they're not so strict out here," Walter said. "You just don't want to go anywhere near the drop-off after dark, or much further than the hill."

Then the commander spoke up, adding, "It's the kind of sight you don't want to miss out on. Go ahead, just follow those guidelines out there."

"All right, thank you sir," Jonathan said, relaxing.

As she was a woman, Isabeau was staying in a separate guest quarters from them. Flynn held them up to invite her along too. Given that it would be dark, it might be fun to mess with her. Naverre knew he should be courteous to a lady, but it was secretly fun to think about what could be.

"Hmm, I don't know," Isabeau said, maybe worried about exactly what he was thinking about.

"You can borrow my lantern," Flynn offered. And then he had to add, "And as the leader of our group, I promise that if any of us messes with you tonight, I'll let you devise an appropriate means of punishing the offender."

"Really?" Isabeau asked, seeming amused at that.

"That sounds like a good plan," Issachar said.

"Um, that shouldn't be a problem," Jonathan said. "We are gentleman…. right?" he glanced over and him and Walter.

"Ah, of course," Walter said, rubbing his head.

"Right, of course we are," Naverre said.

Isabeau smiled at that. "Of course you are," she said, although she was a bit too sarcastic in that. "All right, this sounds interesting. Let's go." She took the offered lantern and headed out with them.

As much as he tried not to admit it, there was something magical about that night. They ended up talking out there for a long time, mostly about silly things or fanciful daydreams about what was out there beyond Mikado, or far up in the sky overhead. And the moonless starry sky was something exquisite and unforgettable, with millions of stars scattered like jewels on a black endless mystery.

Naverre had to admit then that Nature did some things that humans might never match.


	16. The Book of Deviants

**Chapter 16: The Book of Deviants**

Autumn had arrived. As the first trees began to turn (it was always the yellow ones, speckled with green today), it was time to start preparing for the cold. Check all windows for drafts, make sure the chimneys and fireplaces were clean, clean up the winter rugs, curtains, quilts, coats, and more. For most Luxurors, Casualry servants would take care of the small matters. But, not this year. The cafes and plazas that Luxurors gathered in were buzzing with complaints of servants being slow or outright refusing to take care of such matters. Cold weather would come as it always did in Mikado: swiftly and sharply, then stick around for nearly half the year. Without preparations, the early part of winter could be miserable.

As they lived in the dorms, the prentices had to take care of their rooms themselves. The housekeepers would take care of the chimneys and fireplaces, and had gotten around to that quickly. None of the Luxuror born prentices had taken care of any such tasks before, but the Casualry born had and were willing to help them out. "Now you just need to check the windows again in the evening when the patching dries," Issachar said. "It might take a few days to make sure you get everything in houses like we had, but this stone building ought to be more secure."

Recalling the buildings he'd seen in South Ooida, Jonathan nodded. "Those houses would take a lot more work. Well, I suppose this year if my room is cold, I've got no one to blame but myself. That is one advantage we have with these protests." The servants here knew the prentices were involved in the Sabbaths, so they didn't delay or lessen their work for them.

"I hope the other Luxurors listen instead of punishing the servants right away," Issachar said.

"Me too, although I know they will be flabbergasted at first by the demands," he said. It had been discussed at the Sabbaths, so a few Luxurors already knew. The terms the Casualry were asking for to continue work as usual were about fairness: equalizing rations and prices, gaining some more free time, getting more respect, having the Luxurors take care of some tasks themselves. "I would like to believe in the best of everyone, that this will get resolved peaceably. Still, I can't help but worry if people will end up hurt."

"If the cold drops early, that could be a problem," he said, then smiled. "I'm glad you're supporting us. Some of the other Luxurors at the Sabbaths are considered oddballs already, and people seem to be irritated at Naverre's family. But you're well respected already."

"Oh well," he shrugged, a little embarrassed at that, "the cause of the Casualry seems reasonable to me because I've gotten to see glimpses into your lives. I would like to share those with the other Luxurors so they see what I've learned. But, I've got my duties as a samurai to attend to."

Issachar thought for a moment. "Well, if you don't mind a suggestion, what if you wrote articles for the newspaper about that? There was interest in the group that traveled around Mikado during the summer, but I heard some Luxurors dismiss the articles they wrote because they were Casualry. But you're a Luxuror, so they should pay more attention if it's you."

That was an interesting idea. "Hmm, you think so? A few articles every now and then wouldn't be that much of a bother to write. Some introductions to Literature might be appreciated too. If I choose the books carefully, those that resemble familiar books like the fairy tales or history volumes like Guisse, it should go over well."

"Yeah, open their minds a little so they want to open up more," he said, enthusiastic about that. But that got him to tap his gauntlet. "Oh right, I need to return the Guisse book I borrowed from you since I'm done with it."

"Already?" Jonathan said, smiling at him. "Though I should be expecting that from you now."

Issachar laughed at that, the history book in his hand now. "Well the written word gives me such vibrant images in my mind that the pages go by before I know it. Even this, although the text was drier than other books I've read that count as Literature."

"You know, Thoth said that too, that Mikado books are drier and less interesting than others," he said, taking the book back. "Actually, this reminds me, we never did go by my family's library as I offered. We both have the morning off, so would you like to come over for a few hours?"

"If it's no trouble, I'd like that," he said.

"It shouldn't be, unless the protest interferes," Jonathan said. "Let's head over."

As they were heading out of the dorm, Issachar brought something unexpected up. "Actually, there was something a little odd about the book. I noticed that it covered a hundred years of service from the samurai."

"That's right, that's how long each volume encompasses," he said, wondering where this was going.

"But there was a chunk of time that was missing, nearly fourteen years worth. Nearly everything was accurately dated, with a few exceptions that only had a general time noted. There was nothing for… 1033 to 1047, I think it was."

"Oh, did you notice that too?" Jonathan asked, opening up the book. There was one page with a creased corner that he pointed out. "I actually did that, to mark where those missing years should be so I could ask father about it. Most volumes have such a chunk of time missing, although I think this is one of the longer ones."

"Why is that?" Issachar asked, bugged about it.

"Actually, I'm not sure," he said, putting a finger on the gap. It looked like a normal break, with 1047 starting with 'Things have been calm'. "Father didn't know and it's slipped my mind unless I happen to notice it again. Someone else I asked, a school teacher, suggested that it might simply be that nothing went on in those years since the gaps all have some variation of this line, that things are calm after the gap."

"Or maybe they calmed down from a period of trouble?" he suggested. "But then why not write anything about a time when something went wrong? It would help in the future if they went wrong again."

"That would make sense," Jonathan agreed, searching through the book. No one else was in the halls as they walked and talked along. "Or… like here, 1054 and 1055 both state that the years were quiet and demon activity was low instead of skipping those years entirely."

"That's weird," Issachar said. "Are there other history books out there we can compare to these? They might record what happened in those years."

He had to think about that. "Well… not that I can think of. Business records wouldn't be kept that far back. Some of the monastery and census records might cover those years. I suppose we'd have to find a history hobbyist and ask them about these gaps. Maybe the castle historian."

"A hobbyist?" he asked, puzzled. "I was told knowledge of the past beyond the lives of those who were living was useless knowledge to a Casualry, but wouldn't you Luxurors study something like that?"

Jonathan shook his head. "No, aside from the basic history that is recorded on the Obelisk. It's considered something of a myth too since we can't prove anything much about those stories. Going any further is considered something of an eccentric hobby, an intellectual one that holds some respect but is ultimately unnecessary."

"That is weird compared to the respect for history shown in some Literature," Issachar said. "Actually, compared to what I see in Literature, we could be seen as weird and backwards by the people who wrote those books."

And that troubled him. Now that he'd read books from both sides, things he'd taken as certainty suddenly weren't so certain. The church said that truth was plain and absolute. Jonathan had thought that way until he saw more of how others lived, learned of problems he'd never noticed before, and read about ideas that never occurred to him. Recalling something of the book he currently had, Jonathan said, "Right. Your point of view matters for how you see things, and when you change your point, you change your view."

"Oh, did you get started on The Phantom Tollbooth?" Issachar asked. "Yeah, and then you can see all sides to something and know the truth of it. Like it would be great if we could find other historical records and figure out why those gaps are in the Guisse volumes."

"That would be so," Jonathan agreed, although he still felt uneasy. Truth was absolute. But, if he only ever saw one side to truth, did he really know truth? Some things required faith as there was no way to see another side to it. But, why could such sides not be seen? But doubting faith, doubting Mikado itself… it felt so alien. He didn't want to linger on such thoughts long even though he wondered… "We can ask around for such a hobbyist, maybe around the Autumn Ball. How are you guys doing preparing for that?"

Issachar rubbed his neck. "Uh, well it's a lot of etiquette to learn. It doesn't seem hard, but then I have to break out of habits I learned as a Casualry. And then there's the dancing to learn; I hope I can manage without stepping on my partner's toes by the time the ball comes around."

"Most there should be proficient enough to not make things difficult on you," he said, trying to reassure him. "Dancing is a regular lesson in school, as physical and social exercise."

"There's different dances between classes, though," he said, then sighed. "I don't even know if I want to get married quickly. Back in the village, they'd say to try getting married before you're twenty, and be married by twenty-four. I don't know what it is here."

"We're expected to start the process by twenty, although courtship can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years," Jonathan said. "But be married by twenty-four, that's the same."

He shrugged. "Maybe it's just because I was never interested in anyone, but I don't feel ready to start thinking about marriage. I'm already nineteen, though."

"Just take it as meeting new people and perhaps you'll find someone you can love naturally," he suggested. "I'm sure you'll do fine."

"I hope so," he said.

At his family's manor, the servants were out front shaking out the quilts and coats, preparing them for washing. "Oh, hello Jonathan!" one of the maids said to him. "Are you going to move back in for the winter?"

"No, I should stick to the dorms for at least a year," Jonathan said. "Are my parents responding well to your requests? You're already moving ahead it seems."

"It's a bit of give and take right now," she said. "Your father is already open to the ideas, so we're a little better off than others."

Another maid giggled. "Lord Mark is something of a miracle worker, since he's already getting Lady Beatrice to consider our complaints rather than shutting them out and complaining about us. She's already agreed to give us some more time this month to make our own preparations for winter, so we're moving ahead with preparing the manor at a more moderate speed than other households."

Jonathan smiled at that. "That is a great boon. We'll leave you to your work then; thank you for your service. My friend and I will be in the library."

"We might come in to pull the curtains later, but it should be fine," the first maid of the pair said. "I'll go bring you some drinks, then. Will you be around for lunch?"

"That would be nice, do you want to stay here for lunch, Issachar?" Jonathan asked.

"Uh, sure, that'll be fine, thanks," he said. Once they were inside and the maid was gone to the kitchen, Issachar added, "Sorry, I still feel a bit odd with servants, even as your guest here."

"It's fine, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," he said. "I never really thought about it until recently, since the servants were always there my whole life. But they do have their own lives and feelings, even if they're expected to act a certain way. I never really thought about where our food and clothes, and everything really, comes from. So much has changed since the rite, even if it's mostly how I view things."

"But it's better, isn't it?" he asked. "And changing everyone's view will change the whole kingdom. I hope it's for the better."

"Right," he said, feeling more positive about it. It was going to change things, and it could be very good for Mikado. After all, why shouldn't a nation's peace and prosperity bless those who worked hard to maintain it?

The family library was on the second floor, near the main chimney. This allowed for a generous reading and study area near the large fireplace for comfortable time spent reading during the colder months of the year. Opposite that, a half dozen large bookcases held his family's collection of books. All of the shelves had books on them, some of them packed tight. In the corners, some boxes were kept stuffed with more books, often extra copies of what was on the shelves. There was continual talk of getting a seventh bookcase, but that would require rearranging the room.

"You were saying that this was the largest private collection of books in Mikado?" Issachar asked, looking over the shelves for a place to start looking.

"That's right, we even got the claim authenticated by the castle chamberlain," Jonathan said. "We have just about every book in circulation around the kingdom. I don't know if they've been collecting Literature, though."

"It's impressive, but I wonder if the amount of Literature might come to eclipse this," he said. "Especially over the winter when more Casualry have time to read."

"That might be so," he said, bringing the Guisse volume out of his gauntlet's storage to put away. Since he was there, he carefully pulled out the copy of the fifth volume. Its cover was faded from exposure to the sun, the pages yellowed. "Here, this is the fifth volume. I haven't even read through it."

"It looks like you'd have to be really careful not to damage it if you tried to read it," Issachar said, coming over for a closer look. "I wonder if it has a gap too; it looks smaller than the others."

"Possibly," Jonathan said, curious about that himself. "Actually, we have some tools to look into delicate books like this. Come over here."

Using some gloves, he set the book down on a raised desk and opened it up carefully. Issachar stood near him to look and right away, they spotted what they were looking for. The fifth volume started not with the year 501, but 508. And that too began with 'Things are calm and peaceful.'

"It's a very strange thing when the rest of the book has an accurate record of what went on with the samurai," Issachar said, resting his chin on his hand and thinking through the mystery. "I saw names and brief histories of chosen samurai, the choosing of the commander or other leaders like Flynn, notes of weddings or devotion vows, retirements like Hugo, notable demons appearing in Naruku. As such, it's hard to believe that absolutely nothing happened for eight whole years."

"Right, it's a strange slip and it gets repeated," Jonathan said. "I don't see anything in these initial entries that clears things up either…"

"Can we skim through it?" Issachar asked, looking at him. "Because it is smaller than the rest and I don't think this gap really accounts for that."

"That could be something," he admitted, then moved through the pages carefully. He glanced only at the dates, searching for an inexplicable gap.

And, they found one near the end of the book: 572 to 598.

"Seriously?" Issachar asked, his eyes wide at the discovery. "That's a quarter of the whole century! How do you go missing that much time?"

"I have no idea," Jonathan said, feeling disturbed at this. What did it mean? But continuing down, he found something strange. "Hold on… this starts with one of those lines about calm and peace, but this part is strange." He read through it aloud even though Issachar was reading it too.

'The disturbances of the past generation still weighs heavily on my mind. The Abbess says that the sudden influx of demons across Mikado, which we samurai could do little about as they slaughtered so many of us early on, was responsible for turning much of the kingdom mad. We are to pay penance for that failure. But, that is not how I remember things. Peace was falling apart for several years before the demons appeared outside of Naruku. Then God did nothing to stop or slow them at all, until the very end when the angel said she would separate the chaff from the wheat and restore Mikado to how it should be. I think as many died during that time as during the rest of the insanity, but the records are a mess.'

'Sister — says that I am not to record my personal thoughts in the histories and gave me the Book of Deviants to show me the error of my ways.'

The following entries were normal, until the very last page.

'What happened, father? I was looking over the volume for production and noticed a large number of years missing, including much of your tenure as the castle historian. I know you were diligent in recording what happened, but I cannot find any of the records for that time period. The monastery has told me not to worry about it, but I do not wish your record to be stained with such strange gap. Of that time, I was a child and only faintly remember that people disappeared or died frequently. You and the other adults would never tell us what was going on. And the book you mentioned is strange.'

'Is it so much of a sin to know tragedy?'

"A sin to know tragedy?" Jonathan repeated, bothered by the idea.

"So this gap was definitely something bad," Issachar said. "A lot of people died. I wonder what really happened, and what happened to that guy's records that his son couldn't find them."

"Has Mikado not been as peaceful as we thought?" he wondered aloud, feeling a chill in his spine at the idea. He could excuse some of the strange ideas in Literature as potentially being from the time of wickedness and corruption before Mikado. But, missing gaps in Mikado's recorded history that were potential tragedies… and there was what suffering went on in the Casualry ranks that he had been entirely blind to. Had things been like this in the past, with no one like Flynn to advocate peaceful methods of protest?

"Well, we have to find someone who actively pursues history to know any more of this," Issachar reminded him. "But then, what's with this Book of Deviants?"

"Huh?" Jonathan's head was full of a struggle between his faith that Mikado was a peaceful ideal land as God's chosen kingdom and his reason finding in these signs that something wasn't right with Mikado.

"It was back with the father's personal notes," Issachar said, making a motion for him to turn the pages back since he was wearing gloves. "It looked like a nun from the monastery rebuked him and gave him that book."

He turned the pages back and saw the reference to that again. "This… this is odd in an entirely different way. 598. He shouldn't have had that book, at least, I don't think it had been written so far back."

"What kind of book is it?" he asked.

How did he say this? Jonathan shut the fifth Guisse volume so it wasn't open too long. "It's a book with a strange history, and it's actually one of the forbidden books that was supposed to be destroyed down to every copy. It recorded antisocial and immoral behaviors, described the punishments for souls of such deviations from goodness, and prescribed means to correct such problems. However, the monastery declared that its existence was causing people to think about such deviations and it was better to have the knowledge of them destroyed so that people would forget about them. It was a popular book for a while and my grandfather said that people did discuss it, so the reasoning had some merit."

"But then why would a nun from the monastery give it to someone if they said it was dangerous?"

Issachar was asking questions that Jonathan's own mind was trying to banish away as soon as they occurred to him. "I don't know," he said. "It's like…" wait, no. No, that was horrible.

However, his friend was too curious to let it go. "Jonathan? What's bothering you about it?"

He closed his eyes, but now the questions wouldn't let his mind go. "Discussing things… makes them harder to ignore…" Jonathan sighed. "It's… it's like that book Brave New World, where they banished books that made people think and unable to experience the happiness that the society carefully cultured. Or like the book Walter had, Animal Farm, erasing that which is no longer convenient to the leaders. Mikado isn't like those societies; we're God's chosen people. Or, that's what I want to think."

"Oh, that is a troubling thing," Issachar said, seeming bothered by it too. Then he tapped the table by the book. "We can't see every side of the truth yet, right? Because even you Luxurors don't learn history, so the truth of old days gets forgotten. But it means mistakes get repeated and we can't know that they are. I wonder if we can find out these things, and try to make things better by not making the same mistakes."

"It does seem like ignorance of history is a mistake we've been continually making," Jonathan said. Something in him seemed to be fighting that realization. But, it was likely true.

He nodded. "Right. And people are generally good, aren't they? Even an outcast like me is just trying to do good things. And, even those who made me an outcast, they thought they were keeping things peaceful by keeping silent on what they're thinking, but who knows what they may have been suffering from. They're trying to do good, but they don't realize that what they're doing hurts others."

It was one of those disturbing things, that someone could be thinking like that. Although, he had the right idea in some ways. "People are naturally good, I agree, and they might not do such things to harm others if they had a better understanding. Then, learning about things is the better way." Another troublesome little thought came into Jonathan's mind, one he'd had before and dismissed because he thought it wasn't right. But to have a better understanding… "Issachar?"

"What?" he asked, listening attentively.

Jonathan smiled a little as he turned to him. "I consider you a good friend already, so I want to let you in on something. But you must understand that this is a secret my father entrusted to me. I don't believe even my mother and sisters are aware of it. Will you keep this a secret between us?"

"Well… all right, I promise to keep quiet about it. What is it?"

After glancing around to make sure they were alone in the library, Jonathan waved him over to a cupboard to the side. The maid had brought out the teacups they were using from in here. "We do have the largest private collection of books in Mikado. But, this was not in the official assessment: we also have a small collection of forbidden books that were meant to be destroyed. Here."

He opened up the cupboard and slid out a hidden panel on the bottom shelf that wasn't visible through the glass doors. After making sure the things on that shelf were secure and moving a vase, he lifted the bottom up so he could pull the front of the cupboard down. This revealed a hidden shelf where over three dozen books were being stored out of sight. One of the butlers in the staff was allowed to know of this compartment, so it was clean even in here.

"These are all books somebody wanted destroyed?" Issachar asked, kneeling down for a better look inside. "Who?"

"Some of them were ordered by the castle, but it was mostly the monastery," Jonathan said, searching until he spotted the book he wanted to show Issachar. "Samurai often ended up carrying out those orders. As my family has been called to become samurai for many generations, we kept saving copies of books we thought were unfairly targeted, when we could. And, this is the actual Book of Deviants."

"Have you read it?" he asked.

He shook his head. "No, but I've always been curious about it, and the others in here. I have read a couple that were written by my ancestors; the orders to destroy those books may have triggered our inclination to save them. They didn't seem like anything bad to me at the time. But, I wonder if one of these might point out what's being hidden."

"They should if they were forbidden," Issachar said. "You're interested in figuring out this too, right?"

"Perhaps not before, but now I'm curious," Jonathan said, taking out a book titled 'Celia's Musings'. "We shouldn't take out too many and alert my father, but we can start with these."

* * *

Someone was following her. A… demon. One of the demons that associated with the Ring of Gaia. Clutching a dagger just in case, Toki stopped short in the hallway of the old station. She turned to find what seemed like a human wearing the standard red costume of the Ring's members. "What are you doing?" she asked.

The demon stopped before bumping into her. "Following you, what did you think I was doing?" he said. "I am Maitreya, and we seem to have goals in the same direction."

"I'm on Yuriko's orders," Toki said, which should settle the issue. She turned and headed up the stairs to street level.

However, Maitreya continued to follow her. "I had asked another, but she refused. Toki, I would like your assistance."

A part of her oni mask hummed softly. That was a magical signal. Not a request, but orders. She had Yuriko's orders… but this was given with equal importance. Toki continued up the stairs, but asked, "Who are you to give me orders?"

"I have Yuriko's trust, is that not obvious?" Maitreya asked back.

"Then as long as it does not counter or disrupt Yuriko's orders, I will assist you," Toki said. "What is your order?"

"You need to stop by a hidden seal and break it," he ordered. "I can take you to the entrance, but you must make your way to the seal on your own. If I enter that place, the guardian will be alerted and he will lock off the room the seal is in."

"Does the guardian need to be killed?" she asked as the first issue she saw.

"If you can't sneak by him, yes," Maitreya said.

"Does anything need to be done after breaking the seal?" she asked.

"One of my colleagues is behind the seal and he may need assistance in getting back to the surface, given how he contacted me," he said. "Other than that, you will be free to continue on your other objectives once he is free."

"Very well," Toki said. There was a bubble of curiosity in her mind, but it quickly got banished by her training. If she had orders, she was to complete them with no hesitation or holding back. These were strange orders that she hadn't expected, protecting another and now breaking a seal. But Yuriko, and Maitreya now, had authority over her and she was to follow their plans without question.

"Do you have a way to Akihabara?" Maitreya asked. "It is not within that community, but next door to it. But the bridge was taken down to keep them apart from the temple."

"The river is no obstacle," she said.

"I'd thought so, but it was best to check," he said.

Once on the streets, Toki ran towards the river. Most people took surface travel slowly to be careful. Demons were everywhere. Even so, she didn't worry about them. She could defeat any demon that walked Tokyo's streets. Orders were to be carried out efficiently; knowing when to wait and when to move was important. At this time, she had to move swiftly to the locations of her orders. Maitreya followed her easily.

Lights along the streets shone bright. Whatever had caused the warning must be over. Surrounding the streets, many buildings were dark. Those were dangerous areas, full of rubble and weakened structures. But, there would not be as many demons as would be near a populated area. Demons were drawn to humans, so it only made sense for humans to draw closer to demons. Subjugate them so they do not subjugate us. That was a central idea to the Ring of Gaia.

The river was dark now. Streetlights still stood on either side, but with the bridge missing, it was all black water now. Now, for one of her secret techniques… the fact that she'd learned this easily from a demon had marked her as a special talent among the children the temple took care of. Spells were easy to learn by being interesting enough to a demon, but this was something that few humans could manage. Before the bridge, she infused her body with the enchantment, leapt off the edge, and then ran across the surface of the water. It was very important not to hesitate or slow down. Stopping and staying on top of water took an entirely different enchantment, one she was trying to master as well.

On the other hand, Maitreya simply appeared on the other side when she jumped up to the other end of the bridge. "My destination is just over there," he said, gesturing to a smaller temple that was not lit up. "And, you were going to Kinshicho? That's further east down that street, past Akihabara."

"This had best not take long," Toki said, heading towards the temple.

 _A/N: In response to an anon comment, well, I do like my friendship moments but I know it's all too easy to make them cheesy or wimpy. Apocalypse did make me groan a few times, especially because Dagda could have made his plans a lot more effective if he pushed more actively to isolate Nanashi rather than just be a backseat snarker. That could have made friendship moments in that game more impactful too since you'd end up with a real struggle, and less of a glaring contrast to the setting._


	17. The Book of Foundations

**Chapter 17: The Book of Foundations**

A few weeks back, they had gotten stuck in South Ooida when the wagon broke down after they'd fought Ladon. Walter had been a little annoyed at being back in the village. But then, he hadn't been stuck there permanently and he'd gotten in some good talks with his parents and old friends. They'd been skeptical before, but now they were proud of him for being chosen by God to become a samurai.

Chosen by God… and there was still no other explanation for that sudden blast of lightning that had made the battle against Ladon far more manageable. Hope had them search the sea level area completely, but there were no other demons down there at the time. Except for Flynn (strangely enough), they all knew some spells but nothing like that one. It might have been natural, but it was so incredibly precise, in the timing and targeting to hit Ladon right before he could eat anyone, and only Ladon. The best reason seemed to be that God somehow intervened that one time. But why?

Perhaps simply to prove He was there?

Walter would admit to not being that devout in church. For one thing, the priest that had been in South Ooida had been terrible. No one in the village really liked him, but the priest never did anything that let them kick him out. And it never seemed like God did anything. Sure, lots of old folks would attribute many things to God's blessing. It was always things that seemed lucky or could be explained by something people did on their own. It had never been quite as lucky as Ladon, though. Perhaps God didn't like them choosing another being as a god over Him? That seemed rather childish.

It might also be something he didn't understand since he didn't pay attention in church. He'd said that to Flynn on one of the nights in Ooida. While they'd set out with the others to do some star-gazing, the others had decided to turn in for the night after an hour of chatter, leaving the two of them alone on the side of the hill. "I wonder if I would understand some things if the priest had been more interesting."

"Maybe," Flynn had said. "The church in Kiccigiorgi was an inseparable part of the community. The priest and his family treated everyone just like neighbors. They even worked in the fields with us at busy times. In that, he told us how God's handiwork was in everything, how he watched over us all."

"Then you're a strong believer in the church?" It had felt a bit disappointing that he didn't feel the same way.

However, Flynn's reaction to that was odd. He'd flinched, then gestured over to what they had been looking at: the view from the edge of Mikado, with the dark sky full of stars shining over the darker ocean far below. "I have my own beliefs, because of things I experienced. I think, whoever created the world, and whoever originally created humanity, I believe they loved their creation very much. Believing in that with certainty does give me some peace, especially looking over the world like this, or in good things people do. But now," he sighed softly.

Walter could explain feeling disappointed initially, but this… there was something in him that agreed with what Flynn was saying. And looking out at the view here, it was hard to deny that whoever made the world must have loved it when such beauty and majesty could be found easily in nature. But now he felt very uneasy with whatever Flynn wasn't saying. Like, scales spinning wildly that meant something was wrong in the world…

"What about now?" Walter had asked after a few awkward moments.

"Well it's up to us as humans to make things better or worse, and no one should want to make things worse," he'd answered. "I think your neighbors wanted something to believe in that was easier for them to relate to; they wanted to make things better. But what they didn't realize is that Ladon was a monster only interested in where his next meal came from. They would have made things worse if they'd somehow installed Ladon as a god in this area. If they'd looked to their community instead and tried to solve their problems on their own instead of relying on a god, it might have gone better. Even if it was only assertively petitioning for a priest who could relate to them better."

They'd talked a lot more on that night. It had surprised Walter at first that Flynn could talk so much; he seemed like the sort who only spoke when he felt it was needed. But his thoughts were quite deep. While Flynn was the youngest of their group, that night he'd seemed like one of those mythical wise old hermits, someone who'd looked deeply into the world and had a better understanding of it than most people achieved. There was still no explanation of the godly lightning bolt that saved everyone, but Walter was no longer interested in pursuing that mystery. It was strange, but now he wanted to try figuring out things that he'd long given up on.

And that led him here, to the church in the Luxuror's district of the capitol. He'd wanted to go down to the one in the Casualry district since a priest there might understand him better. But as it turned out, there wasn't a resident priest to that church. Instead, there was a family who ran both churches in the capitol and they lived in this church. There were also multiple services throughout the week rather than a single community wide gathering once a week and on holidays. There were simply too many people in the capitol to gather them all into a single weekly service even with two churches and the monastery.

"Man, where do I even start?" he muttered to himself as he looked over the study library he'd found. There were a number of books in here and their titles weren't exactly clear. Workbooks with mysterious numbers, a whole bunch of copies of 'Scriptures' that seemed to have some variations, prayer books, manuals on sermons and services; maybe just plunging right in on his own wasn't the best idea.

There was a tiny motion out of the corner of his eye. Walter looked to it and thought he saw some kind of bug. However, it vanished as soon as his eyes could focus on it. He went over to see if he'd somehow just missed it zipping around the air, but it didn't seem to be here anymore. Then a priestess about his age came running in the room. "Sorry," she said hurriedly, but then looked at his gauntlet. "Oh, you're a samurai, thank goodness."

"Is something the matter?" Walter asked.

She nodded. "Yes, I think there's a demon in here. It's unthinkable, to have a demon in our own church, but it was like a bug that was somehow shuffling papers around on its own, like it was searching for something. I tried to banish it and ended up chasing it in here. Have you seen anything?"

"There was something like a large bug that got in here and seemed to vanish," he said, tapping the gauntlet's screen so it came out of sleep mode. "Let me see if the gauntlet can detect something."

After a half minute, Burroughs told him, "There does appear to be a demon lurking within this building, although I'm not sure how one would mistake this one for a bug. It is a very strong one; I would advise against taking it on alone. Would you like me to request that someone come immediately to assist you? It will go out to members of your group first, then to K's Tavern if none of them are available to come right away."

"Okay," he told her, then related what had been found to the priestess. "Hopefully somebody comes by quick so we can take care of it. But we might not want to alert it yet; it might attack openly instead of hiding like it is now."

"Yes, we'd want to avoid that," she said, clutching a rosary she wore around her neck. "I wonder how it got in here without our notice… anyhow, what are you doing in here, sir? There isn't a service today until later."

Walter didn't want to make himself look bad in front of a woman, but maybe sticking around to take care of the demon would counter this. "I know, but I was thinking of starting some study on my own. I, well, I'm from a distant village and the priest there wasn't very good. So, I lost interest in services and prayers for a while, but something recently has changed my mind about it. But I'm like a fish out of water here. I can read now, but I have no clue where to start reading and studying."

Fortunately, she smiled and didn't seem to look down on him for admitting this. "I can help you out there. We do offer study classes of the scriptures and other important writings, in order to grant a better understanding of God and ourselves. But self-study does open up the opportunity to hear God's voice specifically for you, at least I believe in that. Now then…" she looked over the books they were near. "Actually, what village were you from?"

"South Ooida," he said.

The priestess nodded. "All right, we can make a request of the monastery to investigate the worthiness of the priest stationed there. We don't want someone meant to lead and instruct the children of God to be of poor ability, especially out in the villages where they had little contact with the monastery."

"Thanks, that would be good for the people back home," Walter said. "I don't think anybody likes the guy. And be sure to tell whoever investigates that they ought to look into our records as samurai for a recent incident there. I'm sure that disaster wouldn't have happened if our priest did a better job."

"I'll make sure they know of that, then." She then took two books off the shelf. "All right, this a good place to start with a study of scriptures, Foundations. As the title suggests, this book instructs one on the basics of spiritual truth and belief. Everything else that has been accepted as scripture contains some idea or belief that can be traced back to something within Foundations. And this workbook is a guide to studying the book, pointing out important ideas to remember and things to meditate or pray upon."

"So you have a scripture that instructs and a book that instructs you on how to read the instruction scriptures?" Walter asked, finding the idea amusing.

She chuckled at that. "Sounds silly, doesn't it? But the scriptures are of such profound wisdom that it can be difficult to just read through them and understand, even for something like Foundations. Think of the workbook like a journal; you can write in it to help yourself study, since it's easy for us to make a new copy of it. And if you have any further questions, you can come to one of the general studies classes and ask them there. The teachers are happy to help those who are truly interested."

"All right, that should help," he said, accepting the two books and putting them away. "So, you guys know about the demons too? We were told word on them was kept low so belief in them was low."

"Right, but all members of the church and monastery are told after the gauntlet rite whether they pass or fail. It's your job to fight the demons, while we do our best to fix any problems they cause and heal the people they afflict. Plus some of our prayers and rituals are devoted to keeping the demons within Naruku. So we really need to investigate why there is one in the church now. If you can get any information out of the demon about that, it'd help us out in keeping other demons from hiding out elsewhere. Just be careful in talking with demons; they'll try to corrupt good people whenever they can."

Not long after that, Isabeau and Naverre came into the church study. "Kathy?" Isabeau asked, surprised to see the priestess. "Sorry, it's been a while since I had time to drop by for a chat."

The priestess looked delighted and went over to shake her hand. "It's fine, but we really should remedy that. Actually, I had an idea about that."

Isabeau smiled at that. "Oh, what do you have in mind now?"

"Well firstly, about the demon," Kathy said, nodding to him, "we both spotted a really small demon that was almost like a large bug, but it vanished. When he used his gauntlet to find it, we discovered another demon in the church."

"Right, and it's a pretty strong one," Walter said. "We haven't seen the little one again."

"Might it be that little horse demon that's always with Flynn?" Naverre asked. "I haven't seen another like it, but he does send it out on errands occasionally."

"If it was that demon, you'd think it wouldn't run from me," Walter said, although he did have to admit that the tiny one had behaved like Trojan. "Anyhow, Burroughs has the location of the other demon pinpointed and some data already gotten about it, so we're going to get rid of that one at least."

"Both of our groups will have to cooperate since the demon is hiding in a church like this," Kathy said. "Since we literally just found this demon, this isn't an official job request with a reward. However, since you're involved, Isabeau, and this fellow here isn't the only Casualry in your group of prentices, how about I arrange a group date for us so you can ease into courtship practices in the capitol?"

"What?" Walter asked, shocked that she'd bring that up. And she seemed so pleased with the idea too, beaming mischievously.

Isabeau chuckled. "I should have expected something like that out of you. But if you're hosting it, I don't mind that."

"Err, I don't think this is normal practice," Naverre said. "But, do you have other girls you can invite so it's proper? You can't have two young women and three young men meeting together on a date."

Kathy nodded. "Of course, my younger sister and her best friend are both sixteen now, so they'll be attending the Autumn Ball for the first time. So if I have them, Isabeau, and myself, we can invite the three Casualry samurai no problem, and even drag you along if don't mind the company."

"Good," Naverre said. "I have been instructing them how I can, but this would help them a great deal."

"Sounds like a good deal to me," Walter said with a smile. Of course it was; why would he turn down time with some cute girls like this?

"Great, then I'll let you get to work," she said. "I'll inform my parents as the head of the churches about what's going on. There shouldn't be many visitors here at this hour."

"And I know your family, so I know who should be here," Isabeau said. "We'll take care of the demon."

The demon was in another of the smaller rooms, one labeled a classroom. Whatever lesson had been here last, it had apparently required the room to be cleared as the table and chairs were pushed against the walls. There seemed to be a man wearing priestly attire in there, reading a book. According to the gauntlets, that was the demon they were after. The door was currently closed.

"How are we doing this?" Isabeau asked. "There's no one else in that room, so we should be okay fighting it there. But we'd want to keep him in there so others don't get involved."

"I'd say let's just kick in the door and challenge him," Naverre said, "but that's gone badly for me before. I'm not that intimidating, I'm afraid."

Walter smirked at that. "It would be nice if we could make that work," he agreed. "But we do want to ask the demon what he's doing here and how he got in. Let's head in and try talking with him first. Just keep in mind that this will end up in a fight eventually as we're samurai and this one's a demon on the loose."

"Sounds good," Naverre said.

"Right, do you mind handling the questioning?" Isabeau asked. "I'm not sure what to ask."

That put Walter in a tight spot, since he wasn't the best at asking questions either. But then Isabeau had never shown any interest in taking charge of a situation and Naverre had been a lot more cautious after his encounter with Alarune. "All right, leave it to me," Walter said, then opened up the door. "Hoy, what are you doing in here, demon?"

The demon man tilted his book to the side, then frowned. "No, no, you won't do. None of you. Curiosity has been sparked with in you, yes, I feel a desire to truly know in you. But it's not nearly enough for me. Not when I had that baker's mind nearly in hand, such a deliciously tempting thirst for knowledge. I need someone whose potent curiosity and constrained intellect can truly destroy this paradise of ignorant fools."

Feeling glad that Issachar hadn't responded to this, Walter hoped the other two would continue leaving this to him, or at least not mentioning their friend. "That doesn't answer what you're doing here in this church," Walter said.

While the demon had just dismissed them, it looked at them more thoughtfully now. "Hmm, well is it not normal to seek refuge inside of a church?" he asked back, standing up and setting his book under his arm. "I didn't wish to be bothered; pardon me if I seem irritable. But, you already are aware that I'm a demon and I notice that you three have been to the Sabbaths. I am Dantelion and I seek to spread knowledge. If you wish it, I can help you find out anything, anything at all."

The demon then waved his hand, dismissing the illusion he'd produced over himself. He was now dressed like one of the Luxurors, in a crimson cloak fully covering his body while a massive stiff white collar supported a dozen heads. If it had simply been any one of those heads, he would have appeared as an elegant and wise man or woman. Like this, there was a disturbing element to him that wasn't easily ignored.

Dantelion ignored any threat from them and continued talking. "If you wish to know how exactly I got into the church, I don't mind telling you that. It was a rather unpleasant sensation walking through the door, much like you might find frostbite to be. However, the wards there were primarily directed at violent or aggressive demons, of which I'm not the sort. I simply wish for humanity's creativity and intellect to be unfettered, free to create whatever you desire. I adore such things, but your creations have been severely limited in these centuries. Would you care to learn of anything else?"

"What kind of cost are you going to ask for teaching us?" Walter asked. It was a tempting offer, to be able to learn about anything. But he couldn't dismiss the demon's tone when speaking of a thirst for knowledge. It was rather like someone starving for food.

"Usually I wouldn't ask for anything but the delight of watching my students grow," Dantelion said, a hungered smile on several of his faces. "But I happened to notice that you all thought of one person when I mentioned the sort of person I'm truly looking to instruct. Who is this person?"

"We're not going to tell you," he said. "Not when it sounds like you mean to eat any students of yours."

His faces soon turned to scowls. "What… don't look down on me for that! It's the very nature of nature, to pursue your nourishment. Our leader took off without warning, leaving no word on what to do with you all, especially when you prove more resistant than she suggested. Bah, I'll just take your minds and find the proper one myself."

"Not a chance," Walter said, having called out his axe from storage. With those heavy clothes, Dantelion wasn't able to get out of his attack. The first attack was just to draw the demon's attention to him rather than Isabeau or Naverre. Then he moved to the side, intent on cornering the demon so he could better cover his allies.

It meant that he took the brunt of a massive wind attack that crushed a few of the chairs, but Walter could take that. His axe soon felt lighter and the tingle of a magical shield covered his skin. Good, it was safer for those two to support him rather than get in close. His next blow as followed up with a lightning bolt; it was a normal Zio, though, from one of the other two. It stunned Dantelion, giving Walter an extra moment to ready a more reckless but powerful blow using magic. That turned Dantelion into nothing but dust that quickly vanished.

"Do you think we should warn Issachar to be careful?" Isabeau asked now that the demon was gone.

"Probably, in case there are others like this one," Walter said.

"Well it seems you could have taken this one on your own after all," Naverre said. "Sorry for not being much help."

"Nah, you two helped to end that fight much faster," Walter said. "I'd be glad having you guys back me any time."

* * *

"Transport complete," a friendly feminine voice said from the terminal console. "The terminal in Kinshicho is under investigation, so you have arrived in Akihabara."

"Ah, what the hell?" Abe muttered, pulling out his phone and heading out of the terminal room. The terminals tended to disrupt cell signals from within their rooms. As the call got answered, he paced around. "What is going on with the terminals, huh?"

At the question, a number of eyes turned to them. Actually, they were probably getting attention just from coming out. Hallelujah felt nervous, looking down at the floor. Yup, these people would figure out that they were with the Ashura-kai… in a place that was getting notorious for being against the Ashura-kai… and here Abe was going to argue with the terminal guardian instead of slipping out nonchalantly. There had been alerts too, warning everyone to get into the underground districts, so they weren't going to get in here or at Kinshicho without being noticed. How had Abe planned to brush that off?

That man is one of the seriously fallen…

What had Gabriel meant by that? Abe was something like Hallelujah's mentor, although he didn't understand why he'd been picked out. Abe was popular and skilled, able to get away with just about anything with a smile and some words. And yet, he did do whatever he wanted: losing his temper quickly, flirting with every female he came across (human and demon), plus he kept around those unpleasant lilim and succubi, doing little to stop them from doing whatever they wanted. Hallelujah had seen a man that he'd thought was strong reduced to tears from a succubus' nightmare, and Abe had just told him to man up and enjoy the experience. And, Hallelujah knew that Abe's lilim was just waiting for some moment to do the same kind of thing to him.

Even if Abe was willing to take him out to Kinshicho to meet this Nanashi person, he was not going to be willing to work with Gabriel, nor her with him. What did he do to impress an angel? Or just, how did he get back in contact with her? She said she'd be watching, maybe implying that she would speak to him again. But if Hallelujah stuck with Abe, she probably wouldn't do that. Then…

There was an unwelcome giggle next to him. "Aw, you look so cute when you're trying to be serious," the lilim said, reaching out to him.

He flinched, but then noticed a man nearby that could be useful as a distraction. "Please don't be like that," Hallelujah said. Of course, she just giggled more at that. So he pointed her out to the man with armor who seemed to be the town guard. "I thought that guy was more your type," he said quieter.

"Hmm?" She turned around, then grinned. "Oo, he is a hunk." She hummed to herself, then flitted over to start talking to him. Abe was turned away in his pacing, focused on the call.

And Hallelujah slipped up the nearby stairs before either Abe or his lilim could notice. He felt triumphant for a moment, but then quickly realized the problem: he wasn't sure where exactly Kinshicho was. And the power instability a while ago could have attracted stronger demons. He had Chironpu to help him, but could he make it between towns with just one demon assisting him? He couldn't recruit any more… although, he could always use his own powers.

"But I don't want to turn into a full demon," he muttered to himself, heading away from the entrance to the underground district.

"Are you going out on an adventure, boy?" an old man asked behind him.

"H-huh?" He turned around and found that he'd been followed up. "Well, I'm just heading over to a neighboring town," he said, scratching his head. "But it might turn into an adventure, depending on the person I'll meet there."

"I hope so, for your sake," the old man said, oddly cheerful about it. "A young fellow like you ought to strike out on his own, away from your father and off to make your own fortune."

"Uh, that guy isn't my father," Hallelujah said, nervous for a moment that he'd be asked about that further. Abe couldn't be his father. For one thing, he was a human.

The old man ignored that. "Yes, you might not have much power to you now, but challenge yourself and perhaps you will grow strong. Be a real man of courage, integrity, and honor. Live like the legends to become one yourself, like, hmmm…"

"That could be interesting, but I really need to get going before Abe realizes I'm gone," he said, trying to get out of this without being too rude. Someone was running up the stairs already; maybe he hadn't gotten away.

Fortunately, it wasn't Abe who came up after him. It was a tall burly man who seemed like he could battle demons with just his fists. "Hey, pops, don't be wandering off too far from me."

"Bah, I don't need to be protected," the old man said, not even looking at him. "I just wanted to talk with this fellow. He has promise, yes, unpolished but very promising…" his eyebrows furrowed as if he was trying to think of something.

"This kid?" the burly man asked, skeptical. "Are you looking to be strong?"

Well... Gabriel was counting on him for something. It would be best if he was stronger, so he could help her. "Yeah," Hallelujah said.

He held off addressing the old man and came closer. "You have a long ways to go before you can even think of calling yourself strong. You don't look like you could handle yourself out on these streets; you'd get turned into a smear within a few minutes. Maybe you want to be strong, but you're just a kid now who needs protecting. Or you think you can prove your worth against someone who can thrive up here?"

Hallelujah's heart pounded out of fear. This man kept approaching like a looming menace, willing and even eager to teach a lesson by his fists. But he'd gotten away from Abe now, and he couldn't be cowardly if he wanted to impress Gabriel. "Well what will you prove by challenging me?" Hallelujah countered, hoping with every heartbeat that this would work. If it didn't, he'd need to flee.

The burly man smirked at him. "What will a weakling like you prove going out on your own just to get killed in two minutes?"

"Thor, stop this," a stern authoritative voice said, from where the old man had been. Hallelujah glanced over and saw not an old man, but a powerful looking person who had to be a demon. Only one eye gleamed through his helmet and he carried a jagged spear, the blade of which glowed faintly.

"Odin?" The burly man (another demon, he could see that now) turned in surprise. "You remember who I am? That didn't seem like much."

Odin turned his gaze to Hallelujah; he knew he wasn't in trouble now, but he still felt uneasy with this. "My mind is still foggy, but I remember myself some. And my vision is not clouded, as far as I can tell. You are not strong now, boy, but you can become strong. Your courage needs to be cultivated as well."

"Well, thanks, I'll try," Hallelujah said. "Would you happen to know the way to Kinshicho? I'm sorry, I need to get going before Abe realizes I left him."

Thor, still looking human, stepped back and turned respectful. "If Father says you have promise, I'll believe it. Kinshicho isn't far from here, but you will have to pass through demon infested streets and a park to get to the settlement."

However, Odin held a hand up. "Yes, but I believe I heard an ally of ours, through the fog, calling…"

"That did happen," Thor said. "Not that long ago either. He didn't ask us, but he wants someone to come break the seal now. It seemed rather early, especially since I hadn't made much progress with you."

"We can trust his sense of things," Odin said. "Boy, we could see you to Kinshicho as your courage was enough to awaken my true self. But if you wish to be stronger, you need to train yourself. You could start with going through the caves that our ally Krishna has been sealed in. We cannot go into the caves with you, but we will reward you well for this request."

Krishna… who was that? And why was he sealed if these gods hadn't been? The questions made him curious, but… if it was good training, then it would help. "I see," Hallelujah said. "But, I really do need to get to Kinshicho soon."

"It's not far," Odin said, pointing with his spear down the street. "If the lights were on, you could see the temple over the caves from here. And if you mean to evade someone who knows you need to get to Kinshicho, delaying when you reach there may cause him to go that way and return to this town once he finds that you didn't go directly there."

"That would help," Hallelujah said. "All right, let's head over."

"Good, and what's your name?" Odin asked, taking the lead as they walked down the street.

"I'm Hallelujah, and I have one demon with me, Chironpu," he said. Of course, calling his name brought the fox demon out. He tilted his head but was quick to trot alongside him.

"He should help you in the caves," Odin said, bringing his hand up. A white bow was suddenly in his hand. "You don't seem to have a weapon of your own, so why not take this one to match him?"

"Thanks, but I've never used a bow before," Hallelujah said, taking it to see how it was. A white string shimmered between the ends of the bow, both of which were made of unfamiliar materials. On the center part of the bow, there was a yellow stone that he recognized as a Zio stone.

"It's a magical bow and it's clear you can use it because the string did not dull in your hands," Odin said. "It draws arrows out of the elemental stone placed there, getting more uses out of the stone than normal. The stone will eventually break, but you will easily gain more stones to replace it with as you battle demons. While our destination is close, I can instruct you on its use in the time it takes us to get there."

Hallelujah listened to the lesson and found the bow simple to use. He just hoped that Gabriel wouldn't mind him listening to the like of Odin and Thor, and whoever this Krishna was.


	18. Friendly Diversions

**Chapter 18: Friendly Diversions**

"Oh right, we have a group date tonight," Isabeau said during their morning meeting over breakfast. "Me and three friends, and you guys. Oh, but not Jonathan, sorry. We didn't have another girl to invite and this was to get them used to things."

"That's fine, I had some reading I've been wanting to do," Jonathan said.

"When did this get planned?" Issachar asked, surprised. Flynn wasn't surprised; he'd set up the situation, after all.

"Well it happened just yesterday," Walter said.

"Sorry for not mentioning it earlier, although she did want to hold it yesterday evening," Naverre said. "It's going to be a casual affair, so don't worry about it too much."

"It should be a good experience, better than just hearing about things," Jonathan said.

"Well, it's Kathy being the host, so it'll definitely be interesting," Isabeau said.

Jonathan raised an eyebrow at that. "Really, her? Well, she's a forgiving person, and definitely interesting." That was something Flynn was counting on as well.

That day, Flynn was scheduled to be on patrol around the city, for the experience of it. Street patrol was most often given to those who couldn't do battle in Naruku for one reason or another. There was an etiquette to it; Flynn knew that, but he still had to blend in as a prentice. In the afternoon, he also had a study session with Hope. It had started when Flynn was assigned a squad leader, to give him some advanced lessons on leadership. While Hope was aware of Flynn's actual experience now, they continued to meet up like this.

"Do you ever do something to just appear normal?" Flynn asked out of curiosity.

"Sometimes," Hope said. "I have things I believe in that make me something of a loner. But you need to have a good awareness of the people who follow you, to know what they're most effective in doing. Because of that, I sometimes end up at social events I don't have any other interest in."

He nodded to that. "My family are all people who keep to themselves, but I do need to be in these social things to keep an eye on those I'm working with."

"Well if you get bored, try not to show it," Hope said, leading them to discuss socializing for much of that session.

After that meeting, it was getting close to when they needed to leave. Flynn washed up because even if it was casual and he had no intention of pursuing a courtship with anyone, it was better to seem interested. There was too much he had to get done for him to spend much time on a relationship himself. Although, going on this date was part of his larger plans. Marie was doing well with getting close to Jonathan; the ball should seal things for them. And this date should get Walter interested in someone. Changing their minds with the right pieces of Literature was important; getting them in their own relationships with strong feelings should push them further away from choosing sacrifice.

But what about Issachar? Flynn knew that getting him chosen as a samurai was enough of a change to let him want to live. The demon transformation would eventually be a threat, but he had detailed plans for that. However, he'd never stuck around a time long enough to see if Issachar might fall in love with someone. None of his fellows had been in love on the day of the Gauntlet Rite, so there was no one certain. Flynn knew which girls were very likely to cause Jonathan and Walter to fall in love with them, but not Issachar. Nor Naverre for that matter, but Naverre would be fine on his own. Issachar would live… but Flynn did want to see him stay happy and continuing seeing the future with bright hope.

It was far enough from the rite that there was some chance in what Kathy would decide to do for the group date. This time, she decided to bring them to the public part of the royal flower gardens. A band made up of Luxurors were there, playing folk music for people to listen to or dance along with. She could also decide to bring them to a piano concert in the smaller theater in town. Overall, the garden visit was better since it was more to Walter's liking; he could fall asleep if they went to the piano concert instead.

The dinner part of the date was usually fun. They were given a rectangular table at the restaurant. As was custom, Flynn, Issachar, Walter, and Naverre took one side of the table while Isabeau, Kathy, Kathy's little sister Sarah, and Sarah's best friend Naomi took the other side. The restaurant made the same dishes for everyone, so they were started off with a large bowl of salad to split between them, one made with fresh autumn greens and vegetables. Two smaller bowls with salad dressings were given to them too, which amazed Issachar and Walter for having the choice.

"Well, that's normal for a restaurant like this to offer," Sarah said, unsure of what to make of their reaction. Flynn could glance at the two dressings and know what they were made of as well as the kind of effort that went into growing the ingredients and making the products. Some of those ingredients were rationed to Casualry too. For her raised as a Luxuror, she would only see what was offered on the table; she might not buy or make such basic things.

"We're not complaining, it's just not something that we've seen done," Walter said.

"And they let you take however much you want, which seems excessive," Issachar said, having chosen to take the oil and vinegar dressing but being careful not to use too much.

Not wanting this to get too into class politics, Flynn tried to shift the conversation with, "We need to get used to a lot of things still, even the dancing."

Kathy was technically the oldest of the group, and quick to take his suggested shift and push it before things got soured. "You're doing fine, I think you all danced well."

"We were doing dances we're already familiar with," Walter said. "Some of the ones Naverre's been trying to teach us seem needlessly complicated for something that's just supposed to be fun."

"It's a matter of pride and grace to be able to dance well," Naverre said. "And when you see such dances done well by a good couple, the results are simply breathtaking. Winter will be a popular time for dance shows and other indoors entertainment, so you should go see what can be done by dedicated people."

"Just go and watch other people dance?" Walter asked skeptically. "Sounds boring."

"Sometimes it is," Kathy said.

"Kathy, don't be so uncultured," Sarah said, shocked at this. But the older sister just laughed at that.

"Culture's not for everyone," Isabeau said, more relaxed than usual since she had her friend with her. "I love some parts, but can't stand others. Like I can get really involved in some concerts and plays, but other things where you're just a spectator, especially in sports, I can't get interested in it."

"I guess we should know something cultural so we don't look bad," Issachar said.

"Since you're samurai, most people will be forgiving since you're so new to all this," Kathy said. "And you guys should be pretty popular at the ball, since we can be sure we don't have to go look up birth records to make sure we're not trying to marry our second cousin or something."

"I guess that would be important," Naomi said.

"It's a big problem!" Kathy said. "I mean, me and Sarah can discount most guys associated with the monastery. And our older sister Linda got in trouble for eloping with a Casualry man, but that was easier in a sense."

"We're not supposed to call her our sister any more," Sarah said, sounding reluctant and unhappy with it.

"At this point, I don't care about that kind of thing," Kathy said, waving it off. "I miss her, and you don't yet realize what a pain dating can be."

"Does that seriously happen these days, eloping between classes?" Naverre asked, puzzled at it.

"More often than you realize," she answered. "I hear about it in the church, from the folks trying to get married and their parents. A lot of young men try to stay within class, but after a few years, the young women get sick of trying to find a decent man they're not closely related to. If it was talked about instead of ignored, I'd think more people would realize the problem there."

Overall, there were awkward points but things went well. Issachar seemed bothered by something afterwards, so Flynn invited him to chat in his room for a bit. "You haven't done anything at all with your dorm yet," Issachar said.

It was true; everything in here was the standard issue furnishings and books for a novice samurai, or the few things he'd had on him when he'd come from Kiccigiorgi. "I did change some things the first few times around, but then it didn't seem worth the bother," Flynn said. He would usually arrive in Tokyo by now or be heading out there soon, for one thing. For another, it cost an awful lot to get Marie prepared for the ball, along with his other plans.

"I guess not, but it seems like a bad thing to settle for," he said, rubbing his head. Then he brought up what he'd been thinking over. "Hoy, do you really think we'll be that popular? It seems strange, what with how the older masters treated us at first."

He nodded. "From what I've seen, yes. Samurai are honored enough that others would compete for our affections, and Kathy did raise a good point that we have no blood relations to any of the Luxurors. Romance isn't a large factor of these rites, so those two facts alone make us favorable." Hoping to encouraging him, he added, "And once they realize how intelligent and friendly you are, I'm sure you'll be very popular."

Issachar laughed nervously at that. "Exactly the opposite of what it was before, you think? Maybe. But, I'd think you'd attract a lot more since you're already recognized as a leader."

"With my attitude?" Flynn asked, raising an eyebrow. Then he chuckled since he meant it as a joke.

"I don't think that would put too many of them off," Issachar said, smiling. "Especially if you left your hair loose instead of tied up in a ponytail, then you could come across as beautiful as some of the girls."

He laughed, not believing that. "That'd be crazy. Besides, I'm only doing this all because it's expected of us. I have no intentions of actually starting a courtship. But, I think you should still try."

"What kind of sense does that make?" he asked. "I mean, I can understand why you'd not want to, given that you remember time restarting so much."

Flynn nodded. "Right, but I remember those times and you don't. This is your only life that you're aware of, so you may as well make the most of it. Doubly so since you're aware from me that things will go downhill eventually. We have some time for a peaceful life, so take advantage of that."

Despite that assurance, Issachar still looked concerned for him. "I can see that, but I'd feel bad if you weren't trying to do the same. You do remember and I understand if it'd make you uncomfortable if you got involved with someone and then something went wrong and you had to accept going back again. But then, you'd know there was someone you got along with well and you'd know she'd be there when things finally work out right."

"I hadn't thought about it that way," Flynn admitted, although the idea still make him uneasy. "But then, I don't have much time to spare for thinking about or planning on courtship. I've got a lot I'm trying to do before the next major event occurs and I haven't heard yet from some of my contacts." Specifically Nanashi, and possibly Krishna. Hearing from Nanashi was more important because he might send a message that would signal when Gabriel and Lilith would return to Mikado.

"You should still try," he said. "But since you mention it, how are things going with your plans?"

"Things are working so far," he said. "I've gotten Jonathan and Walter to read the pieces of Literature I wanted them to. Jonathan's doing well with Marie so far; a bit more ought to be enough to push him into ignoring social status, especially if he hears of others going outside of class bounds for love."

"He's definitely talking about her on occasion without suggestion," Issachar said. "Also, I can't go into details of it, but I've gotten him to start looking with me into some Mikado books that are considered forbidden to read."

"Good," Flynn said. He'd seen a few of those for himself during his times in the monastery; there were a few among them that would be good for Jonathan to read. "Did you find one called Celia's Musings?"

He nodded. "Sure, that's the one I have right now."

"Please make sure he reads that one, since it's a rare case of one of the Luxurors questioning Mikado society based on her own experiences. As for Walter…" Flynn rubbed his chin. "He could fall for Isabeau or Kathy. He was having fun, but I can't see quite yet which one he'll lean towards. Either woman would work to give him more reasons to live, as well as discourage him from falling too easily for a pair of more dangerous women we'll meet in the future."

"If you're going to put this much effort into helping them find love, can't you at least try for yourself?" Issachar asked.

"What's more important to me is that you all live through this and end up happier as a result," he said.

But as much as he knew that to be true, Flynn did wonder about Issachar's worries about him. He could force himself to accept a death as a means to learn more about finding this plan to avoid their deaths, even with Issachar. But doing the same to lose someone he grew to love in some manner… would it be too distracting? Would it tempt him to accept a partial victory if he got to be with his beloved? That was something the gods involved would try to convince him to do. Or could it actually help like having Issachar know about things this time?

And would he really look that attractive if he just wore his hair down?

* * *

'To Marie:

As much fun as it would be to surprise you with the perfect look by magic, we don't live in a fairy tale where that's feasible. Thus I have set up an appointment with a dressmaker for you to make sure you get something both beautiful and well-fit. It is someone you know well and can trust to work with you on this plan; she isn't aware of who I am, so show her this letter to prove that the plan is real. I've had sufficient materials and cost sent to her along with the design, so it should be almost done now.

Next time I contact you, I'll give you details of an appointment with a hair stylist and an invitation to the event.'

Marie clasped one hand in her other as her close friend Louisa read through the letter from the fairy godmother. She was trying not to be nervous, but this plan could fall apart if Louisa hadn't believed orders from someone that no one in the shop had meet. But, she hadn't told anybody about this plan. If Louisa knew and supported her, then it would be so much more exciting.

"By the heavens, you are the one from that fairy order!" Louisa said, her eyes shining in eagerness and her smile bright.

Yes, it was working! "Right! I've been working on this for a while now, and I'm glad you're the one who was asked to make my dress."

"It's been the most amazing thing I've gotten to work on, I'm so happy that you'll be wearing it!" Louisa said, handing the letter back over. "But who is this fairy, and who's the man you're both going to so much effort for? It's Jonathan, isn't it?"

"Of course, it's for Jonathan," Marie said. This was going to be so wonderful; she didn't really care what she wound up wearing, as long as it made Jonathan stop hesitating on accepting her.

Louisa giggled and took her arm. "You two are so cute together! And you both seem so happy at the Sabbaths; I really hope this works. But what about the fairy? We usually don't take such an anonymous order, but apparently they paid a lot to get it done."

"Sorry, I don't know who they are either. I mean, I hope they do come out of hiding, so I can thank them for this later on. The fairy says they're watching over Jonathan, but they've been so encouraging and helpful to me. I don't know if I'd have the courage to even admit my feelings privately to Jonathan if it wasn't for them."

"I hope you can thank them, because they really went all out. When I've been working on this, I thought that you'd look perfect in it, but it didn't seem possible. It's been put out as a display as partly done and many women wanted to buy it the instant they saw it."

"I don't know if I'd look perfect," Marie said, especially not compared to the other women that would surely be at the ball. "But you do brilliant work."

Louisa tugged at her. "No, you will! In fact, lately people have thought that we're making it for Princess Belinda. Come here, come see, it's in the fitting area."

"You're exaggerating again," Marie said, although she liked the idea of that being true.

But when she saw the dress being made for her… it seemed like her friend wasn't exaggerating at all.

* * *

'Virus Trojan

ALERT: Most demons of the Virus or Antivirus races are incompatible with or a threat to the Demon Summoning Program. It is highly advised that research is done on the specimen before forming a contract with a Virus demon.

'The Virus race of demons is a rarity itself, showing up exclusively in advanced civilizations with a high degree of computer usage and stable communications, with a higher presence in societies that have invented and embraced virtual realty technology. They are mostly restricted to computer devices, but can manifest physically under special conditions or with computer support. Viruses are generally Chaotic beings that are computer parasites or electronic anarchists. When Virus demons appear in great numbers, the development of Law-aligned Antivirus demons is highly likely.

'Trojan is a peculiar specimen of Virus as it is completely unable to possess of a will of its own if it exists independently. If it crops up on its own, it will easily be destroyed by Anti-Virus or other Virus demons. This situation is highly unlikely, as it normally appears in response to a summoner's calling. With a human summoner acting as its partner, Trojan becomes a highly tactical weapon that is capable of hacking reality itself. The summoner need not know how something can be accomplished as once the demon is given orders, it will do all it can to carry out its summoner's will.

'Trojan is recorded as having a social and cheerful personality that mimics habits and jokes commonplace on internet communities. It has no traditional combat skills and is an extremely poor choice for use in direct battle against other demons. If Trojan should fall unconscious, it is strongly recommended that the summoner dismiss the demon instead of reviving it. Reviving Trojan as an active demon has been recorded on several occasions as the cause of completely corrupting the demon summoning program. Aside from the revival bug, Trojan is mostly safe for use with the program. It may be illegal to own one and a number of demons may object to its presence, so caution is strongly advised when summoning Trojan.'

"So this demon is potentially illegal, something other demons might object to, capable of corrupting the summoning program itself, and can hack reality just like it hacked Kasumigaseki's systems," Nanashi said after reading the data entry on Trojan.

The demon in question was excitedly checking out the room he shared with the boss, currently plucking the strings of a guitar with its wires. Asahi watched it wistfully. "It doesn't seem like that at all. More like cute and harmless, like a toy."

"Well it is a Trojan, so its appearance won't match its purpose," he said. "Flynn only gave me this one with the demonica; the other three I apparently inherited from Akira. Aeshma and Mastema seem fine with working for me until we figure things out, but Minotaur is still following orders from Akira."

"Wow, Akira must have been quite a summoner if his demons are that loyal," Asahi said. "I've heard stories of demons abandoning dying summoners because they lost."

"They said I can't be his son, but I might be his grandson," Nanashi said, wondering again about his parents. Had they come from above the Firmament? If so, why did they come down to Tokyo?

Especially given what their fate had been.

* * *

The most vivid thing Nanashi remembered about his father was one of the last things he remembered about him. His father had been one of those who'd fought the horde of demons that had invaded Minami when the poisonous sludge filled the streets. While they had fought bravely, all the humans who'd made a stand that day had died. The demons then ate their bodies and the poison increased.

The strongest thing Nanashi remembered of his mother was when she handed him a cracker snack in unbroken plastic wrapping. Her hands had been raw and bloody from breaking the front of the vending machine. "I'm not hungry, but you need it. You need to get better and escape." She may have died shortly after that, or a few days after.

There hadn't been many children in town; Nanashi remembered being friends with most of them. The poison sludge had been a curiosity when it first appeared, leaking out of one of the buildings the adults worked in. When it had just been a trickle from the wall dropping into a discolored puddle, they had prodded at it and dared each other to touch it. When the adults decided it had to be stopped, the sludge was rapidly oozing through the streets and would not be stopped. The other children died, from demons, from horrific sudden poisonings, from the slow weakening poisoning that Nanashi got afflicted with. He remembered that one had been eaten while still alive.

At some point, he thought he was the only one left alive in the whole world.

Nanashi remembered that feeling well; he'd been crouched outside of one of the buildings, hoping that someone would come and help him. The poison ooze sometimes gurgled as it moved. It was the only thing outside of himself that he could hear. As he realized it was strange not to hear any of the demons whooping about or growling as they fought, another sound came in. The sound of horse hooves made his skin tingle in an instinctual horror that the other demons didn't cause. It was the kind of thing demons might be afraid of.

Being too weak to do anything about it, he looked over and saw that it was a very pale horse. The white of it stood out in the dark haze of the streets, yet it blended into the same haze. Its rider was cloaked in black and even harder to see as a result. When the horse stopped and the rider got off to approach him, Nanashi saw that this was no human. There was a bare skull under the large hood. The rider knelt down in front of him and put his bony hand under Nanashi's chin, to look at him eye to nonexistent eye. Despite the grip of fear, Nanashi remembered feeling strangely calmed by that, like things didn't matter anymore.

"The will of humanity to live is incredible sometimes," the skeleton said. "Even though…"

A gunshot fired, causing the pale horse to whinny in fright and its rider to become irritated.

The first thing Nanashi remembered about the boss, Toma, was that he challenged Death boldly, and won, all for the sake of a child he had never met before.

* * *

Nanashi had that look on his face, like he was remembering bad things again. Was he going to be okay? Sometimes he got like this and would be dark and gloomy for a few days. Asahi didn't like it. But then, she had a fairly safe life even though she heard of some of the terrors of being out on the streets of Tokyo. There had been times when food had been slim, but there'd always been something to get by on. Unlike her, Nanashi had lived through starvation, an illness that should have killed him, and demons invading what should have been a safe place. She could only imagine what that must be like, and she was lucky that way.

Then again, she didn't want Nanashi to get gloomy, not when he had this incredible chance given to him. "Hey, so was there any message from the mystery person who sent this demonica thingy to you?" she asked to distract him.

"Huh?" Nanashi blinked, then looked at the demonica's screen. "Oh, yeah, there is one but I haven't looked at it yet."

"Well why not?" she asked, nudging him to do so. "That seems like an important thing to figure out first."

"But you wanted to know about the demons," he said, smiling a little. Good, he should be okay as long as she kept his mind off gloomy things. "It's a video message, actually. Here, let me see if I can get this to play on the wall screen."

Fortunately, the demonica's AI was able to hook up to the wireless receptor in the video screen that was in this room. The video was shaky at points, like it had been made with the same kind of device. The first thing that caught Asahi's eye was the amount of greenery in the background. Thanks to some solar lamps from a hardware store aboveground, some plants were able to grow in Kinshicho. But those plants must be weak compared to the thickly leaved vibrant bushes pictured here. There were even bits of bright blue at the top of the video. Wherever this had been recorded, it was like nowhere she had seen before.

And the man who was making the video was handsome. His skin wasn't pale and he had eyes as intensely green as the bushes behind him. There was something about him, like he could be a hero they hadn't yet heard about. "Hello Nanashi, I'm Flynn. I'm sure Asahi is with you too; she would have bugged you to listen in from what I know of her."

Nanashi snorted trying to hold back a laugh at that. Asahi pouted at him for a moment, but he just raised an eyebrow. Somehow, this Flynn had guessed correctly that she'd be here to listen in as well.

"It's fine if she hears of this, probably better that she does," Flynn continued on. "I hope you were able to save Akihabara. I've never seen the place so I don't know what will come of saving it. I don't know what will come of many things I'm doing this time around, but I hope it will end up saving more people in the end."

"What's he talking about?" Asahi mumbled.

As if he'd expected her question, Flynn answered, "What I'm saying is that I know what the fate of our world should be. I don't like it at all, not what any possible future will be. Nanashi, I am working to change fate and in receiving the gauntlet of King Aquila, what you know of as a demonica, I am bringing you into my plans to change the world."

"Me?" Nanashi said. Asahi was surprised too. Was this really happening? It seemed like the kind of thing that happened in comic books.

Flynn continued on with guessing accurately what their responses would be. "I've seen what you are capable of and I know I can trust you to accomplish what must be done. You do need to train yourself to be much stronger, and more capable of using the demonica. You can also choose to keep out of this; it will turn violent and dangerous once things really get going. Even as we work to save as many as we can, it's inevitable that some people will be killed and many will suffer for it. But every other path I've seen, some of which I've sent along some evidence of, the fatalities and suffering are far worse. I hope you will work with me to make a truly better future.

"Whatever happened with the initial request I gave you, what you need to do next is a simple thing. I'm very sorry for what I'm going to do, but when you first see this video, I have set you up as a distraction for the puppeteers that are working up here above the Firmament in Mikado. You are being watched closely by opposing cosmic forces right now as they attempt to figure out what they think is going wrong.

"At this stage, they should not interfere much. They will send others in to question you, or watch you closer. You should meet those people soon, a girl named Toki and a boy named Hallelujah. I've sent along some pictures of them so you'll recognize them when they show up. Don't worry about those two. In truth, they will be good allies for you if you become friends with them and help them realize that they are being used before they make too many mistakes. But those that are manipulating them are not to be trusted.

"As for what I'd like you to do now, I need you to keep those manipulators distracted for as long as you can. All you need to do for that is to stay awake as long as you can. Once you fall asleep, you will have a strange dream where they will realize what's going on. I know you have a lot to do as a Hunter trainee and your master Nikkari will want to go back out to take care of food and supply gathering. So don't make yourself ill trying to do this.

"I don't know how much you know, but time flows differently outside of the Firmament. Tokyo moves at a much slower rate of time than Mikado does. If you can stay up for a few hours, you'll end up giving me a few months to do all that I need to get done before events send me down to Tokyo. I need to persuade two people to make different choices well before the arrival of their fateful decisions, and I will probably not end up with them when they have to decide. At this point, time is very valuable and your distraction is vital in that. If you can, send me a message through the demonica when you decide to go to sleep so that I can prepare for the next stage of events.

"When you wake up, there's a good chance that I will already be in Tokyo doing work down there. We should get a chance to talk then, even if it's just through the demonicas. Let me know if there's anything in particular that you want to get done. By the time we usually meet up, you've already been pulled into the schemes of gods who have little consideration to what you actually want. I admit that I am using you for my own schemes too, but I respect your agency and will do what I can to adapt my plans to include what you want.

"About those gods…" Flynn closed his eyes and seemed troubled briefly. But he quickly calmed down and looked back at them in the recording. "There is one in particular that has had a consistent interest in you. His name is Dagda; he is a god of knowledge, harvest, and healing, but such things have been perverted on a large scale for a long time. As he has lost his status as a deity and all believers, he is very pessimistic and disillusioned now. He is a dangerous being to get involved with, yet he can be a powerful ally if he can be given hope again. If that can be done, it will be a hard argument to win.

"My plans should make it less certain that you end up forced to work for Dagda. But if you end up in a situation where he offers you power, do what you feel is right. I trust your judgment on that and I will back you up if that ends up putting you in danger. He will attempt to take control of the arrangement; you should keep firmly in mind that if he does offer you a deal, it's because he needs you and cannot complete his plans without your help. The plans I have seen out of him should not be completable when my plans work. However, we must keep in mind that gods are stubborn and will keep trying to make their plans work even as the flaws become apparent. I'm telling you all this so that you don't get caught off guard.

"I've given you the most immediate warnings and information you need right now, and I'll let you know more when we can next discuss things. We have worked together before in what I can remember. I hope we can work together to make things right once again. As for what I've said in this video, be careful who you tell about these things. It is hard to believe for most, but the demons would believe it and take advantage of the knowledge. I haven't gotten to speak with Nikkari much, but you held him in great respect, so I believe he could be trusted with this information if he'll believe it.

"And Asahi? I hope you will help Nanashi however you can, especially in keeping up his hopes. Dark times are coming and we cannot lose sight of what's truly important." The video ended right there.

They were both silent for a moment after it ended; it was a lot to take in. But there was only one thing she could think of to say right off. "Wow, that's so cool!"

"That we're getting roped into weird plans involving gods that will bring us war between angels and demons?" Nanashi asked.

"Well, okay, so that could be really bad," she admitted. "But! You've been called to make a better future than even fate can imagine. That's what's so cool, I think it's really exciting."

"It could be," he said. "So all I have to do now is stay awake and wait on two new friends?" He stretched his arms behind him. "Geez, I don't know. We were out for quite a while, and then had to hurry back. It's been a long day."

"Not that long, we've been on much longer patrols before," she insisted.

"And your dad is going to come in soon wanting to get some sleep," he pointed out. "Your roommates too."

"We can go watch movies in the public lounge," Asahi suggested. "And that'd be a good way to make new friends, whenever those two decide to arrive. Come on, if we catch Manabu quick, we can ask to see those videos he kept away from the Ashura-kai inspectors the other day."

"Sure, let's try to convince them," Nanashi agreed, recalling Trojan to his demonica before heading out with her.


	19. Fashion Standards

**Chapter 19: Fashion Standards**

'People have told me that they admire my marriage, as if it were some ideal. They say it's because we're good hosts, we keep a good home, we work together peacefully, and we have well-behaved children. But in my private thoughts, I feel greatly dissatisfied with it. My children are a wonder and blessing, that is true. I feel happy and proud to see them grow. But as for my husband, I feel as though I am married to a wooden statue. He is so unimaginably dull and I suspect he has no emotions at all. He speaks words but his eyes seem to find no meaning in them. For some reason, my parents and friends all thought he was a perfect match to me.

'I was happy they thought so when I was younger, but these days I wonder if it was some kind of insult. Perhaps unintentionally so. When I listen to the Casualry women speak of how their husbands romanced them and won their hearts by treating them as someone special and precious, I can't help but feel jealous of it. They might complain about their husbands from time to time, but you can still hear love in their words. Those wives feel as though their husbands are special and precious to them too.

'I feel as though I would be glad to give up all the wealth and finery in the world if I could be in love like that.'

-From _Celia's Musings_

"People say that about my parents," Jonathan said to himself as he paused in his reading. "I wonder… would they say that they're happy with it? They seem to be, and yet, would I even know?" He should know, since they were his parents. Yet the private thoughts and feelings of people often went unknown to others.

Was happiness even important to marriage, though? He remembered many sermons from church on marriage, that it was a foundation of a good and strong community, that it directed potentially disruptive emotions into more peaceful ends. If you could keep your eyes and heart on your life partner, then you could avoid the perils of lust. That was good, it made sense. And yet, Celia here wrote of feeling dissatisfied and jealous because her husband couldn't keep her happy. It also made sense that if you could keep your partner happy, and if they could keep you happy, then you could keep satisfied and lust for others would never appeal to you.

There was a knock at the door of his dorm. There had been quite a lot of talking and noise earlier since the ball was tomorrow, but things had quieted down. "Come on in," Jonathan said, putting a bookmark in place.

Issachar came in. "Sorry for coming by this late, but I just wanted to return this book to you," he said, handing over the Book of Deviants. "I didn't finish it as it's unpleasant to read."

"I agree with that," he said sympathetically, taking the book back. "It acts like you'll suffer in hellfire and awful punishments for the slightest imperfection. I don't think anyone is perfect enough to not hit on something in here. Even my family would be considered deviants just for keeping the books we do."

Nodding, he said, "Right, I kept coming across deviations that hit all too close to me. And some that didn't, but they bother me anyhow and this writer had a vast imagination for punishment." He shook his head, still troubled by it.

Hoping he could cheer him up a little, Jonathan said, "Yes, and I think that kind of thing was also listed as a deviant trait with a matching horrible punishment. They got terribly carried away with everything. Many of the traits seem like something that should be forgivable and hardly any of them deserve the punishment called for."

"I hope they're forgivable or the world is much too cruel," Issachar said. "I'll just read something lighter tonight; I don't want to be gloomy or distracted for tomorrow."

"That's true," he said. "Did you get to read that Alice in Wonderland book? It's quite amusing, once you get around the idea that the Alice of that book is not the same as the Alice we met even with the same name and look."

"There's a book about her?" he asked.

Jonathan nodded and got up to retrieve it from his bookshelf. "Marie traded it to me. Although speaking of Alice, what became of her? I've kept Thoth around because he helps me understand some of the more difficult pieces of Literature."

"Flynn says he fused her into a different demon," Issachar said. "I'm still worried about him since if she is truly a special case among demons, she might be able to show back up and get back at him if she didn't like that. But so far, he doesn't seem to have been bothered for it."

"I hope that doesn't come back to bite him," Jonathan said, handing him the book. "But, would you mind returning that when you're done with it? I think I want to keep it."

"Because you got it from Marie?" he asked, smiling at that.

"Well, no," he said, his face getting warm. "It's, well…"

"It's fine, I'll get it back to you soon," Issachar said.

Once Issachar had left, Jonathan glanced over the new collection of Literature that he'd started. And he noticed, a number of the books that he was wanting to keep were ones that Marie had given to him. "I guess we just have similar tastes or something," Jonathan said to himself. "Or they're books I mean to get back to her…" his hand paused over a thin book of Literature that claimed to be another fairy tale. "I wonder, if she showed up at the ball tomorrow…"

No, that couldn't happen. She wouldn't be let inside.

But, what if she was…?

* * *

The Autumn Ball would take up most of the afternoon. If a couple hit it off particularly well, one of them might invite the other to have dinner with their family. That was seen as the ideal outcome, although Flynn didn't plan on doing that this year. Next time… well, there might not be a next time at such an event, as he'd likely be down in Tokyo this time next year. Or he'd be preparing too, if Nanashi happened to gain him a lot of extra time. But Flynn figured that Gabriel and Lilith would get impatient and not want to wait around too long in Tokyo once they started suspecting things.

More close at hand, today was very important. He made sure to get busy this morning (doing some upkeep on his weapons and gauntlet) so that he was a little late on getting prepared. Flynn was sure he'd make it in good time; he just didn't want to get there early. And if he got to the ball at not quite the right time, he could wait a little ways off until the person he needed to trail arrived. There was a potential problem that he'd need to be right there to sort out if it came up.

A beep on the table got his attention from brushing out his hair. Since this was a formal event, he was leaving the gauntlet behind. "Master, you have a message from Nanashi," Burroughs said.

He had better check that. He picked up the gauntlet, keeping his grip near the wrist sensor so that the screen would activate. With this message, he should get a good idea of how long he had.

'To Flynn - Thanks for the demonica; I'll take good care of it. We were able to save Akihabara, which is good for my mentor and I since we've been trying to investigate the Toyosu area and the attack might have taken out the bridge south too. But what's going on with Ikebukuro?

There was a brownout a little while ago, so I'm stuck home in Kinshicho as it is. I've never met anyone named Toki or Hallelujah, but if they show up at the gates, they'll surely be let in due to the alerts still active in this area. I'm going to let the guards know just in case, then Asahi and I are going to watch a couple of movies to try staying up. We were out for several hours before the power failure, so I don't think I can stay up too long. Maybe four hours if I can stay up through both movies? I'll try to message you before I get too tired.

When I was watching the video you sent, I had a very strong feeling that I already know you. Mastema and Aeshma weren't sure what to make of me, whether I'm Akira's grandson or I'm Akira reborn somehow. Do you know anything more about that? - From Nanashi'

Maybe four hours… that was about six months, giving him autumn and winter to work with. It wasn't as much time as he'd like, but it should still be workable. Jonathan and Walter were showing good progress towards shifting away from extremes rather than unconsciously moving towards them. After some searching in files he kept, he was able to locate an old photo he'd downloaded from the JDSF computers. It was not from this life he kept repeating, but a life from before that, one that he was sure that he'd only lived three times at most. His memories of that time were vague dreams by now, but if he had gotten caught in a loop before, he was sure at least two people would know about it. They hadn't mentioned anything that suggested that.

In that distant life, he'd not worked with Akira. But he knew that Akira would be familiar with him and his two friends in this photo: Kiyoharu and Kenji. He attached the photo to a new message before writing it out.

'To Nanashi - If you can manage to stay awake four hours from now, that would work. And the fact that we've saved Akihabara means that we're already ahead of the game. As for Ikebukuro, you may have heard that there's been a rebellion against the Ashura-kai in that area. The Ring of Gaea did encourage that, but more importantly, a demon goddess named Xi Wangmu encouraged it as a means to escape the Ashura-kai's restrictions. She wanted to drive them out so that she could set up a powerful domain and eat as many humans as she pleases. At this time, she should have succeeded at that; the timing made it so I couldn't stop that. Ikebukuro is currently a man-eating city, as I've heard it said, so any way you could discourage others from going there would be for the best.

If you feel like you know me already, then what do you think of the people in this picture? It would be best if you can figure your connection to Akira out yourself, but this may give you some clues. The dream you will have when you do go to sleep should also give you clues, so I recommend writing down as much as you can remember of it when you wake up. - From Flynn'

That should do; he sent it off, then got back to preparing for the afternoon. If Nanashi decided to reply to this, his message would arrive after the ball due to the time delay.

Flynn didn't feel comfortable in the elaborate outfits that many Luxurors wore, so there was still some time to stall by the time he was ready. While he was weighing the option of going now and waiting, there was a knock on the door. He went over and opened it. "Yes?"

It was Naverre, and of course he had gone for an elaborate outfit for the ball. He had an embroidered vest under a gemstone-decorated jacket, over a ruffled shirt, with gold pins on the cuffs and shoes polished enough to reflect the sunlight. He started to say one thing, gave him a good look over, then frowned. "Is that what you mean to wear to the ball? Or are you not done yet?"

"This is it," Flynn said. "I don't want to be too elaborate; that's not me."

Naverre shook his head. "No, no, that won't do. There is a certain elegance to being understated, yes, and your hair is actually rather stunning when left down like this. But you're understated to the point that it looks like you don't want people to pay attention to you." He put a hand on Flynn's shoulder; Flynn wasn't sure what to make of this, but waited patiently to see what would happen. "Just this white shirt, and the navy vest and matching pants, that's nice but the black of your hair makes the dark colors too dominant. You could use, hmm, a bit of lighter color to pop out, some detail that would signify some interest or aspect of yourself so people have a better idea of who you might be on looking at you. Do you have any jewelry or accessories?"

"I never wanted any," he said. "I just have the white scarf for my uniform."

"Oh dear, well look, come with me and you can borrow something of mine," Naverre said, tugging him out of his room. "Since this is a major event, I was able to bring one of my family's jewelry chests here. There's plenty for you to borrow something."

"Why are you doing this?" Flynn asked, resisting for the moment. He didn't want to stand out too much; this was not a good time for him to be considering something like courtship. And of all people that might fuss over him for that, he had not expected Naverre to be one.

But he briefly looked desperate and pleaded, "Please, help me out with helping you, okay? My parents weren't talking to me for months after the rite, but I finally got a chance to speak with my father the other day. He tried to convince me to quit being a samurai and I tried to convince him to let me stay. And the thing is, he's going to be at the ball as the grand host and one of the things I told him was that I was helping you, Issachar, and Walter out in adjusting to social customs you weren't used to."

"You have been doing that," he said.

Naverre nodded. "Right, I've done what I can. So if you show up looking like this when you're the leader of our unit, my father will most definitely consider that a failure on my part to support your education as a Luxuror properly. I already helped Issachar and Walter pick out appropriate attire, but you managed to never be around when I had time to offer help. My father already threatened to disown me for staying a samurai, and that would be an absolute disaster even if it let me stay here. At this point, we can get away with understated but it can't be too much so."

This reminded Flynn uncomfortably of the times when he'd escorted Naverre down to Tokyo to escape the wrath of the angels wiping out nearly all of the Luxurors as a way to assert their absolute authority over Mikado. In those times, Naverre had been a complete wreck of a person. He would be distraught over the mere thought of his parents and them disowning him for ending up ruined by Alarune. And, saving him from the angels never mattered since he'd end up taking his own life somewhere in Tokyo.

Maybe he'd saved him from Alarune, but maybe failing to do this would get Naverre disowned and he'd end up dangerously depressed. "All right, but I really don't want anything too elaborate," Flynn said.

Naverre's eyes lit up at this. "Great, that's fine, that's just fine since we don't have much time. As I said, just an accent piece or two, I can think of a few that should took good with that already."

Unexpectedly, Naverre had not done much to his room either. Perhaps it was an effect of his parents not contacting him and the long time he'd been limited on what he could do because of his health. But he had a few fancier touches: different curtains, a copy of his family crest hanging on the wall over the fireplace, a more elegant tea set. On the table, he currently had the jewelry chest sitting open with some pieces still scatted across the table. Various cuff links, some decorative chains, rings, necklaces… Naverre opened a drawer with pins to try finding one for him.

But there was something off to the side that caught Flynn's eye immediately: a peach-colored lotus on a metal clip. It couldn't be real and seemed to be made of silk. It reminded him of Vishnu, which should remind him of worse times and personally painful memories. But, something about the sight of the lotus calmed him. Vishnu could be aggressive in battle; he used swords of magic masterfully as both magic and sword. But he would also keep a lotus with him. The lotus never came to harm in any of Flynn's memories, no matter how the battles turned out. Even when he was enraged, the lotus was safe.

What did the lotus mean? It felt like something personal, something very important… perhaps he really was still partly Vishnu even in this time, just by having memories of being him. But those memories weren't complete because he couldn't explain the lotus.

"What's this?" he asked, picking up the lotus clip.

"That's a hairclip of a lotus flower," Naverre said. "You might have seen one during the summer; it's specially cultivated here in the capitol as a prestigious bloom. It's a symbol of wisdom and serenity, but they do take a great deal of care to stay alive."

"It reminds me of something, but it's not easy to explain," Flynn said. Something flitted through his mind, that it was a flower native to India and it grew perfectly well on its own there. But up here in the heights above Tokyo, it would need special care and protection.

"Normally that one gets clustered with other floral hair clips, or adapted to a hat accent," Naverre said, looking at it thoughtfully. "But if that flower speaks to you, and we don't want to get too complicated… and your hair style, yes, we could take small strands from the sides of your hair, and clip them back with this. Just the single flower shouldn't look too feminine, but it would be unexpected enough to pull interest towards you. And if we do a pin on your vest with something related to you being a samurai, that could do quite nicely."

"I've not done any styling of my hair other than the ponytail," he said. Although, he had to explain to the barber here in the capitol about the particular style that he'd learned from his father.

"Don't worry, I've got it," Naverre said, taking a comb and helping him get the extra touches in place.

* * *

The Autumn Ball was supposed to help one find a potential spouse. Naverre found himself using this time to try making amends with his family instead. In the end, it could help with finding a spouse anyhow since gossip spread and the ladies would be hesitant with a man on shaky relations with his family. For now, it meant taking his lessons as a serious challenge, doing even low ranking jobs to make sure he had a good reputation with the master samurai, checking his own pride to make sure people around the city didn't have complaints with him, and helping the three Casualry born samurai come up to the standards expected at the Autumn Ball. Sometimes he remembered the mocking voices of demons in his thoughts, but he used that to push himself towards being better.

Once he got used to being careful with his boasts, Naverre found it surprisingly easy to get accepted by others as a samurai. He'd expected people to continue on as they had: arguing at the least provocation, putting him down to feel better about themselves, or resisting shows of gratitude or respect. There were still a few who didn't want to respect him, but more and more folks were being friendly with him. Why, just yesterday he'd gotten into a lengthy conversation with one of the samurai outside of his family's circle of interest. It had been quite informative on how to deal with certain demons in Naruku that Naverre often had trouble with.

Getting the Casulary born prepared for the ball had been some hassle. Walter seemed naturally rough in his character; the manners expected from good breeding came out weak and false when he tried to follow them to the letter. Then he would get frustrated and go off to punch something. And then the fuss over his attire! The ball expected modesty and finery in dress, both of which were also unnatural to Walter. It had taken a brisk early chill to convince him to wear a proper shirt with his samurai coat.

After a great deal of back and forth (and a burst of tears from the tailor trying to work with them), they had settled on a short-sleeved shirt, matching pants with some ornate patterns along the sides, and a hat to try smoothing out the wild nature of his hair. It ran close to being under-dressed for the occasion. However, one of the obvious attractive points to Walter was his strong build. More formal attire did not work well with his physique. And if he 'forgot' the hat (which seemed very likely), Walter would at least look authentic to his personality. That could still be attractive to the ladies in attendance, or at least warn them that he wasn't as polished as they were used to.

And then Issachar had the polar opposite problem. He quickly had the manners down pat and his native intelligence made one mistake him for a Luxuror born once he got to talking. But he had no confidence in his appearance and was extremely anxious about standing out too much. When the Autumn Ball was all about trying to stand out, Issachar was just as much of a fish out of water as Walter. It had taken a great dealing of coaxing and coaching to get Issachar to step up his grooming game and accept that he should at least try to be attractive.

Walter had been a case of just accepting what he could take, but Naverre was proud of how he'd transformed Issachar. He was used to a kind of poncho from the style of his hometown, so he'd been talked into wearing a decorative cape and other formal pieces that made him look very classy. Issachar's dark blond hair was naturally dry and stiff, but a couple of weeks of conditioning and treatment had smoothed it out and softened it up. As he still wanted to keep a ponytail, Naverre had let him borrow a jeweled hair clip to be more fitting of the setting. No one should have any hesitation of going to speak with him, which was where he shone. Although, Naverre still worried about if Issachar would let his nerves get to him too much.

And then Flynn! Naverre didn't know if Flynn had intentionally avoided him or not once he started talking about their outfits for the ball. But then it seemed like whenever Naverre had time, Flynn was never around. The manners of a Luxuror came strangely natural to Flynn, albeit he was still a quiet person and he neglected an awful lot of particulars. Still, he managed to never come across as rude which worked well enough. He was reluctant when it came to socializing, which was unfortunate, but at least he wouldn't be out to cause trouble.

Being unable to help him until the very morning of the ball was unfortunate. Especially with what he had chosen for himself. If Flynn had gone in with just the simple attire he had started with, he might have been mistaken for a servant! It was unthinkable! Thankfully, Flynn had agreed to Naverre's last minute advice and now he looked exotic instead, like he'd drifted in from some previously unknown land. The lotus was strangely fitting for him. That and his long dark hair gave him an androgynous allure that no one else at the ball would have. If Naverre had had his way, he would have dressed Flynn in something much more elaborate. But, maybe this was a better result.

As it was, the others prentices had already gone over to the ball by the time Flynn and Naverre headed out. They talked on the way over… well, it was mostly Naverre talking, but Flynn listened attentively as he often did. "I do have to win over my parents, but at least I can be sure my brother Gaston is on my side," Naverre said as he ended up talking more about his troubles with his parents.

"Gaston?" Flynn asked. "I've seen him in K's Tavern occasionally, asking around about you."

"He does go over there when he has free time, hoping to run into me," Naverre said. "Since our parents wouldn't listen to me, he's had to single-handedly convince them to give me a chance. They're very stubborn and proud people, but I think Gaston's turned out twice as stubborn as both of them! He persisted and would not give up in finding new ways to change their minds. Of course, I have a feeling that he'd like to become a samurai as well, so it's in his best interest to get them to accept me first."

"No, I think he admires his big brother too much to give up," Flynn said, smirking a little.

"Oh well," he got embarrassed at that, but smiled all the same. "You know, whenever I think about how hard he's trying to bridge the gap between me and my parents, I want to work just as hard to be worthy of that admiration. It's kind of strange, since I used to be confidant that I was the best out of everyone and I could do whatever I wanted with ease. That attitude got me a lot of vitriol, though. Now that I feel like I need to work hard to be where I should be, people seem to respect me more and I don't feel pressured to make sure everyone admires me. I mostly just want to match what my brother believes of me."

"It sounds a lot easier to be working for one person's admiration rather than everyone's," he said.

"That's true," Naverre admitted, glancing at a carriage that was slowing ahead of them, in front of the large public dance hall where the Autumn Ball was being held. There was some mud on the wheels, which seemed very odd.

The door opened up and a footman opened up the door to help the guest out. And the lady who stepped out of the carriage… well she was a breath-taking sight, like she was a magical being who appeared to inspire all who saw her to goodness and beauty. She wore a gorgeous shimmering ball gown that was a touch unearthly, and her lovely red hair was adorned with pearls and golden stars. Wait… that red hair… and her face, while pure and beautiful, seemed like one that he had seen before in an entirely different context.

Whispering low to Flynn, Naverre asked, "I-isn't that Marie, the girl from the Casualry bakery?"

"Yes, I think she is," Flynn whispered back.

"What is she doing here?" Naverre wondered. "I mean, she's sure to be the belle of the ball looking like that, but she's Casualry and I don't think the doormen will recognize her or let her in. How did she even acquire such lovely clothes?"

"She's probably here to try winning Jonathan's heart, although I can't explain the clothes," Flynn said.

That was true. As much as Jonathan tried to deny his attraction to her, he seemed to be attending Sabbaths lately just to talk to her. Naverre had even seen him while off-duty at the bakery just to talk with her and her father. But mostly her, he suspected. There was something… well, something very romantic about it. Just imagine: a beautiful dream where the plain Casualry girl shows up as this angelic beauty at the biggest social event of the year, and everyone would see her as a beauty equal to the princess herself (or even greater!), but her eyes were for one man alone and all his hesitation would surely melt away seeing her like this.

Naverre glanced over at the doormen who were checking invitations and guests. Knowing who they were… those two would not let her in even if she somehow had an invitation. They wouldn't because they would not recognize her, and they prided themselves on knowing every person of noble birth in the kingdom. They would let Flynn, Walter, and Issachar in because the three of them were samurai, but Marie had no such luck. But maybe… no, Naverre knew that his father would have a fit about a Casualry slipping into a Luxuror event. Naverre was already on shaky terms with his father; trying to intervene now might sink any chance of repairing that relationship.

But… just imagine the romance and drama! And when else would such an opportunity and circumstance pop up? This was just a support role, just enough to get Marie in the door and accepted as the honored guest she should be looking like that. If she got turned away, hardly anyone would be talking about her. But if she got inside as a guest of honor, everyone would be talking about it. And just as a good host of a party should be proud of an event well enjoyed by the guest, perhaps Naverre could be proud of a support role to make such a dream into reality.

"It'd be unfortunate if she did this much work only to get turned away at the door," Flynn said, sounding like he was thinking of intervening himself.

"That's true," Naverre said, but then held a hand up to him. "Look, I know you're the leader of our squad, but I have much greater social credentials with these people. I can handle this."

Flynn smiled at that. "All right, go ahead."

Naverre nodded, then moved ahead to catch Marie before she got to the doormen. "Ah, Miss Marie, wonderful to see you today!"

Jumping at his sudden greeting, Marie turned to them nervously, but soon smiled. "Oh, w-wonderful to see you too, Naverre… Flynn… um, where are the others of your group?"

"They went in ahead of us," Flynn said.

"You look lovely today," Naverre said, then dropped his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, "but you know, the doormen here won't recognize you, and might object to you coming inside."

"Oh…" she bit her lip, already worried about that. "I have an invitation, and it's official."

He smiled reassuringly at her. "Splendid! Then how about you accompany me as my guest? I shall tell the doormen and other staff that you are to be treated as my sister, as a guest of greatest honor."

Marie stared at him, not quite believing it. "Can you do that?"

Nodding, he offered to take her hand. "Of course I can! Now, if I tell them to treat you as my sister, that of course means I must also treat you as my sister, making sure that you are safe and treated properly during the ball, and that either I escort you back home or I make sure that you are in capable trustworthy hands when you leave. But even as lovely as you are, I believe I can make such a sacrifice to ensure that you are treated well today."

On realizing that he had no intentions of standing between her and Jonathan, Marie brightened up at offer. "Oh, then thank you for being so generous, my dear brother. I've been looking forward to today, and it will be reassuring to have someone like you watching over me." She took his hand, then added, "Um, are you the fairy that's been helping me all along?"

A fairy? Wondering who that was, Naverre shook his head. "I'm afraid not. I simply cannot stand the idea of a princess such as yourself being denied at the door when you should be a shining star to make this event memorable."

"Right," Flynn said from behind them. "I hope others see this as the wonderful experience it should be too."

The doormen did object to letting in someone they didn't recognize, but soon relented as Naverre took responsibility for her being there as his guest.


	20. When Beauty Reveals Truth

**Chapter 20: When Beauty Reveals Truth**

Issachar had been in the public dance hall before; Naverre had brought them here a few times on their dance lessons. It had been grand before, if a bit empty with their sometimes clumsy footsteps echoing on the stone floor. At one end, a raised stage gave space for an orchestra to play. At the other end, a grand staircase made for an entrance where newcomers could be spotted and admired. To the sides, there were halls leading out to smaller rooms that were used for conversations, courtship interviews, or smaller social gatherings. Naverre had called it a grand stage for the many dramas that would play out in events here.

But today, the dance hall proved to be a far grander stage than Issachar had realized. They'd brought out an enormous chandelier from somewhere, polished up and lit with many candles to bestow a warm light over everything. Beautiful vases overflowing with fresh flowers were spread everywhere to bring spots of color and fragrance indoors. On tables to the sides, there was a spread of delicacies and sparkling drinks in elegant glasses that all looked more like pieces of art rather than snacks. And there were servants around who seemed more like Luxuors than the usual Casualry servants; they responded to the requests of the guests with polite unobtrusive dignity. All the guests were equally dignified, and more beautiful than he'd ever seen others as being.

He really didn't belong here. Issachar had tried, he really had. While he still felt unfitting of these expensive clothes, he thought he'd at least look the part he was trying to play. He'd used those dark bottles of oils and soaps that Naverre felt would fix his hair, and it did look better than he'd expected. But compared to the actual Luxurors who were used to all this grandeur and beauty, he felt like he was some bug that had slipped in, one that'd be shooed out once the others realized he didn't match them.

At least stay here for an hour, Issachar tried to convince himself. Maybe he'd find someone interesting to talk with. He didn't want to go out on the dance floor where a few couples were already twirling around. It was all too easy to start watching them, and he'd feel like all eyes were really on him if he ended up there. But if he could stick around for a little while, he wouldn't feel so bad about escaping when he did.

And he could have a bit of fun with his fellow prentices, especially since he came across Jonathan and Walter speaking together. "Walter, I thought you had a hat," Issachar said, smiling at him.

While he stood out more obviously, Walter seemed to have no problem with that. Issachar had already heard some of the ladies talking about him with interest. "It was an annoyance and would have fallen off anyhow," Walter said.

"You'd have to pin anything in place on that bramble of hair," Jonathan said, smiling in amusement. Of course, he wore his dressy attire naturally, looking every bit a refined gentleman.

"Well if they don't like my hair, they probably won't like me," Walter said. "But you're looking pretty stylish, Issachar; wouldn't have expected this out of you."

"Oh, well…" they were friends, so he could be honest, "I feel awkward like this," he said quietly.

"Don't worry so much, you look good," Jonathan said, trying to encourage him. "And you shouldn't need to dress up like this often."

"Guess I'll have to make the most of it," he said. Then he noticed a hush in the conversations around him. People were looking off to the entrance, which he had a good view of. Naverre was coming down the stairs, but far more eye-catching was the woman he was coming in with. Was that the princess people talked about? Or no, that hair… "Hoy, is that Marie?"

"What?" Walter asked, looking over at the stairs at the same time as Jonathan. He raised his eyebrows on seeing her. "Yeah, I think that is. Wow, when did she get that get-up?"

Next to him, Jonathan was staring. "Hnngh ndd naa," he fumbled, caught completely by surprise at this.

Walter laughed at it. "Oh no, we broke Jonathan!"

Laughing too, Issachar patted him on the back. "Come on, get it together."

"I-I'm fine, no really," Jonathan stammered out. He tried to hold back and stay with them, but once Marie and Naverre got to the bottom of the stairs and started glancing around for them, he headed over. "Marie?" he called over, not heeding the others who were watching things play out.

Marie beamed and let go of Naverre's hand to meet with him. "Jonathan! Hello, you look wonderful today!"

He couldn't manage an immediate reply, instead taking both of her hands once they got close enough. Although, wasn't that rather forward of him before they were officially courting? There were whispers around them. "Ah, hello…. I have no words to say how beautiful you are, just…" he still seemed dazed as Issachar and Walter caught up with him. "I didn't expect to see you here today."

"I had some help from a fairy watching over both of us," she said happily.

"And a bit from me, otherwise there may have been trouble at the door," Naverre said. "I got her in as my guest and I'll be informing the staff to treat her like my sister. So you had best watch over her closely and make sure others treat her well too, Jonathan."

"Oh, uh, sure thing," he said. "Thanks Naverre."

"No problem," Naverre said, smiling warmly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I do need to talk to the staff. I'll be keeping an eye out for you both." He then strode off, taking his chosen role seriously.

"I suppose we'd better stay out in the open if he's going to do that," Jonathan said. "Do you want to go over to the dance floor?"

"Sure!" And with that, the two of them were off in their own little world.

"You know, I think he's already hit the jackpot here," Walter said, impressed at it.

"Yeah, that was something else," Issachar agreed. How much money had Flynn spent getting her prepared like that? However much it was, it would surely work as he wanted.

"I'm glad that went well," Flynn said, appearing by them without warning.

"Whoa, where did you come from?" Walter said, turning to him quickly.

"I came in with them, but they drew all the attention," he said.

"This isn't the time to be practicing sneaking around," Walter said, joking now.

Flynn smirked and retorted, "You should have noticed."

Meanwhile, Issachar felt faintly grateful that Walter was joking around because Flynn… well he wasn't half as richly dressed as anyone else here, much less Marie. But he seemed all the more stunning for it. He'd even wore his hair mostly loose, like Issachar had suggested but somehow pulling it off even better like this. The lotus in his hair seemed to faintly glow and… well he was somehow more beautiful than many of the ladies Issachar had seen here. His heart was pounding, perhaps like Jonathan had felt just a moment before.

As soon as Issachar thought that, a a sense of dread came over him. This was not good. "It's surprising though, if you came with Naverre and got away with a simple outfit like that," Issachar said. "He insisted on helping me find this outfit, and he tried to make Walter wear a hat."

"It was a stupid hat and I had to fight him tooth and nail to get down to something like this," Walter said, rolling his eyes.

"You couldn't pull off a Luxuror outfit if you tried," Flynn said, still teasing Walter.

"Well I am not trying any further, thank you very much," Walter said haughtily. "But just you watch; I'll have a number of the ladies after me with this minimal effort. I just can't go bare minimum and get rid of the shirt yet." He then set off into the crowd, presumably to try making good on his word. Or at least having fun trying to do so.

Issachar briefly wished he could have that kind of attitude, or confidence. Then he realized, that left him talking with just Flynn for the moment, in this crowd where so many people could see them. If he could just slink into the shadows and get away as efficiently as Flynn slipped in… "Why do I have the feeling that we're going to have to make sure he stays respectably dressed?" Issachar said, trying to keep up the jokes.

"We could tell Isabeau and have her get after him, if she'll do it," Flynn said, still light-hearted for the moment. Issachar found himself smiling at that; given all the dark serious matters he'd heard about that made his best friend so much older than him now, it was nice seeing him having fun and enjoying a moment's victory. Then Flynn looked at him and Issachar found it hard to think somehow. "Naverre did insist on having me borrow the lotus and sword pin, although I am glad for the lotus."

"I've never seen a flower like that before," Issachar said, tossing out a number of ideas on what to say in favor of, "but it does work nicely with your hair like that."

"It makes me feel calmer and I'm not sure why," Flynn said, his voice softening as a strange expression flitted across his face. But he shook himself out of it quickly. "It's complicated, I could tell you about it later."

"Sure," he said. Why did his mind have to be like this? There were impulses that he shouldn't even have…

"He did a good job with you, since you look quite dashing today," Flynn said, not hesitant at all in saying so. "Seems like there's a few girls over there who are thinking about talking to you already."

But he didn't want to talk with them! "Uh, well…" no, no, he should go try talking with the women here. That was the whole point, wasn't it? And he'd surely find one who could distract him from this, right, that had to happen. "I don't think I'm suited for fancy things either, but if I do find someone interesting, it will be worth the trouble."

"I hope you do find someone who makes you happy here," Flynn said, honest and sincere. "Excuse me, but I'll see if I can't catch up with you later. I need to find Naverre's father and speak with him, because otherwise Naverre is on thin ice with his parents and this scene with Marie could make it worse."

"Really?" Issachar said, worried about it. "Good luck with that. And, uh, don't neglect yourself either, okay?"

"I'll try," he said, then headed off to find who he was looking for.

After moving aside to make sure he wasn't in anyone's way, Issachar put his hands to his mouth and tried not to fall into a panic here. He remembered all too clearly some of the passages from the Book of Deviants. An entire section was devoted to condemning women who claimed to love other women, and men who claimed to love other men. It had been shocking to come across, but as he tried to read through them, he slowly came to realize why he had those vivid dreams about Flynn and how his heart could ache on waking up from them. But he'd convinced himself that he must have been mistaken. Those feelings weren't right; he didn't need a book to teach him that. He was just confused about things, and it didn't help that for a long time, Flynn had been the only person who accepted him and his strangeness.

But this was all too clear. Flynn was more attractive to him than anyone else in this room and Issachar wanted so badly to hug him and confess all of this mess to him… the hubbub of the ball regained energy all around him, conversations and laughter, people flirting with each other… and they'd all find him utterly disgusting if they found out how he felt right now. Probably even Flynn; he wouldn't want to see him ever again, and then what would Issachar have? Nothing, absolutely nothing…

For a brief moment, his vision seemed white.

It passed quickly, but frightened him all the same. "I can't be thinking like this," he mumbled to himself. Right… he could make this all seem like nothing. All he had to do was find some woman here who could distract him and eventually become someone he loved as powerfully as he felt about Flynn right now. That couldn't be hard; it was a normal thing and he wasn't that strange of a person. He wasn't that wicked.

"Excuse me, but you're one of the new samurai, aren't you?" a woman nearby said.

"Huh? Oh yes," he composed himself as best he could before turning to face her. She… she was pretty, but not anything like Flynn just now.

She smiled "Great! I've been curious ever since I heard what happened during the rite." She put a hand to her cheek. "Um, are you okay?"

Embarrassed and taking hold of the first excuse he could think of, he replied, "Sorry, I'm just overwhelmed at all this. I'm from one of the outer villages and haven't yet got used to the crowds here in the city," he laughed apologetically and rubbed his neck.

Thankfully, she didn't laugh at him. "Really? I suppose it would be quite a change. I've always been a bit curious about what the villages are like, even though my friend thinks that's a silly thing."

"Well life's not that great out there, but it is very different," Issachar said, easing up some since this could be the distraction he needed to cool down and correct himself before his emotions got out of hand.

* * *

Flynn had always thought that Naverre had a strange hairstyle that should be more effort than it was worth keeping. He'd never met Naverre's father before, and this was a special occasion so the man also had a gravity defying coil right above his head that didn't seem natural at all. Was it a wig? Or some hidden frame like what was used to grow beans? But that wasn't the important matter here.

He managed to arrive at an opportune time, as Naverre was nearly in an argument with his father. There were others in the room, but the father and son didn't seem to care and the others didn't seem inclined to intervene. Mentally bracing himself (this was going to take a lot of talking, but it should be done), Flynn approached them. "Excuse me," he said firmly. "This is your father, I would guess?"

"Yes, this is him, excuse him for being stubborn," Naverre said, irritated but standing his ground for now.

"And who are you to interrupt our discussion?" Naverre's father asked sharply.

"I'm Flynn," he said, keeping calm before him. He'd dealt with gods, demons, and angels, many of who could be a lot more irrational than humans. Or they could be far too rational, alien to the ways that humans thought. Naverre's father couldn't be as bad as that.

"Yes, he's our squad leader," Naverre said.

"I apologize for interrupting, but there were some things I wanted to tell you," Flynn said to Naverre's father. "I have heard that you have some issue with him being a samurai, so I wanted to let you know that he is a valuable member of our team and I am grateful to God that he was chosen to work with us. Since you're a high ranking noble of the castle, I would guess that you are aware of our mission as samurai?"

"Yes, that's so," Naverre's father said, cooling off some because that was a serious subject to bring up when civilians were around.

"He has told me some about your duties as the castle chamberlain," Flynn went on. "I've also seen this place as it is ordinarily, and you have transformed it into a more fitting atmosphere for this event. He's been finding a role similar to that within our group. He changes situations so that they are more favorable to us; given our role, that is always a valuable contribution. Not only that, but he has been helpful with instructing me and some of the others on proper budget and item management, even though he is working with far less than he is accustomed to. That along with preparing us for this ball which could turn out vital to our futures, he's become an indispensable ally, so I must plead that you reconsider encouraging him to leave the samurai. It would be a major detriment to our group now."

"Is that so?" he said, looking thoughtfully at his son.

Good, this seemed to be working. "And about Marie," Flynn said, since that was the immediate issue, "I know her as an acquaintance, but I can reassure you that despite her humble birth, she has impeccable manners and grace. I'm sure you would notice that yourself if you spoke with her."

"You seem extremely refined yourself despite humble origins," Naverre's father said.

"I've been working hard on it," he said. "As for her, I don't know how she managed it, but she did have an official invitation. I can guess that she has come because she is deeply in love and wishes to prove herself a faithful and devoted bride willing to take great risks for the young man she adores. The two of them probably didn't notice because they had eyes only for each other, but she made quite an entrance and everyone is buzzing with talk about and admiration of them. While I'm not used to these kinds of affairs, I can tell that this is something people will talk about long after this day has passed. Naverre helped a great deal to make it so memorable, as did you in giving them a grand stage for their little drama. I came in just after them, so I know that Naverre helped out because of wanting to help out a friend and making the event more memorable for all involved, even those who simply witnessed it. And that is something you taught him to strive for, isn't it?"

"Well," he was reluctant, but he nodded. "Yes, that is so. I didn't see it, but… Naverre, you are still upholding our family values even if we ignored you and you have had much less resources to work with?"

"I do my best to," Naverre said. "And I've had to acknowledge to myself that I'm not as great as I thought I was. But, I can work to be that great still, and practice the ways you have taught me in different manners. I did not want to upset you and mother, but this is what I want to do and I'm also grateful that God has called us to serve Him as samurai. I hope you can understand someday."

His father's eyes softened. "I had wanted to ask you why you would deny our family's hard work and perseverance to get to our position in life. But to follow God's calling is also a noble enterprise, especially if you can do so and remain true to yourself. You'd even risk your status for the sake of the happiness of your friends. I'm sorry, Naverre, I wasn't thinking things entirely through and missed the brilliance of what you've been doing."

"It's fine, and I really didn't want to go against you and mother," Naverre said, hugging his father.

This was followed up by sobbing and gushy sappy apologies, which Flynn felt was over the top for the situation even if it had been potentially bad. But, he'd expected that out of Naverre and his father. It was a good result, and managed to get better. Once the theatrics were over, Naverre's father promised to speak with Marie at some point. And if he found her as devout as Flynn said she was, he would go speak with Jonathan's parents about her. That was an immense help that Flynn had not been expecting, as Jonathan's mother was the next big obstacle towards getting his friends lives that they would not want to give up for any ideal. It meant that now he could focus on Walter.

He was about to leave and find some quiet spot to soothe his nerves when a young lady who had been in the room got up to meet with him. "You know, you handled that man in an admirable fashion," she said. "Most people who know him well have given up on trying to change his mind, but you played him flawlessly."

"I've never met him so I had to guess based on his son," Flynn said, noticing something about her. She wore a diamond necklace that had a large richly blue stone as the focal point. A sapphire, or maybe even a blue diamond? He couldn't tell that, but he could tell that this lady must be an elite among elites here. "I just got lucky."

"Lucky or not, it was still an argument well won," she said. "So you're the new prodigy among the samurai then, Flynn."

"I am Flynn, but I wouldn't call myself a prodigy," he said. "And you are?"

She smiled like it was refreshing or amusing that someone didn't recognize her right away. "I am Princess Belinda, the first daughter of King Azakuya. I was interested in getting to meet you at this ball, and now that I have, I would be interested in some private discussion. Would you mind?"

The wording of that made it a clear invitation to begin courtship talks, in the business like matter that Luxurors were used to. And there were some nearby who would surely turn this into gossip no matter what he answered her with here. He had an impulse to say no and cut the offer off right away. In the long run, that would be simpler. However, he did need to pass as somewhat normal and Issachar's plea that he not neglect himself had come back into his mind.

Now, how to word this… he needed to accept the invitation on grounds that he had no strong opinions of her yet and would need convincing to enter a formal state of courtship with her. "I suppose a brief time will do, but not too private," he replied.

* * *

Jonathan found that he disagreed with himself a lot lately and there would be no clear cut right side to go with. Like Literature had a powerful potential to be disruptive. It held many unheard of ideas, displayed many different types of society and people, sometimes promoted vices as virtues, and encouraged a discourse that included negative views of Mikado. At the same time, it prompted thought even in those who thought they knew everything, taught values in a way that could seize people's hearts, revealed that there was a lot of knowledge that Mikado had no access to, and opened up questioning and understanding of things that one had taken for granted. Jonathan could see the merits to both sides, although he was leaning towards embracing all the potential that Literature had.

This current disagreement, however, had a clear cut right side and a clear cut wrong side, and he was still powerfully tempted to take the wrong side. Romantic relationships across classes was wrong. It was unrealistic ambition on part of the Casualry and a foolish softhearted lust on part of the Luxuror. For centuries, the stability and peace of Mikado rested on the absolute certainty of one's place in life. While it might be okay to begin loosening up on the absolute nature of the divide, this was something to be firm about. The proper observance of marriage customs and unspoken rules was part of the foundation of the nation's stability and that should not be disturbed under any circumstances. This wasn't about individuals; this was about society itself.

He told himself that as he shut the door. Giving in to personal feelings or desires too much caused conflict. Being selfish led to others getting hurt. He knew how courtship interviews should go, detached and rational, following the correct forms. Having a good, stable, and proper start in marriage would allow for peace and harmony to rule the household.

But there was what Celia had to say in her book, and…

He was now alone with Marie. She smiled; she'd been smiling this whole time, acting like this afternoon was her every dream come true. And that smile warmed his heart. Jonathan didn't want to let her down when he looked at her; he didn't want to make her cry. He knew he could spend many pleasant hours just talking to her because he already had. Along with that, she encouraged him whenever she could and wasn't afraid to be honest with him. There had been one time at a Sabbath when he'd been unwittingly rude to another participant, which she gently rebuked him for and helped him make amends. And she was one of those that revealed to him that Casualry weren't just simple steady workers; they were people with their own thoughts and dreams, and they could be wonderful people just like her.

He could just let go of restraint and seek the kind of romantic passion that the Casualry pursued in courtship…

No, no this had to be done properly. "Well, we should discuss what we want out of a married life partner," he said, since that was what they should do.

"Honestly, I just want to be with you, and only you," Marie said. "You've always been courteous and kind to everyone you meet, regardless of rank before you started coming to the Sabbaths. My days are always brighter when I see you, and when I don't, I pray that you're doing well and wonder how I can make you feel the same way about me. I'll do anything to prove that I will be a good wife to you, anything at all. I only ask for your love in return, for that's the thing I want most."

"Th-that's not quite what I meant," Jonathan said, his thoughts blurring away. "But, that makes me so happy that I don't care."

He moved towards her and before he knew it, he was embracing her and the kiss made him feel as though what was proper didn't matter at all.

* * *

Some distance from the capitol of Mikado, there was a place known as a holy land. Shene Duque was surrounded by a forest that few people were allowed to enter. The tall trees shielded sight of an open crater. Unusually, there was a hill in the center of the crater. On top of the hill, there was a massive structure that rivaled many buildings in the capitol for sheer size. It appeared to be a cocoon. In many ways, it was meant to be one. Many of those ways were past, a quiet part of history.

But there was one who remained within the cocoon.

Enclosed in a cell unlike the many others honeycombed within the cocoon, a spirit stirred. They didn't have a body, having been left here to sleep safely. But was it them who was being protected, or everyone else from them? The spirit barely thought, so they could not consider the question.

They had been dreaming lately. The dreams were signs that they were to awaken in the future. That… something missing was to return to them. Perhaps just the body. Or perhaps…

They dreamed of another soul, one who matched them very well. They had the same values; they had a similar purpose. Or, did they? The spirit shuddered in their dream, feeling unsettled. Warm feelings had reached them, the awakening of human passion and desire that ran counter to their whole purpose. They'd never felt anything like this. This was out of their sphere of influence, something to know of but not something to know personally.

Why was this happening? They should have some influence over the soul they dreamed of. They should be able to pull him in their direction unconsciously. After all, it was fate. It was all a part of the plan. They tried to correct more forcefully, reminding him of purpose, duty, and responsibility.

But he fought back, unaware that he was. He cared about her, he didn't want to hurt her… he accepted that he loved her… and he kissed her, more aware of the physical than the spiritual.

For the first time in centuries, a sound broke the silence within Shene Duque. It was an anguished cry, disoriented by carefully laid plans getting overturned by a single action. "Don't pursue Chaos," the spirit mumbled in their dreams.

But they weren't heard by anyone.

They, a being of pure rationality and detachment from passion, dreamed about a first kiss and a fervent new love that emboldened a young man to cast aside all his old ideals and reform his life around the one he kissed.

It was… strangely pleasant, experiencing a connection they'd only observed from far off, not from within.


	21. The Seal in the Well

**Chapter 21: The Seal in the Well**

This was a new place; Toki felt like she needed to be extra vigilant as a result. There had been an old well by the darkened temple that Maitreya brought her to. While it had no rope or bucket, it did have a suspiciously modern ladder leading down inside. There was water pouring down from cracks in the stones, putting beads of moisture on the ladder. Rough rubber strips kept the ladder from being too slippery to use. Down at the bottom, all the water poured down an eroded slope instead of gathering into a useful well.

There was also a concrete block at the bottom of the slope. However, the same water erosion that led to the slope had put a tunnel through the block. An adult would have had a hard time crawling through that tunnel. Since there wasn't likely to be anyone but demons and the sealed god down here, Toki pulled the chin of her mask up to make it easier for her to get through the crawl space. There was a tingle down her spine as she did. Was that the power of the seal or the power of the god? Whichever it was, there was a high chance that this would not be an ordinary space.

"Why should we?"

Hearing the voice, Toki got to her feet carefully. Water was running all along this stone path; she'd need to make her steps silent. Keeping near the inner wall of the next turn, she moved ahead to figure out who was here. Probably demons from the feel of their words. "Sukuna says that the prisoner has been stirring after that weird shift of balance. He thinks the guy's allies might make a move to release him and the current blockade might be too simple."

"What's so simple about the system we've got now? The keystone that blocks the main passage down was broke into two and one person can't retrieve both halves."

"Yeah, but then the problem is that the main seal is linked similarly except to an exceptional soul. And if two humans do come around knowing what's up, they could clear the puzzle quickly. We need to stall anyone who comes as much as possible. So, I have this idea with three keystones instead of just the two halves of one…"

"Ugh, this is just going to be more work for us. Can't we just leave it?"

"No!"

Those were rather stupid demons to be discussing such matters like this, Toki thought. She kept observing the hall for a good method to ambush them when she spotted something in a spot of settled silt: the imprints of a sneaker. From the continual flow of water along the floor… that had to be recent. Unless one of these demons had a thing for sneakers, there was already another human in here. Maitreya was supposed to be wise, so if the keystone was in two halves, it would make sense that he'd known to get another person for this mission. It would have been wiser to inform her of this other person, though.

The cavern room that the two demons were arguing in was a tall one, approximately oval shaped across with a number of passages spreading out from it. Three of the passages were blocked off with pillars that were strung with special ropes and charms, signifying a divide between the normal realm and the supernatural realm of gods and demons. And there had already been a divide with that concrete block, with the main seal behind the central pillar and some divided keystone. Whoever Krishna was, somebody really did not want him free to act and move around.

But, it was not Toki's place to question if this was right or wrong. Maitreya had ordered her to free Krishna, so she would do so. After creeping towards the room as far as she dared, she threw a pair of daggers at the arguing demons. One was knocked out of the air quickly, not out but down for a moment. She sprung at the other demon while it was startled at the ambush, quickly destroying it and returning its soul to the Abyss. The downed one started to get ready for battle, but Toki didn't let it have a chance. She eliminated it as well.

After a moment making sure another demon wouldn't ambush her, she looked over the three pillars. The central one did require a keystone. The left one went down smoothly to her approach, while markings on the right indicated that it would only move to the approach of a male. By that right one, there was another sneaker imprint. Presumably, whoever else was in here was a boy.

She would leave that side to him. Hopefully whoever that boy was, he was able to take care of himself like she could. And if it turned out it was a false hope, Toki had ways to confuse such barriers. She could go retrieve the male half of the keystone if needed, especially once she had an idea of the structure of this place.

For now, she went back through the pillar open to her and went after the female half of the keystone.

* * *

A quick divination led Lilith to Ginza. As the Ring of Gaea had a strong hold of this area, it was cleaner and better maintained than most of Tokyo. Off in one of the open streets, a fighting tournament was going on. A pair of summoners were facing off with three demons backing them up. Fire and fists flew; a winged imp had some advantage until a gunshot brought them down. From the looks of things in the alleyways, some people had already died.

She landed in a darkened corner and emerged as Yuriko in a suit and skirt combo that should actually draw less attention than other options she had. One person noticed her, of course, the one she was looking for. The girl stood out in this crowd when one actually thought about it, since she appeared like a high schooler from before the Firmament appeared. But she had a subtle power that would make humans forget details about her after losing sight of her. If these humans could see properly, they'd realize that she could overpower everyone else in this place. Even Lilith herself.

"Oh hi!" she called cheerily, waving to her. "What're you doing around here at this time?"

"Hello," Lilith called back, waving as well. "Unexpected things happened, so here I am again. I need to talk to you, Hikaru."

"Sure thing, over here," she said, going around a corner from the crowd watching the fights. Hikaru seemed happy. "They're doing a good job making a show that looks more real than the death matches the Ashura-kai put on. The next generation will definitely be desensitized enough that they'll take blood sacrifices as a good option."

"We could start getting away with that with some more desperate areas," she agreed. And the right blood sacrifices to the right gods could lead them to overwhelm the naive fools above the Firmament. Still, Gabriel was someone that had to be dealt with before they could be certain of victory any time soon.

"So what's up on your end of things?" Hikaru asked, smiling and watching her intently.

Lilith crossed her arms over her chest. "Things have turned out unexpectedly strange. I got the names of the heroes among the humans for this upcoming conflict, and they're all from here in Tokyo."

She raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? That is strange; they were supposed to all be from Mikado."

Nodding, she added, "And the Chaos Hero is one of the Ring's masked assassins, a girl named Toki."

Hikaru stared at her, then frowned. "No… no that can't be right. I'm pretty sure that the Spirit of Spite was born a man."

"I thought that was the case too," Lilith said. "Still, I came down to check, and I know Gabriel has too. Toki could be nudged into being a proper representative of Chaos, but right now she's an obedient assassin who will throw away her life if her orders require her to. I don't mind breaking her of that obedience, but I can't shake the feeling that something is very off about this."

"Those assassins are supposed to be non-entities, those whose identities don't matter as long as their acts are effective," Hikaru said. "It would be fun to see what comes of breaking her obedience, but this isn't right."

"Then what did you dream of when the names were given to us?" she asked.

"Well…" she tilted her head. "It was confusing, like the signals were mixed up. Do you think this is some ploy by the Great Will? Or maybe the angels since we have three of their most powerful agents hostage. I'm not even sure of the names of the heroes myself. What about the others?"

"Well the central figure is an orphaned teenager named Nanashi," Lilith said. "I took a look at him and he seems right, not inclined to either side yet and more potential than most people will realize. And the Law hero," she smiled at this, "it's very silly, because they ended up with a natural born half-demon named Hallelujah. It's going to be all too easy to use him to undermine their side."

However, Hikaru looked even more concerned about that. "No, that's definitely not right," she said. "They don't mind infusing their hero with angelic genes and powers to boost them, but they absolutely would not pick a half-demon. I'm almost certain that the Chaos hero can't be this Toki girl, so if both Law and Chaos have the wrong heroes named, then it's also almost certain that the named fulcrum is also the wrong hero. All signs were pointing to the three heroes being born in Mikado, so you're in the wrong place following the wrong person."

"But how would we get the names to the wrong heroes?" she asked, baffled at this possibility. But it did make more sense than the current situation. "That shouldn't be possible."

"I have no idea," Hikaru said with a shrug. "But it seems to be the case. We'll known for certain by getting the three named heroes asleep so I can get a better look at their souls. I need to have one of those dreams happen to nudge at the fulcrum again, especially if there's some mistake and time is flying on by in Mikado."

"This should not be happening," Lilith said. "Well then, I suppose I'd better get over to Kinshicho quickly. I sent Toki to meet up with Nanashi; I'll see what I can do about getting them asleep."

"Be careful, the humans are on high alert over there," Hikaru warned before heading off to continue watching the tournament.

"I hope this isn't all wrong because I thought we had the advantage," Lilith murmured to herself before shifting back to her true self so she could fly over to Kinshicho faster.

* * *

Hallelujah picked up a blue stone that the mermaid had left behind after being defeated with a zio arrow. "Bufu, good," he said, sticking it in a bag on his belt. "Garu stone was easy to find too, and I'm sure if we come across a fire demon, an agi stone won't be hard either. Hama and mudo might be harder, but maybe they'll work with this bow too."

"Hmm hmm hmm," Chiron hummed happily, hopping up a stalagmite to look around this cave. He seemed entertained by the magical bow, but then he was an archer spirit. He started to point out another demon Hallelujah could snipe, but then his ears shifted forward and he looked up. "Da," he said, pointing to a darkened entrance to another area of the cave.

"Something there?" Hallelujah asked. When he'd been younger, he'd really wanted to have a smartphone with the demon summoning program because it had an app called Demolingual that made it easier to understand demons who didn't speak human languages, like Chironpu here. Then he'd discovered that not only did the summoning program have weird reactions to half-demons, but Chiron, for some reason, wouldn't talk with Demolingual active. It didn't matter anymore, since Chiron was his oldest friend and they understood each other well without a translator getting between them.

Chiron hopped off the stalagmite and started heading for the entrance. Hallelujah followed him, trying to sense things as well. If he shifted out of his human form, it'd be easier. But, it was easier to shift out of being human than to shift to being human. Hallelujah didn't want to get stuck as a demon permanently, so he did what he could as a human. There was a feeling as he looked into the entrance… there was a demon back there that was a bit stronger than the others in this cavern. There was something familiar to it too… a lilim or a succubus?

When they were next to the entrance, Hallelujah crouched down and grabbed Chiron's shoulder, getting him to wait. The fox demon glanced up at him, waiting for his go-ahead. The entrance led to a smaller room than this huge multi-level cavern and there seemed to be just one demon in there: an incubus. At the moment, the incubus was asleep, gripping something to his thin chest. In any other situation, he wouldn't want to know what an incubus was up to. But the thing he had was magical, a key that matched the lock on one of the pillars that hadn't moved aside for him. It made sense that it should be the key Hallelujah needed. And the incubus was weak to bufu magic.

"I think I got it, but follow up if he survives," Hallelujah whispered to Chiron.

"Mmhmm," the fox mumbled.

After swapping the zio stone for the bufu one, Hallelujah aimed the arrow with the notches on the bow. The sparkling blue arrow zipped through the air and crackled like ice on striking the incubus. The demon yelped at the cold awakening. Before it could settle down, Chiron fired three arrows rapidly into the incubus, taking it out. The key, some kind of white stone, clattered onto the ground. Thankfully, it was a magical thing that wouldn't break to something like falling onto hard uneven ground.

"Heh, looks like we make a pretty good team now," Hallelujah said.

Chiron yipped and gave him a hi-five for that.

Smiling, he got up to retrieve the keystone. "I really hope Gabriel's okay with this, though. I don't want to disappoint her, but I did need to get away from Abe and get to Kinshicho on my own." He looked at the key he had now. "I don't know if this'll open up the one pillar, though. Hopefully it opens the other one, or we'll have to search all these halls."

They went ahead and headed back to the room with the pillars. Although Chiron usually liked to clamber up rocks and things, he didn't seem inclined to do so with the pillars. Hallelujah didn't blame him as there was something odd about them. The pillars were blocking off other halls like doors, but they were more than doors. Like a magical barrier? This was the kind of thing that Abe was usually good about explaining, since most people wouldn't understand when Hallelujah tried to explain what he was sensing.

The white keystone did fit into half the circular slot on the center pillar. The left pillar came down, but it didn't seem connected to him putting in the key. Then something came out from the hall behind the left pillar, like a black shadow behind a large scowling face. "Aaah!" he yelped, gripping his bow as his heart raced. But… that thing felt human.

The, well, person wearing the over-sized mask stopped and looked at him. Examined him. "You show your emotions too much," the person said in a cold but feminine voice.

Trying to get a hold of himself, he looked away from her briefly. "Well, what do you expect from people when you're wearing something like that?"

"Exactly that," she said. "You were asked to come free Krishna." Somehow she already knew that for a fact, not a question.

"Uh, yeah, you too?" He rubbed his head. "I thought it was just me… Odin and Thor asked me."

"I was told to by Maitreya," she said, coming over and fitting a matching black stone into the key slot. "Do not slow me down; I must get to Kinshicho immediately after this." Then she hurried on ahead down the revealed hall once the pillar was fully down.

Hallelujah and Chiron hurried after her. "Y-you too? I'm supposed to go to Kinshicho to meet someone named Nanashi, and help him. I don't know with what, but…"

"Then we have the same objectives," the girl said. "Very well, I won't kill you once we're done even though you are of the Ashura-kai. Nanashi must be extremely important."

From behind, she did look more like a girl. Maybe even younger than him. But… "Wait, are you with the Ring of Gaea?" She didn't say anything, or respond in any way. But, the fact that she'd considered killing him once they were done with the seal business made things quite clear. "Well, uh, I'm kind of working on my own right now, so I guess it doesn't matter."

"Be prepared," she said sharply. "We will have to fight the guardian."

"Hey, uh, can I at least know your name before we get in a big fight?" he asked, mostly to cover the nervousness he felt now. This hallway ended with a waterfall with no apparent other way forward. And, something was coming alert to their presence. "I'm Hallelujah, and this is Chiron with me."

"Toki," she said simply, then jumped right down the waterfall.

"Oh my god, I have to work with a crazy girl," Hallelujah muttered. Chiron jumped right down the waterfall too, so it couldn't be too dangerous. Pushing back his hesitation, he followed suit.

* * *

Since she had to be down here, Gabriel quietly made her way over to the rooftop of a tower in Shinjuku National Park. Large spotlights and sprinkler systems down below marked the insufficient efforts of these people to grow more food for themselves. One would think that after so long of darkness and imprisonment, these humans would finally accept that they were unworthy. But it seemed that they were still trying, still working foolishly with the corrupt demons. Maybe with the elimination of these sinners, God would finally see this world as fit to return to. Mikado was slowly attaining the purity it should have, although there were still aberrations that had to be gotten rid of.

And if she could just get into this tower, things would go much more smoothly. The hellish seals on this place actually worked to keep her out, something that should be impossible but here it was. Thanks to those seals, which humans and demons could freely pass through, her three peers Michael, Raphael, and Uriel were all trapped inside. It would have only been a couple of decades for them; it had been over fourteen centuries for her.

Gabriel checked to see if any other being was up this high, but there didn't seem to be. She sighed and brought her knees to her chest while sitting there. "How do I end up being the one apart?" she wondered. "How did we end up apart?"

It was so dark down here, and cold. The lights the humans made were a pale imitation of true light. All around her, the city sparkled, defiant lights trying to survive the heavily stacked odds against them… she thought it was ugly. Buildings made with the fruits of greed and pride, sights that inspired one to keep one's eyes at the lowly sights of Earth and not towards the magnificence of Heaven and God. A scab that kept the infection from the purifying power of the sun, created by selfish desperation against a war of madness that the humans alone had created.

Closing her eyes from the ugliness, she tried to speak to her peers. "You remember, don't you? The light and bliss of Heaven, the loving words of our Creator assuring us that no matter how bad things appeared, it would always end up in a good way that He brought about? All we had to do was obey and love Him; all the humans had to do was obey and love Him. There was certainty and things were absolute. Now we have all these uncertainties and maybes, this darkness and corruption the humans wrought that can make even us feel lost at times." Gabriel sighed and put her head on her knees. "I wish they'd accept the absolutes again. I wish… I wasn't alone."

She could get her supposed hero to go into this tower and free the others. That is, once he got more powerful. Gabriel wasn't comfortable with helping a half breed gain more power; their sort always led to trouble, awful trouble when they got powerful. But, he wasn't going to be of much use as he was now, weak and holding himself back. Holding back on his wickedness was proper, at least as proper as he could get in his state. But if he couldn't defend himself against the Chaos hero, against one that would, by the very nature of the role, get very powerful… then she was looking at a loss for Law before they could even get started. The odds were so strongly stacked against her now that it was ridiculous.

This _should not be happening_. Something was completely and utterly wrong about her position. And she needed to figure that out fast.

It… it had to be the named heroes. They had to be wrong; they did not fit their roles. That boy even had the gall to find her attractive in some base sense, which just… ugh, it was completely wrong! He should not be the hero she should be supporting.

At this point, the best way to be sure of it was to wait until the three heroes fell asleep. They'd end up drawn to the dreamspace created by their shared fates. And in that space, she could see them with much greater clarity. She'd even be able to find the actual heroes, including a Law hero that had to be better than Hallelujah. Anybody would be better than that half-breed.

So she needed them to fall asleep… but if by some horrible fate they were the heroes, this was a bad time to be approaching them all openly. She needed a better handle on the situation before doing that. Gabriel shook off her bad mood and flew back over to Kinshicho.

Whatever the truth was, fate was already moving and there was no time for her to hesitate.

* * *

While the water flowed down around them, the magic of this area grew in intensity. The waterfall began slowing them down, giving them a soft landing into a space that must have a strong blend with the world of spirits. Maybe they had even crossed over fully. Hallelujah felt strange being down in this cavernous space, like humans weren't meant to be here. All around them, water spilled down shimmering walls but the sound seemed swallowed up by the vast space as they moved towards the center. The floor was unnaturally smooth and lay right on top of an underground lake.

A large gray sphere sat in the center of the room, held perfectly still by the power of the seal upon the being within it. He wasn't sure what went into sealing a god, but it seemed like someone had gone to a lot of effort to imprison Krishna. Why just him? Or, were there other gods similarly sealed in hidden places? Was this even a good idea? But then again, Odin had helped him get away from Abe and had promised help with getting him to Kinshicho. He'd even given him a nice weapon when Hallelujah would have been in a lot of trouble trying to reach the underground town through the city streets. It'd be terrible to take a gift like that and not do anything in exchange for it. And if Krishna did turn out to be real trouble, then Gabriel could deal with him easily.

He might not even have to undo the seal himself, since Toki seemed to have no qualms about doing this. She strode ahead, somehow moving silently across the hard floor despite the fact that even Chiron's soft paws made quiet noises as he walked ahead to the imprisoning sphere. When you couldn't see her horrifying mask, she did seem like a more normal girl. One who liked to wear an awful lot of black, yes, but not so strange.

Before they got halfway to the sphere, Toki stopped. Hallelujah noticed too, power shifting as a previously unseen being revealed himself. He wasn't any taller than either of them, yet he looked like a powerful man dressed in rustic clothes with a feathered cape. He also carried what seemed to be a wooden oar. "What are you doing here, children?" he asked sternly. "This is no place for either of you to be."

"You aren't authorized to tell me where I should be," Toki said, undeterred by him. "We've come to break this seal."

"That is an unwise thing to do," he said. "I am Sukuna-Hikona, a god of this land. I have been charged with keeping this foreign god sealed in place so that he does not ruin any of Japan's people, whether they be human or god. Under no circumstances should he be freed. Now leave; I will give you one warning that I will not hold back even against you children of Tokyo. That is how important things are. Leave."

Hallelujah thought for a moment about if it would be worth it to question Sukuna-Hikona about the situation. But that left him in the same situation as before. He owed Odin and Thor for their assistance, and would be in trouble trying to get out of that arrangement. Perhaps it had been foolish to trust them so quickly. But then, how did he get out of it now?

Unlike him, Toki didn't care. "Good, then neither will I hold back against you," she said, making daggers appear in her hands that he'd not seen before. It seemed like he had only blinked in the time that Toki sprang into action, cutting Sukuna-Hikona across the throat and hopping back out of range when he swung his oar at her.

That might have killed a human, but not Sukuna-Hikona. He called on a massive spread of hail that pelted them mercilessly, then tried to sicken them with cold. But while he was powerful, Toki was swift. She kept dancing around him, darting in for a savage slice then moving back to keep out of his strikes. A number of her strikes disrupted him from his own attacks. Chiron was able to pelt Sukuna-Hikona with arrows, although they didn't seem to do much damage.

But… Hallelujah felt he was weak to electricity. He swapped out stones so he had zio on the bow, then watched carefully for an opportune moment… while Toki backed off yet again, Hallelujah fired the zio arrow at Sukuna-Hikona. The god stumbled at the hit, allowing Toki to strike as if she were a whirl of blades. Sukuna-Hikona struck back with his hailstorm, apparently out of a moment of panic. Then he vanished in a flurry of feathers.

Toki looked around rapidly to see if she could spot him, then took off after some feathers in the air. At that point, Hallelujah felt a tug at his sleeve. Sukuna-Hikona had appeared right behind him; he was bleeding from the various strikes Toki had made at him and there was something almost fearful to his eyes. Perhaps he'd not expected them to be an actual threat?

"Do you understand the consequences of unsealing the ark here?" he said in a low voice. "Recently the cards of fate have been shuffled; I felt this foreign god stirring then. He is up to some evil, I'm sure of it. More gods will only cause more confusion and chaos, and this one especially can only lead to anarchy. Listen to me: don't release this god."

What now? There had to be something he could respond with. Maybe… "Do you not like him because he's foreign?" Hallelujah asked, sweating since he wasn't sure how to back the question up.

Sukuna-Hikona glared at him briefly, but then Toki spoke up behind him. "That sounds accurate. What have you done for us humans lately?"

The god moved back, apparently trying to keep them both in view instead of being surrounded. "Do you have no respect for your heritage?" he asked, outraged. "I am one of your local gods; it's in our best interest to work together. You must listen to me!"

"No," she said, then attacked him one more time.

Sukuna-Hikona's entire body suddenly cracked like severely battered glass. "But we're your gods; why would you replace us?" He shattered then, turning into black smoke that quickly faded away, like any other demon.

"Phew, thanks Toki," Hallelujah said, trying not to show any embarrassment. It felt like he hadn't done much. "But, are we really doing the right thing?"

She looked at him, but thanks to the huge scowling mask, it was hard to figure out what she might think of him. "Master says that gods will make you feel wrong for going against them," she said as if it was unquestionable fact to her. "But just as humans must earn respect, gods should earn worship. If he did little to help us, he is not worthy of worship."

"I guess so," he said, although it didn't help his nerves much. "Your master must be pretty wise to come up with something like that."

"She is," Toki said. "Come, I will need your assistance to undo this seal."

"Okay, what do we do about it?" he asked, having to jog after her as she hurried off to the sphere.

"One extraordinary soul could do, but it seems neither of us would qualify," she said. "Both of us can undo it together. Just place your hand on what he called the ark."

Hallelujah nodded and put his hand on the sphere once he got there; Toki already had hers on it. Once he did, strange lines shone on the gray surface. In a blink, the lines had spread out all across the floor of this immense cavern. Was all of that a part of this seal? The light on the floor drained into the sphere until it was fully shining. It only took a second more for the seemingly solid sphere to evaporate into nothing. What remained was a groggy looking man with curly green hair; he was well-dressed in a teal suit, a shortened peacock feather pinned to his nice hat. Other than the green hair, he looked far more human than any of the other gods Hallelujah had run across today. But there was still a feeling of inhuman power within him.

"Excuse me a moment," Krishna said in a worn voice, putting a hand to his chest. "In the past few hours… much has changed."

"Are you the one responsible for altering my fate?" Toki asked, in her usual cold emotionless tone.

Krishna looked up at her for a moment, then at him. He smiled and got to his feet. "Oh… yes, that was me. For both of you. Shouldn't you be in Kinshicho by now?"

"Yeah, but we got asked separately to free you as well," Hallelujah said.

"I see," he said, making sure his hat was straight. "Thank you for that, but it is very important that you go watch over Nanashi. I'll accompany you there, but please understand that I can only go as far as the park with you. If you wish to know why I changed your fates, I can explain a little along the way. My allies need to hear of this as well."


	22. Flip the Scales

**Chapter 22: Flip the Scales**

Isabeau wasn't having much luck finding someone to spend time with during the ball. She found a few of her other old classmates, but none of the young men seemed interested in talking with her for long. Since both of her parents had been in the monastery their whole lives, she had to be careful with anyone from there in case they were related. A couple of fellows had approached her, but they acted lecherous and vain, something she did not want to deal with.

Maybe Kathy had a point with the immense trouble of finding a decent potential husband. Or maybe they didn't like the idea of courting a samurai. She clearly wasn't muscle bound, but she was stronger than quite a few of them now thanks to a few months of training with a sword. There wasn't much she could do about that; being a samurai was her life's calling and she had to live up to the expectations of duty.

Did she even want to get married? According to the books and the demon's own account, Jeane hadn't gotten married. She hadn't even fallen in love, only following God's calling to save her country. There was something admirable in that. But, it sounded like a lonely life too. Isabeau knew of married couples mostly as partners in life and work. Her parents were quite doting to each other in private, though. They were comfortable talking with each other about anything and sometimes went off to talk a walk on their own just to spend time together. Several times, her mother told her that their love had blossomed beautifully after they got married. Presumably that meant it hadn't meant much when they did, but things worked out for them on a personal level too.

That would be nice, having someone she felt safe and happy with, able to confide anything in him while knowing he felt the same. Then again, she couldn't forget what she'd seen early on this afternoon, when Marie showed up unexpectedly to spend the ball with Jonathan. The two of them seemed positively glowing when they were dancing; it was a heartwarming sight and Isabeau prayed in her heart that they could end up together as happy as they were today. And hopefully she could find her own love just like that.

Could she? While she was wondering about that, she spotted Kathy as well as a few of her old friends from the monastery. They were talking with Walter, Issachar, and a few other guys as a spontaneous discussion group. Isabeau went over and took an empty seat with them. One of the girls asked, "But how far can you get with studying religious texts on your own? I always understood that they were meant for discussions."

Oddly enough, Walter was the one she was asking the question of. He shrugged. "Who knows? But, why not try? I read slow because I'm not used to it, so I end up thinking a lot about its teachings along the way. With Foundations at least, I'm finding that if it presents a riddle or puzzle of some kind, or a moral dilemma, I can re-read certain passages before it and try working out what the text is trying to say. Or I can keep reading as it presents sides and examples. It gives some answers, and in prayer I can find some others. Although for some things I'm not sure about, maybe another book will have the answers. I'll have to ask somebody questions in the future, but I'm learning a lot as I am."

"Are you being serious or are you just trying to impress us?" Kathy asked with a teasing smile, making some of the other girls laugh.

"Well who isn't trying to impress someone at an event like this?" Walter admitted with a grin. "But I figure, it's better to be honest with that kind of thing, isn't it? Otherwise you end up having to save face later when you end up disappointing people."

"That's just a nice way of admitting that you're showing off," Isabeau said, trying not to laugh herself at this.

"Now if I really wanted to show off, I could pick one of you girls up and spin you around," he said. "But they haven't played anything upbeat when I've been in here, so can't really have fun with the dancing."

"Oh yes, they should have played something more fun by now," Kathy said, putting her hands on her hips and acting overly indignant. "We should go and complain, ask to do a circle dance where you change partners."

"Yes, let's go ask!" one of the other girls said. Most of the others in the group seemed agreeable to that and got up to go pester the orchestra.

Isabeau nearly went with them since the circle dance would be a fun diversion. But as she did, she noticed Issachar with an anxious look on his face as he tried to slip away from the others. She went over to catch him instead. "Hey Issachar, are you okay?"

"Oh, um," he blushed and wouldn't look quite at her. "Not really. I think I'll just go out and get some fresh air; it's a little overwhelming in here."

While she didn't have a healer's full training, she felt he had a good idea. "All right, it might help to take a drink out with you. Want me to come out so you have some company?"

Issachar shook his head. "No, that's fine, I don't want to bother you. But, um, have you seen Flynn around?"

"Oh yes, not that long ago actually," Isabeau said, feeling a little excited. "Princess Belinda is attending this year and apparently she asked to speak with him, and they've been talking in one of the larger parlors for quite some time."

"I heard about that," he said. Strangely enough, he wasn't that interested even if it had to do with his best friend.

Isabeau still felt like it would be a big piece of gossip for a while, only rivaled by Jonathan and Marie being together here. "I spoke with them some and he was quiet as usual. But he was trying to stay involved with the conversation and she was trying to keep him involved, so it was working out."

"It is odd that he'd spend this much time with someone he just met," Issachar said. "Well… sorry, I really should go."

"All right, I hope you feel better quickly," Isabeau said. The current song was winding down, so she wanted to get over in case the others had been successful.

Her friends were, so she went over to join in on the circle dance. And somehow, she ended up at the finish of the song holding Walter's hand. His eyes seemed to twinkle as he said, "Oh yeah, I should go ahead."

"With what?" Isabeau asked, turning to him.

"This." He suddenly had a hold on her waist with both hands, picked her up off the ground, and spun around with her.

She reflexively grabbed hold of his arms, but he had a good grip and she was pretty sure he wouldn't let her slip. Twirling around like this gave her a childish kind of glee, briefly being free of the earth. "You'd better not slip or I will make you pay," she jokingly threatened him.

Laughing, he replied, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." He then set her down gently, making sure she was steady before letting go. "You know, I like it when you let your more playful side out of that serious iron mask of yours."

"I have to be serious when I'm working," Isabeau said. "I don't have to be as serious today. Although, I don't know if you can be serious at all."

"You wanna make a bet of it, see if I can be?" he said, still smiling.

* * *

There were a few problems with being awake and active when one's power was so clamped that there was no way to appear as anything but ordinary. But one could always choose an 'ordinary' that was unfitting for the environment. And Hikaru loved the struggles and joys of life too much to obediently remain still and quiet even though she could only do a tiny fraction of what she should be able to. It did make it more difficult to tap into the mind of the hero who'd answered her call so she could figure out what was going on.

She was sitting in the corner alley away from the tournament; the sounds of conflict and pain were faint to her. "Ugh, this is more disorienting than usual," she grumbled, pulling her knees up to her chest. "I'm sure we read the signs right. This should be the time, or else Tokyo is going to start collapsing under its struggle to survive. I'd hate to deal with only Mikado."

On blanking out all else around her (the Gaea members at least knew not to mess with her), she managed to shift her conscious to the one who bore the Spirit of Spite. And… she knew it, this was a man. Lilith had the wrong hero somehow. Although, the fact that Toki's name came up at all even in a ruse hinted that there was something significant to her. But she'd just be a minor player, no influence on the fulcrum, or the Messiah as a number had started to call the hero of that role. Still who was this? And what was he doing?

He was in a small room talking with a young woman, no one else involved. Heh, even though bits of sunlight hinted that this was Mikado, this could be fun.

"It's just odd to me since I've been learning these things since before I could read," the woman said.

"Well I'm only getting started since I had a lousy teacher of it," he said. He thought of some jokes, but some thought checked him to keep his word. "I don't think I could do any worse trying to teach myself for the most part. It's just, a lot of strange things have been happening around us and there's always been things I couldn't fully explain. I'd like to figure out why, if God is guiding us somehow, if some things others have said are reasonable or if they're mistaken."

Hikaru frowned. "What the hell? Why are you trying to find God? Ugh…"

"I always took for granted that He was," the woman said. Hikaru wanted to pull his attention away from her right away; she clearly had been listening too much to the garbage the angels ruled Mikado with. But she'd come in too late; he had a slowly growing interest in her. Not a powerful passion or any desire to just take what he wanted. No, just some attachment that was so far keeping within acceptable bounds.

"There has been a lot of things that seem like some higher force is leading us," he said. "Like the rite itself, or what happened at the docks. But it could all just be luck too. There's some things I read that suggest faith is a stable foundation for a person's life and that sounds like a nice thing to have. You know, not having to worry about what's coming in the future or why things happen; people with a lot of faith just seem to know that things will work out and they seem so peaceful like that. But other things I've read suggest that if you put your faith in the wrong things, you won't realize it until it all comes crashing down around you. So I want to know more about how other people find this faith and peace.

"But then, I know I'm not as smart as some of the other guys. I'm just the strong guy who can take the front of a battle without getting too worried or scared, but I'm also the one most likely to lose my temper. Still, I remember what came out of that domain we ended up in. You know, that our work is to keep everyone else in Mikado safe, able to live their peaceful lives. I like that, and I'd like to keep doing that." He chuckled at himself. "Sorry, I think I'm rambling now. But I have been giving all this a lot of serious thought, even if it's something I'm not very good at."

"I wouldn't have expected those kinds of thoughts out of you," the woman said, smiling fondly at him. She wasn't overly passionate either, just with a leaning that might grow into affection. "But it's good you're trying to work it all out; it makes you more trustworthy, I guess."

"Well I don't get this," Hikaru muttered. "Are you trying to comprehend Law in a Chaotic fashion? Or are you actually leaving behind the ambitions of Chaos for the false certainties of Law? Geez, Lilith really needs to stop looking into whatever distractions are here and get to you before you flip the scales entirely."

Unfortunately, getting caught up in her own thoughts pulled Hikaru away from her connection to the Spirit of Spite. And Lilith had already taken off trying to determine what the situation was with Toki, Nanashi, and Hallelujah. How had she gotten the wrong names anyhow? That should be impossible.

"Those three false heroes had better get to sleep soon or else things will go really wrong," she said.

* * *

To her credit, Belinda was straightforward with her intentions once they were speaking in private. "My older brother is the crown prince, but his marriage has been childless so far," she said. "It clearly hasn't been for a lack of trying, but he and his wife have been together for several years now. If they don't have a child by the time father is ready to retire, he won't be fully eligible to succeed him. I'm next in line of succession after him and if I have a child and they don't, then regular succession procedures will make me the ruler of Mikado."

"Then you want to become queen but you need a husband for that," Flynn said. It was logical so far, but distasteful.

She nodded. "But I need to be careful with my decisions. My brother and his wife were stretching the limits on how closely they were related when they wed, which may be contributing to their problem. I also need to find someone who could be a respectable and fair king, someone who would have some leadership experience. You're a samurai in training still, but you have already become the leader of your group. And as I've said, you handled the chamberlain admirably. There are a number of people like that around the castle, unfortunately, inflated on their ranks and too snug into inherited positions. Someone new taking leadership within the castle could be just the thing to pressure them into working more efficiently and effectively."

A lot of people like Naverre and his father in the castle? That didn't sound pleasant to work with. Flynn also couldn't help remembering times that he had been declared the king of Mikado as the capitol city burned and people turned to demons in droves or died. "You've probably noticed, but I don't actually speak much," he pointed out. "But I speak up when I feel something must be said, and that's how it was with the chamberlain. I don't mind leading a small group, but I don't know about leading a whole nation."

"I wouldn't expect you to be making grand speeches or anything like that," Belinda said. "But you've been well spoken with what you have said. As I'm the one of royal blood and with the education to rule, it doesn't matter whether you choose to work in the castle or work with the samurai. Although if you did elect to continue serving as a samurai, being married to me would boost your chances of succeeding Hope as the commander if you so wish."

To continue working as a samurai… there was an advantage she couldn't see now. To reach his ideal future, he would need to become someone who inspired hope in people both here in Mikado and down in Tokyo. Flynn knew he could do so, as he had done so many times before. Some of it had been unintentional early on. This time, he had agreed to be the squad leader so he could keep his friends' hope in him. If he could eventually claim some royal status, even if just by marriage, that could be an extra thing that would put people's faith in him if he was careful in how he used that claim.

After a quiet moment considering all this, Flynn sighed. "Sorry, you're making some good points that this would be advantageous to both of us, but I'm not used to thinking of courtship in terms that are emotionally distant." And since she was straightforward with him, he felt he should return that. "So I'm uncomfortable with this idea that you do want a husband appropriate to your station but I'm mostly there just to give you children."

"I would like my marriage to mean more, but there's no point in sugar-coating that truth and having my husband feel resentful for it," she said.

There was something to her that reminded him of Merkabah; there didn't seem to be any malice in her attitude, just a blunt stating of what she believed was truth. Was she always this way or was it just these circumstances? "That's a good point," he said. "If you're going to be open with me from the start, I ought to tell you that I have been involved with the activities around the Sabbaths and the Casualry protests going on now."

"Are you now?" she asked, studying him closely.

Flynn nodded. "My fellow prentices and I have been working to counter violent impulses on that side, but we either know or have seen that their complaints are valid and they deserve to be heard. The Casualry do not wish to be treated as soulless laborers and would like to be respected as people. For myself, I was raised to keep silent and completely selfless; a friend of mine had to persuade me to use the accessories I'm wearing for this event. We were also taught to believe that basic furniture like anything in this room were vain luxuries, and that we were to work continually unless we were too ill to work at all.

"That kind of life is hard and hellish, completely constrained to where it's difficult to enjoy anything. The young people especially don't want to accept that anymore. Not only that, but you Luxurors are having your problems too. For one thing, I've been hearing in many ways that this event ends up fruitless to many as they cannot find a potential spouse they can feel happy with and aren't closely related to. You even said yourself that there are many that are too snug with inherited positions. This leads to mismanagement and jobs done poorly, which is putting additional strains on the Casualry trying to make up for poor leadership. Conflict over something appears inevitable at this point. What do you mean to do about that?"

Belinda looked surprised at his words. Then she smiled, a brightness to her expression that was eager for such a challenge. "I have been looking into those matters myself. I'm afraid that with my upbringing, I did not properly see the circumstances that the Casualry live under, but once protests appeared I wanted to know why. Father tells me it's not the kind of thing for a princess to worry over, but I think it's exactly the kind of thing I should be well-informed about. I do need to learn more, though I would like to see to it that all people are treated fairly. Especially if you have been so constrained; we don't need people living like animals because that's what they believe they are worthy of."

As the current king would end up banished to Tokyo once the seraphs took over Mikado directly, Flynn hadn't accounted for working with the royal family. But then, he'd not been aware that the elder princess was like this. How far was she willing to go to live up to her words? "Have you ever been to one of the Sabbaths?" he asked.

"No I haven't," she admitted.

He hadn't wanted to consider courtship, but this was too good an opportunity to pass up. "How about you come to the next one and we can continue these talks there?" he asked.

"Very well, I can accept that," Belinda said.

* * *

There had been a few clouds in the sky when the ball had started; it was overcast now, with a brisk wind that hinted at a potential rain tonight. It just felt like another layer of misery to Issachar, although he'd probably feel the same way even if the sun was out. Just this morning, he'd been thinking that this probably wouldn't be as great as people said it was, but he had convinced himself that maybe he would get lucky and maybe he would find someone he could love.

No, it just proved to him that he was a perverse and terrible person. And it wasn't something he could ignore anymore. There were others out there who felt like he did, he knew that now. And he knew how terribly wrong that was. Very wrong, and that was before he considered that this was his best friend, who trusted him completely and was fighting a secret war against gods, and had already tampered with fate just to save him from a miserable end. There really wasn't anyone else like Flynn in the world, no one as wonderful…

Nobody at that ball could match him in beauty either. He was an exotic stranger there, dressed with minimal wealth and fuss but out-shining everyone around him. And while he was powerful enough to be manipulating fate and challenging gods, he was vulnerable too. Issachar had seen that when Flynn had been trying to explain the lotus. Flynn had said he wasn't interested in courtship and he was trying to save everyone else from themselves, apparently. But he was doing these incredible things alone and the burden of that had to be immense. He might think he didn't want a lover, but he might need one without realizing it.

Issachar could slip behind his guard without notice, making him realize that and proving that he knew him so well still that he could take care of him without being told what all was wrong…

No, that couldn't work. If Flynn could accept the love of another man even as wrong as it was, Issachar knew how that would turn out. Flynn would want to know how long he'd been in love. Issachar would have to admit that it had been years, ever since that afternoon they swore to be secret keepers. And Flynn's sanity might just snap at that because it meant that Issachar's love was an unalterable fact to him, something he could not change within the time that he had been living repeatedly. It meant that even when they fought to death, Issachar loved him without realizing it.

Here and now, Issachar knew that he would have loved him even as Flynn would have killed him. In those situations, denied the chance to become a samurai and turned into a demon with powers he could barely control, he would have wanted death more than anything. But Flynn bore the guilt of granting him that wish; he'd admitted to still having that pain. Flynn really could use someone whose love could help him heal. That just couldn't be Issachar because his love might just inflame those wounds and destroy Flynn.

"Then why don't you give up?"

For a moment, his heart seemed to stop. Issachar looked around. The wind was keeping everyone indoors, so no one was close enough to speak to him. It still felt like someone was nearby, a cold tingle on his neck.

"Close your eyes."

He did and saw nothing but white. Trembling, he opened his eyes to get away from it. But, his vision was still all white. A faint outline of the bench, faded colors on his skin and clothes… a pale hand reaching down to caress his cheek.

Issachar looked up and saw Flynn. No, that was the White stealing his form. "Let me go," Issachar said, afraid and yet…

"I warned you this would happen," the White said, putting their finger to Issachar's lips.

He had a sudden recollection of his dreams and Flynn kissing him… this Flynn. Issachar's thoughts grew hazy. "Uhh…"

"No amount of novelty is going to save you now," he said. "This desire will keep burning within you, forcing you to constantly face the ugliness and wickedness of your heart. These thoughts will keep tormenting you, forcing you to keep silent and watch him suffer because the alternative is telling him and watching him self-destruct from guilt. But you'll have to keep living your life, doing your job. You remember how that goes."

Yes, Issachar remembered that all too well. He could imagine it happening all over again with this. He was just wrong; he knew more now, but that only showed that he was even worse than he thought.

The White Flynn was then sitting by him, with an arm around him. "Then why not give up?" he asked softly, keeping close to him. "I know your feelings; I know you're not the only one who feels like this. Many have suffered because the whole world is wrong and only gets worse as time goes on. You'll be happy if your desires are fulfilled, but you know that's impossible. Except, it's not completely impossible. You can surrender to me. I'll make you happy if you do, and then you'll know nothing else. It's the only happiness you can attain now."

"Flynn said your ideas are dangerous," Issachar said. It was a tempting offer, stopping himself before he suffered any longer. But Flynn would also be crushed if he did this. "You're not Flynn. Let me go."

"You have to return to normal life while this hell rages inside you," the White said. "Why force yourself to endure that? There is no way to get what you want, no victory you can find satisfying. Why keep going if you must live like that?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "But I'm not going to make things worse on Flynn. It might make things worse on me, but I won't make things worse on him."

Then a sound broke in on them, revealing just how silent this place was. It was a rolling chime, like a bell continually turned. The White stood up at that sound, not wanting to stay near it. "If you change your mind, I won't be far," they said. "You can count on that." And everything that was white vanished.

Issachar found himself back on the bench in the plaza in front of the dance hall. The wind was still brisk and now felt damp. However, the chime had followed him. It was coming from a wheel toy guided by a strange little girl in a white dress. He looked at her but found her face indistinct. As she got near the bench, she caught the toy with her stick and looked back at him.

This girl was not human. But in looking at her, Issachar felt that she was in trouble. "Hoy, aren't you cold like that?" he asked.

He couldn't see her expression even though she was close enough that he could grab her wheel toy. But Issachar felt sad when he looked at her. It was disconnected from his own turmoil, like he'd heard a sad story from someone else.

"Here, why don't you take this?" Issachar said, unlatching the cape he wore and leaning over to put it on the little girl instead. The vibrant colors were at odds with her pale form and dark hair, but she seemed more like an actual child with it on. "It suits you better than me," he added, smiling at her.

If she was a real girl, the cape might not help against the chill since her legs and arms were still bare. She tugged at it to get a look at it, then bounced in place, gladdened for a bit at the unexpected present. It left Issachar more exposed to the wind, but it was a brief little joy… that would be crushed out of memory, most likely, but for a moment that didn't matter.

"She's glad for the chance to meet you, Issachar, as am I," a man said.

He should have been spooked at the second unexpected visitor, speaking up without warning. But there was something in his voice that countered any potential panic. This pair had no intention of harming him; that was understood without being said. Although, the man was even stranger than the girl. He wore thin glasses that hid his eyes completely and sat in a wheelchair that was clearly far more advanced than any other machinery in Mikado.

"Well…" he had an inclination to say he wasn't anyone important. But stronger in mind was how that, despite that close call with the White, Issachar felt much calmer than he should around these spirits. "It's nice to meet you both, but who are you?"

The girl was still admiring her new cape, so the man said, "My name is Stephan; I've been watching over this girl for some time now."

Stephan… Flynn had mentioned that name before, with great respect. "Oh, Flynn's mentioned you, but he didn't really explain who you were."

"That would be much too complicated to explain," Stephan said. "But I am watching over Flynn as well, and those he's connected to. I understand that he's taken you into his confidence with what's going on, but hasn't explained everything to you. There are reasons he can't, including the fact that much of his plan counts on surprising his enemies."

"I know, but I trust him," Issachar said. "If he asks me, I'll help him out."

Stephan nodded. "Then as his friend, would you mind passing on some information to him? There are a couple of things he should be made aware of that he won't be able to find out for quite some time, and then it may be too late."

"All right, what should I tell him?"

"Firstly, the scales have been flipped," he said. "It's an unsteady position, but already that breaks expectations. Those who are aware of such things will be very concerned about it and may act drastically to regain the positions they're used to."

"Um, all right," Issachar said, even though that made little sense to him. Hopefully Flynn did understand.

"The other thing he should know is that the fiends have been gathering," Stephan said.

"Fiends, you mean like Alice?" Issachar asked.

"Not Alice, no," he said. "She's a chaotic element of her own, but is at most an honorary fiend. The actual clan of fiends is made up of various incarnations of Death. The vast majority of demons can be classified as chaotic, neutral, or lawful in the ways they act and speak; the fiends act independently, crossing categories and often acting against expectations. However, a few things remain consistent with them. Their highest loyalty is to the first fallen angel, and when they gather together, they are a fearsome force that could overthrow Heaven or Hell if they are so inclined."

"Oh, so we'd rather not provoke them if we can," he guessed. If the other demons acted in terror of an honorary fiend, the actual fiends must be far worse.

"That would be wise," Stephan said. "But it would be better to be prepared in case they can't be avoided. If you tell Flynn what I explained to you about them, he should understand quickly what it is that they are after on your world."

"I'm sure he would," Issachar said.

"And there's something I'd like to tell just you," he said. "The White are keeping close eye on both of you because they've taken control of you both before. You don't remember what's happened before yet, but Flynn remembers all too well. He has to endure those memories while managing a complex conflict, a lot of which is outside his control no matter what he does. He's doing well so far, but the pressure on him is only going to increase and there are faults in his emotions that could destroy him."

"I could figure that out myself," he said. "I want to help but, I might make things worse."

"Sometimes things are better done than said," Stephan said. "He can use the support of someone who cares deeply for him and is willing to be very patient with him, especially when he might not be able to spare much time for them. He already trusts and cares about you a great deal, as he has changed the flow of time to change your fate. So he wouldn't resist if you quietly took care of him, and might not realize why until he is in a better position to accept it."

That was quite an idea, to take care of Flynn without telling him the reason behind why until things calmed down. He'd have to hold back with his feelings for a long time. But then, it made sense that it would give him a better chance at Flynn accepting his love. "I could see that," Issachar said. "Thanks, I'll try doing that."

"I wish you well in your efforts," Stephan said. And then in a blink, he and the little girl were gone.

And she still had his cape. Issachar didn't feel like going back into the ball, so it'd be best just to head back to the dorms. However, someone else was coming out of the dance hall early: Flynn. "Hoy, you okay?" he asked. "Isabeau said you didn't look well when you left."

"I'm fine now," Issachar said, smiling at his concern. That made him feel more certain that this was the best way to handle things. "But I was thinking of heading back; it wasn't all that interesting, to be honest. I meet people I like talking to better at the Sabbaths."

"You're right on that," Flynn said, a trace of boredom in his words.

Getting up from the bench, Issachar said, "Now what's that about? I heard you got called on by the princess and spent a lot of time with her."

Now he was more clearly disgruntled. "Her motives in getting married are entirely political. I would've turned her down today, but I managed to persuade her to attend a Sabbath herself."

"Huh, that could be interesting," he said. They headed on back to the dorms. "Oh, but you just missed that Stephan guy. I got to talk with him a bit."

"He's a good person, you can trust him," Flynn said.

"He's definitely more than he appears to be," he said, rubbing his neck. "And he did have a couple of things he wanted to let you know." He then explained about the scales and the fiends.

Flipping the scales must have been good as Flynn looked satisfied with that. The news about the fiends worried him, at least until Issachar explained them like Stephan had. "I see. Yeah, I have a good idea what the fiends are after. It's a risky play on my part, but I think it's worth it."

"Is it something you can tell me about?" Issachar asked. "I understand if it's not, but it's curious."

Flynn thought about it quietly for a while. Eventually, he shook his head. "It's something that I'd better not say out loud at this point, not when angels and demons can escape our notice if they choose to. But consider this: say you were assigned to watch the sheep for a season. There are predators in the area the sheep will be in. Would you rather have a pack of wolves or a dragon to beware of?"

"Neither of them would be good, but I'd rather have the wolves around," he said. "They're clever, but if you're out there on your own with the sheep, you can take measures to scare them off and make sure you have good fences. But a dragon would be a challenge even to a samurai. A shepherd wouldn't be able to keep the dragon from taking off with sheep any time it wanted, not unless they were more skilled than a samurai in battle too."

He nodded to that. "Right, that's something like what I'm trying to do. I've got a dragon I want out, but doing so would release wolves. The ideal situation would be to have neither, but I don't have an ideal situation. So I'm going to try ending up with the predators that are easier to manage."

"But having the fiends involved is going to complicate things, I'd think. Alice was a really powerful demon, but Stephan said she was just an honorary fiend. The actual ones must be much worse."

"They are, but I've defeated them before," Flynn said. "I know I can defeat them again, but avoiding conflict with them would be preferred."


	23. Get a Clue

**Chapter 23: Get a Clue**

With Sukuna-Hikona defeated, many of the demons who had been lurking in the caverns underneath the well had fled. It led to a quiet walk back towards the surface. The magic of this place let them ascend the waterfall if they jumped up into it, although Krishna had to encourage the two children to do so. In the upper caves, he'd cleared his mind from fainting within the seal enough that he noticed something that should be dealt with. "You two mean to enter Kinshicho like this?" he asked them.

"I don't think I would have trouble," Hallelujah said, glancing at Toki. "But…"

Krishna tsked at that. "You're wearing a pin that marks you as a member of the Ashura-kai. From what I've observed, Kinshicho is not actively rebelling like other towns. But they will be wary and want answers out of the next Ashura-kai member who visits them."

Embarrassed at that, Hallelujah quickly went to remove his membership pin. "Oh, uh, I forgot about that. Yeah, better it gets put away."

"And you, Miss Toki, will be refused right at the gates because of that mask," Krishna said.

"The mask is part of my image and training," she answered, not understanding the problem with it.

"Well I mistook you for a demon at first," Hallelujah said. "Everyone else will too."

And the other humans wouldn't realize she was human nearly as quick, since Hallelujah had a demonic sense for inhuman beings and energy. "It fits very well for an assassin who is counting on a moment of fright to freeze a victim," Krishna said. "But it will not allow you to work with others by blending in with them. You should lose the mask before we get there."

"I can't take it off," Toki said, which seemed to be true. She at least believed that she was not at all capable of taking off the mask, as it subconsciously refused to let her.

"Then allow me," Krishna said, stopping to call out his flute. The two of them stopped, Toki because of her mental restrictions and Hallelujah because he didn't see how the flute helped. As there was magic and psychological bondage involved, Krishna needed to find the invisible ties that bound her to the mask… there. He played a short tune, arranging his magic to counter the binding and cut it cleanly. Once that was done, the physical bindings snapped and the mask fell off.

"Will this really work?" Toki asked, her mind holding her place where she had been mentally bound. She might not know any other way to be.

He sent his flute away as he didn't think any demons on the way out would require it. "Yes, you may leave that behind. It may leave you mentally unsteady for some time, but I have a good feeling about you. You'll find your footing before long."

There was no further incidents in getting out of the cave and the well leading into it. Outside, one of the temple's outer lights had been turned on to illuminate the area they emerged from. Maitreya was waiting on them, as well as Odin and Thor. "Welcome back, Krishna," Odin said. "You came out earlier than planned."

"Yeah, you're lucky Odin came to his senses just now," Thor added.

"Yes, but I'm glad you could join us," Krishna said. To himself, he was concerned that Odin could complicate matters. He was very intelligent and Maitreya was very wise; between the two of them, they might pick up on his shifting loyalties and try to convince him back to their futile plans. And even if he now saw how that plan was flawed, he still strongly wanted to make it work somehow.

"We're not in a good position to begin things, however," Maitreya said. "There has been no major moves, but already things have shifted unexpectedly."

"Krishna did that," Toki said, likely because Maitreya had ordered her into freeing him.

"Yes, I did have a hand in that," Krishna said. "Not all of it, but the situation has changed greatly, maybe more than you realize. Our plans may be impossible now."

"I can't imagine anything that would make them entirely unfeasible," Odin said, gripping his spear a little tighter. The other two were more openly surprised by that.

He nodded. "But it's happened. Anyhow, we need to see these two safely to Kinshicho. We should head right there, then we'll discuss where we'll go now. Our main goal should still be attainable; it will simply require a much different route to get there. Let's go; we need to head down that street, right?"

"We should head around Akihabara, but that's the way," Thor said.

As they headed off down the street, Hallelujah asked, "So what was that change all about? You said you'd explain it."

Krishna nodded. "I did. First things first, to understand what happened, you have to see something in the much larger picture. I'm sure you're both aware of the war between angels and demons that ended up with Tokyo under the Firmament."

"Of course," Hallelujah said while Toki nodded.

"The thing is, calling it a war is a misrepresentation of what's really going on," he explained. "It's more like a colossal cosmic chess match between two masterminds. It's a game to those in control of things, and humanity is a group of pawns to be used and sacrificed to gain victory for one of the two players. And this game has been played over and over again for eons, across many different worlds. To those of us who can watch this conflict beyond mortal limits, it's become predictable simply because these players have played against each other and only each other for so long."

"We meant to use that predictability against them," Maitreya said. "We still can."

They could… no, he was going to try this first. Krishna nodded to acknowledge that, but went on with his explanation. "Except, there is one deviation from what you would expect out of chess with this cosmic war. In chess, the most powerful pieces are the most mobile, the queens. In the cosmic chess games, there is often a hero chosen to represent humanity who is given the power to act as a wild card queen, so to speak. The wild card can choose to assist either side to give them victory. Or, the wild card can attempt to try winning on their own, if they can defeat every other piece on the board. But the wild card is human. Once their life passes, the board is set up again and the players go for another round, with or without another wild card to spice things up."

"Does this have anything to do with Nanashi?" Toki asked.

Krishna smiled and tipped his hat. "Very good guess. Nanashi might be a wild card this time around. Or, he might not be. But he has the potential, if he chooses to be. That's why you two have suddenly been asked to go watch over him. You won't notice, but you've already been marked as potential pieces in the current round of the game. However, there's someone else marked as a wild card who has further complicated matters."

"So there's four sides now?" Hallelujah asked, trying to keep up with this.

"But if there's two wild cards chosen to represent humanity, it's most likely they'd be on the same side," Odin said. "That makes more sense."

"Unless we're no longer playing chess," Krishna said.

"What are you saying?" Odin asked, very concerned.

He laughed. "That's right. That's what you all felt when things changed. The chess board has been stolen and replaced with a board for Clue."

"By what?" Maitreya asked. Odin and Thor were equally confused. Toki was unsure of it either.

"But Clue is an entirely different kind of game than chess," Hallelujah said, not as confused since he at least knew the game in question. "It's a murder mystery game, not a straightforward strategy game like chess."

"Clue does take strategy, but of a different kind than used in chess," Krishna said. "You are right. We're in the middle of a mystery right now. Clue asks the players, which can be more than two, to guess through logic which randomly chosen character, weapon, and location were involved in a murder. Except right now, it's not even clear what crime or crimes were committed, or who the victim or victims are. And imagine, this cosmic game of Clue has hundreds of cards for hundreds of clues. Maybe even thousands, it's hard to tell at this stage. We don't know how many players or sides will end up involved. On top of that, the cards haven't all been shuffled out, as a good deal of them have been tossed to the winds or couldn't be located immediately at the start."

"That would be a really insane game to try to play," Hallelujah said.

"It will be," Krishna said. "But you know what? The two masterminds who've been toying with us this whole time still think that they're playing chess. An awful lot of beings won't realize the change in the very nature of the game, perhaps for quite some time. And if they don't get a clue soon, they're going to end up losing without having an idea about why. Even the masterminds. So third parties like us have an even better chance at winning, but we also have to change the nature of how we play."

"Huh," Hallelujah said. "But, it's hard to solve a mystery if you don't know what mystery is being solved."

Krishna shrugged. "True. I may have shuffled the cards, but I still can only read the ones I ended up with. We'll simply have to pick a mystery to start with and see where investigating it leads. I for one want to investigate a particular snake to begin with. For you two, you'll be working with Nanashi and figuring out a way to go with him."

Also important to winning at Clue was bluffing… and it seemed he was doing fine on that front for now.

* * *

Jonathan was in a bad mood now. Unfortunately, Marie couldn't do much about it. A storm had brewed up outside, so she'd been invited to stay over at the manor that Jonathan's family lived in. But his parents had insisted that she be kept separate from him for the night, which was the proper arrangement given that their courtship had only begun today. It meant that she knew Jonathan was still upset from the arguments over dinner, but she couldn't talk with him about it until tomorrow.

She had done what she could. And really, today had been like a wonderful dream up until dinner. Jonathan had been conflicted a little while, but she knew him pretty well now and was able to melt his resistance. By the end of the ball, they'd been talking about getting married as soon as they could. Which would probably be at least a month off. There were courtship requirements to meet before the church would be willing to wed them, and then all the plans that had to be made. Even if he agreed to decline some of the Luxuror traditions to be able to marry her, he was still a samurai and there were traditions to be met in that kind of wedding.

But there had been something the fairy couldn't help them with, and that was getting the acceptance of his parents. Marie was sure that her father would be overjoyed when they told him, and she'd done all she could to present herself as a cultured young lady to impress Jonathan's parents. But, then it had to be admitted that she was part of the baker family in the Casualry district. She thought she had Mark willing to support her; he already knew her from visiting the bakery and he only showed a bit of surprise when they showed up at the manor after the ball. And he'd been friendly towards her during dinner.

Lady Beatrice, however, was not happy with this. She nearly got Marie thrown out immediately upon learning the truth; Mark had talked her down from that, since she was their guest for the night. But when Beatrice insisted that her son could absolutely not marry a Casualry woman, Jonathan lost his temper and insisted that he would. It had been a really ugly scene. Beatrice had ended up in tears because she hadn't expected to argue so badly with her son. Even though he kept defending Marie, Jonathan was clearly upset by that and eventually left the dining room. What could be done now? She hadn't read about what to do in a situation like this.

Although, there was something promising in this. They'd given her a guest room worthy of their Luxuror guests, decorated with lovely old furniture and paintings made by a family ancestor. At least, Mark had done this for her. Maybe he could convince his wife to accept this. Or, there was something Marie could try to get Beatrice to like her. It was a sentimental argument that might come across weakly; it also made her nervous to bring it up. But she didn't want Jonathan to end up cut off from his family if she could help it.

She left her guest room, but then realized that she wasn't sure where to go looking for Lady Beatrice. The Luxurors kept huge buildings for homes, keeping families together over several generations and branches. While she'd only dined with Jonathan, his parents, and his two unmarried sisters, she'd heard that his father's brother lived elsewhere in the manor with his children, and both of them had a cousin who lived in yet another area with his family. It wasn't really that much different from her family's home, just much more space and many more rooms to check when looking for someone.

Fortunately, she found Beatrice with Mark not too far from her guest room. "Pardon me, I don't meant to intrude, but I hoped I could talk with you again," Marie said.

"It's all right, for now," Beatrice said. She seemed tired, but it was a lukewarm reaction. That was promising (weak like her coming persuasion, but it might be something to found hope on).

"Actually, we had another visitor just now," Mark said. "The castle chamberlain came over to talk about you showing up at the ball."

"In this weather?" Marie asked. The rain was coming down hard now; the wind could be heard howling out in the streets.

"He's an extremely stubborn man," Beatrice said. "Once he gets an idea in his head, he'll go ahead with it even if it's not a good one."

Mark nodded. "But he did say that you were a lovely guest at the ball and one wouldn't have realized you were of humble origins meeting you there. How did you learn to pass as a Luxuror so well?"

"I taught myself, with some books and watching people in this area," Marie said. "I don't have it all fully learned since I still have to think through some things. But I wanted to do my best for Jonathan."

"Your hard work is evident," Beatrice said. "Although, I don't believe I've been a good example myself tonight. I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Marie said, thankful that she would at least apologize. Now, to try her idea… "I understand if it was a shock to you and you weren't quite yourself. But, well, I felt like you had to be a wonderful lady, Beatrice, since Jonathan is such a gentleman and he speaks warmly and highly of you. I already knew Mark was a great person since I've known him for a while too, so I knew you had to be the same. I was actually hoping that we could be good friends, really. I never knew my mother since she passed away shortly after I was born, and since you had to be a wonderful lady to be a mother to Jonathan and a wife to Mark, I had hoped you could also be like my mother if you became my mother-in-law."

And Beatrice actually smiled at that, a little embarrassed at how she'd been acting but touched enough by that plea that she came over and put a hand on Marie's shoulder. "Oh, you do seem like a sweet girl. But there is a lot more you need to learn to join our family. Since my own daughters will move away when they marry, Jonathan's going to inherit the position as master of the household from Mark, and you'll have to be the lady of the house. You'll need to be firm and confidant to take on a role like that, especially to keep some of the others from trying to take that position away from you."

"Alright, I'll learn whatever will help," she said, feeling excited all over again. This was working out just like her dreams!

* * *

Kinshicho Park was crawling with demons that had been drawn out by the power instability…

Many strokes of lightning raced across the park, followed by screams and howls of said demons. "That should do," Thor said.

Kinshicho Park was now dead quiet and still, the lights coming back on after the massive burst of electricity from Thor. "Right, as long as the humans don't come up to investigate that," Krishna said. "Though I doubt they will."

"Then what are we going to do now?" Maitreya asked while Thor moved off a little ways to keep an eye on things. Thor was more of a warrior than a thinker, leaving Odin to work out most plans he got involved in. "Tokyo's current situation won't let our plans begin, and you're saying that the shift of things means they can't happen at all. I still don't understand why that is, though."

Krishna sat down on a bench, opting to relax for a brief time. "When the shift happened, I had visions of what could be." He put his hand to his cheek. "I really want to save humanity from this mess we've all gotten in; it's what I'm meant to do. But humanity isn't ready for Salvation in this generation. It will fall apart as soon as we succeed."

"But we'll be raising humanity above the bounds that they've been put in," Odin said.

Shaking his head, he replied, "That won't be enough. Humans are contradictory creatures, we know that. A good deal of it is related to the Covenant, but not all. They wish to be part of society, and they wish to be apart and special. That's one contradiction that will undo us. At this time, it takes a human experience, training, and shifting of their self visualization in order to escape that contradiction. Salvation will force that on them, and that is where it will fail."

"That's unfortunate as it should be the ideal state of being," Maitreya said. "But we need to reclaim the souls of humanity or they'll continue being stuck under YHVH's chains. Many of us have tried to reclaim believers from Him, but that doesn't work either."

Krishna looked up at Odin and Maitreya, thinking to himself. The loss of believers… that was a painful emptiness which would eventually drive them mad. Part of his plans involved a goddess named Inanna, one who was practically forgotten in this generation of humanity. As a result, Inanna was easy to control unless her madness drove her to making poor choices. Krishna had intended to guide her actions, lead her through that madness. But, perhaps that would only make her suffer more. The four of them here had enough of a cultural presence to be remembered by most of the humans in Tokyo. If they went to Mikado, though, only a single human up there would have any idea of who they were. That could drive them just as mad as Inanna.

"Cutting their souls away from Him is the most practical solution to that, we already decided on that," Odin said.

"Or possibly earning their worship from scratch," Krishna said.

"If they recognize us, they should know why we should be worshiped," Odin said.

"That's a faulty line of thinking which too many gods have, I find," Krishna said. Odin narrowed his eyes at him with Maitreya looked puzzled. Smiling at them, he said, "I mean no offense, but it might be part of why we can't claim their souls directly anymore. Among humans, one must earn respect in order to be respected. There is some starting trust people have in others, to varying degrees, but past that humans do have to prove themselves to each other. In the old days, we could get away with calling storms or simply knowing more to gain worship. But humanity grows with every generation it can, increasing in their own wisdom and reason. They've grown to the point where we have to do more to earn their respect, and thus their worship. That counts even moreso when YHVH got Himself into such a central place of human consciousness."

"But we are more powerful and wiser than they are," Maitreya said. "We can answer the questions they have, solve the problems they can't. They're simply stubborn in not recognizing us while they keep blindly calling for Him."

Krishna resisted an impulse to ask if Maitreya really could answer questions humans had and solve the problems they couldn't solve. He was pretty sure that if he asked about the Yamato Perpetual Reactor that Maitreya would find himself stumped. But, these were the allies he had. He'd chosen them because he could manipulate them. "Yes, that stubbornness and skepticism are obstacles for us. But it's just like how Salvation won't work as we hoped. We can't simply force these humans to believe in us all at once. They'll resist and fight back."

"Taking their souls and having them reborn as believers won't work either," Odin said. "Once we start getting believers, even if only a handful, YHVH will take notice and move His puppets to undo our efforts. We have to be able to use that against them, like we had planned, since it is inevitable."

"That is true," Krishna admitted. "But we have our own contradictions."

"No we don't, it's in the nature of gods to be certain." Maitreya clicked his tongue, then smiled like he pitied Krishna. "Have you gotten confused in your time being sealed?"

He smiled back. "Perhaps, or are you making fun of me as an avatar?"

"You'd know if I was trying to make fun of you," Maitreya said.

"But what are you thinking now?" Odin asked.

Leaning back on the bench, he answered, "There is a rather serious matter what we've been overlooking that's within our very existence here. We need humans around or else we couldn't manifest in this world. It isn't a place like the Abyss or Heaven where beings like us exist naturally. We need energy to remain here, but due to the low population of humans currently around, magnetite is scarce. Elsewhere in this city, there is already one goddess who has gone mad with bloodlust due to this situation. She's killing off even more humans, which makes the situation more dire.

"With the demon summoning program as it is now, we could bind ourselves to a summoner to not take up energy and stay sane. But then we would have to cooperate with the summoner and a good number of gods simply have too much pride to be pulled into a contract. Breaking the divide that the Firmament represents will help since we'll then have access to the humans above even if they don't know of us yet. But, that will cause a caustic collision between the angels and demons when they resume their games."

"That much is obvious," Maitreya said.

"It's also obvious that we four as gods are taking up a great deal more magnetite than the demons we just banished from here," Krishna said. He snapped his fingers. "We know this. It is a problem. Now, are you willing to remove yourselves from the world and return to the Abyss in order to alleviate that problem?"

Odin and Maitreya were caught speechless at that. They glanced nervously at each other. If it came down to it, they would remove each other because they were from different cultures.

"It's a contradiction," Krishna said. "Any god who can be selfless enough to remove themselves hasn't emerged because of that. But, here we are, searching for a way to reclaim what souls are here in Tokyo, and eventually Mikado as well. Leaving is the right thing to do, but must it be us to be the ones to leave? Then what is the solution to this contradiction we face?"

They still couldn't answer him.

Gesturing to the dark corners of the park where the demons who hadn't been destroyed still lurked, fearfully watching them, Krishna answered, "It is simply to earn our worship by helping the humans remove the excess of demons around. But as I was explaining to the two kids we brought over here, there are a number of things going on that simply don't make sense. I did trigger a few in trying to confound the puppets who think they're puppeteers, but that's not all. I will take care of lesser demons along the way, but I mean to question Lucifer directly."

"There's no need for that," Maitreya said reflexively. "We know that he's one of YHVH's puppets; he'll only mislead you as he always has."

"But does he know that he's a puppet?" Krishna said. "If not, there is some possibility in talking to him. Don't worry, I will be careful. But with our plans rendered unusable, many possibilities must be pursued before we can find a new plan."

"The Ring of Gaea might question me pushing them to eliminate large amounts of demons," Maitreya said. "They'd try to take out me as well if I give them your reasoning."

"Thor and I will be fine with clearing the excess," Odin said. "He'll be happier with that. We'll focus on taking down more powerful demons the humans might not be able to handle, the ones taking up more energy."

Rubbing his chin, Krishna thought a moment. "Yes, I'd trust you and Thor to that. Maitreya, you might see about convincing the Gaeans to take out demons that have gotten addicted to Reds. They'll be satisfied with acting against the Ashura-kai, and the Red addicts are being useless lumps, not doing anything to help anyone but themselves. I think we can all agree that the Ashura-kai remaining strong is not going to help us; reducing their ability to control demons should be a priority."

"Ah, yes that would work out well," Maitreya said.

"You'd better be very careful if you do get involved with Lucifer," Odin warned.

Krishna chuckled. "Oh don't worry, I'm quite the snake charmer."

* * *

There was quite a smell in the air, something buttery and salty. Manabu had dragged out one of the odder machines that had been hanging around the public lounge, something he called an air popper. Strangely enough, it had one single purpose: to turn a special kind of corn into popcorn. It was one of the luxuries of the old days, and their friend had even pulled out a bit more luxuries in the butter to make them some popcorn to snack on while they watched movies.

"It was just a thing people did back in the day, see?" Manabu said "If you're just gonna hang out with friends and watch movies, you make popcorn to snack on. It ain't much for nutrition and we don't find the popcorn kernels often. But hey, I've been hanging onto this batch for a special occasion. And if you say some new friends are going to pop by, well why not?"

"Thanks Manubu, it smells delicious," Asahi said.

"Yeah, really," Nanashi said, watching with interest as lumpy white puffs hopped out of the heated canister and bounced down into the waiting bowl. They'd all been these little golden brown seeds before, too hard to eat and unable to grow. And this had been a common thing? He'd seen it in some of his comic books, but it seemed downright magical actually seeing it being made.

"What's going on in here?" Nikkari asked, stopping by the doorway. "We'll want to be rested up to head over to Kasumigaseki."

"Well, things are going on, apparently," Manubu said.

Nanashi nodded. "Yeah, that guy Flynn who requested that I stop the missiles left a message. He doesn't want me to talk about all of it, but it has to do with that weird feeling I had when we were coming back. He lives above the Firmament and he needs me to stay awake for a few hours to distract some supernatural forces. Apparently, he gets six months to do something if I can manage to stay awake four hours now."

"The conversion sounds about right," Nikkari said, not bothering to check with his phone this time.

"And a couple of people are gonna get told to watch him, so they should show up soon," Asahi said. "And me too, Flynn said I should keep an eye on Nanashi. We were going to watch some movies, and then Manabu had some popcorn to make."

"I see." Nikkari nodded. "Very well, taking some time off is a good thing, especially when we're still stuck in town. I'm going to take care of a couple of matters, but I'll be back over to join you."

"Oh really?" Manabu asked, surprised. "Well we were going to watch those cartoon movies I found; doesn't really seem like your kind of thing."

"You never know," Nikkari said with a smile, then went off to take care of his tasks.

Not long after that, a boy and a girl showed up in the doorway. He had scruffy white hair and was daring enough to wear a bright yellow jacket that might catch attention out in the dark streets. She had long black hair that blended with her long black clothes, leaving her pale face as the only thing about her that really stood out. "Hey, uh, are you Nanashi?" the boy said.

"Yes," he said. "And this is Asahi, and that guy over there is Manabu. You two are Hallelujah and Toki, right?"

Toki just nodded while Hallelujah smiled. "Yeah, that's us. Weird, but I guess you would have been told about us too. This has all been weird, but," he shrugged, "hey, it beats just going on as I was."

"Well I think this is exciting," Asahi said with a bright smile. "I don't get entirely what's going on, but it's nice to have some others our age around here. We were going to watch some movies and have popcorn, so come on, join us!"

"That sounds great, thanks," Hallelujah said.

"We were told to protect and help you, Nanashi," Toki said. "Also something about solving mysteries. We don't know much more besides that."

"Mysteries, huh?" Nanashi asked, thinking of one immediately. It was something he'd already decided to ask Flynn about; he had a strange amount of knowledge packed into just the one message and request information, so he should know something about it.

Hallelujah nodded. "Yeah, that was pretty confusing, but… well there's something about angels and demons playing chess while we think they're at war, only somebody's changed the game on them or something… whatever, it basically means that we're supposed to figure something out but it's not clear what."

"There's mysteries and things we just don't know about everywhere now," Manabu said. "Kind of hard to narrow things down, but you'd have to to get a start on anything."

"We're already trying to figure out what happened in Minami," Nanashi said. "We'll be going over to Kasumagaseki soon, but then we can go back to trying to reach Toyosu and Minami."

"What's mysterious about Minami?" Hallelujah asked. "I've never heard of it."

"It's a ghost town south of here, by the poison swamp," Toki said.

Nanashi nodded. "Right, I was the last person who got rescued from there. Something happened to create that swamp and kill everyone in town, but it was eight years ago and nobody's been daring enough to cross the swamp to look into it."

"Oh, um, I see," Hallelujah said, seeming regretful that he'd asked.

"I kind of remember something about a factory being the place the sludge came from," Nanashi said, those images coming back unwanted. "But then I got so sick I forgot my own name and how old I was, so I don't know much more beyond that."

"We'll figure it out," Manabu said in encouragement. "We just have to stockpile a lot of antidotes to get down there. But, no need to worry about that tonight. Which one of the movies do you want to start with?"

That would be just the thing to get his mind off things; Nanashi smiled. "Maybe something cheerful? That's be good."

 _A/N: The Chess/Clue metaphor was something spontaneous from when I wrote up a description of this story for Camp NaNoWriMo a while back, but it tickled me so much that it became an actual part of the story. So yes, this is a mystery now, although the mystery is vague at this point and the clues are indeed scattered everywhere._


	24. Winter Blessings

**Chapter 24: Winter Blessings**

The Harvest Festival at the end of autumn was one of the big events of the year in Mikado. While every community that dealt with farming would have their own local celebrations, the castle would invite people from all over the kingdom to come and celebrate in a large festival. It was the one time of year when being proud of one accomplishments was seen as a good thing. Although, all harvests were a blessing from God. Pride was fine for the moment as long as one's gratitude towards Him was greater.

Flynn had faint memories of getting to attend the Harvest Festival in the capitol when he was a child. It had been a wonderfully exciting experience at the time, seeing so many new things at once and being allowed to play freely. This time, he felt sharply how different he was from everyone there. He still used religious rhetoric since it was useful with convincing the people of Mikado to accept ideas they'd otherwise resist. Unlike them, it was mere rhetoric to him and he didn't believe in it anymore. That was because unlike them, he had met God face to face and found Him extremely unpleasant and insincere. It was only morning and he was already sick of all the 'thanks to God' and other phrases since he knew God was merely watching and not doing a thing directly in the world.

But, it was snowing wonderfully today. There was already snow in the streets since it had been a rather cold week. Dainty little flakes of snow drifted down from the gray sky, each little works of art contributing to a larger beauty that was the castle city streets draped with snow and icicles. Still, even the need to be careful when walking around wasn't enough to stop the festival. A joyous blend of chatter, laughter, music, and celebration filled the air. It all mixed into something that felt like some higher being really did love the world. Maybe the Great Will, a mystery beyond the God that he'd faced?

Flynn did feel a quiet sense of confidence at times like this, something of the certainty he'd once had in God before he was asked to take charge of the world's future. And what he'd seen of the Great Will, those connected to it… he was pretty sure it was a good thing that didn't want humanity to suffer. So even though it was cold enough to turn his breath white and he knew the ugly realities behind the things people around him said in blind faith… he was feeling peaceful for the moment. Stormy times were coming and it was going to be more turbulent than ever, and he had to direct a lot of that turbulence. But now was peaceful.

Nearby, one of his ideas had come to fruition. There was a booth nearby being run by some of the regulars at the Sabbaths; they were holding a quiz contest with a few prizes for the people who got the highest scores. As he'd suggested, there was a large board split between Luxurors and Casualry to keep track of scores. The quizzes were all the same, being given in closed off booths to keep others from helping the contestants. Only a few hours in and already the quiz results were being gossiped about. The top scores between the two classes so far were quite similar.

And there was only one perfect score on the board right now, on the Casualry side. Flynn smiled on seeing it; he'd have to congratulate Issachar on managing that. He'd even chosen to be listed as from Kiccigiorgi and being a samurai. However, Flynn had not be able to take the quiz contest himself. He'd volunteered to be one of those who created the quiz questions, one of the very few who knew what all the questions would be. It was a mix of knowledge: some math, a question on what little history there was for Mikado, some about standard fairy tales, some about Literature, some about raising animals, some about growing plants. As such, it presented itself as something the Luxurors felt like they should be capable of, but it was actually weighed in favor of the Casualry. Hopefully no one called them out on it. The whole point was to break down more barriers between the classes.

"Hoy, Flynn!"

The call brought him out of his thoughts, back into the crowd of the festival. "Hoy, Issachar," he said, waving to him as he came over. "Congratulations on the perfect score here."

He grinned at that. "Oh, thanks! It was easier than I expected, but I guess you guys couldn't make it too hard."

"We didn't expect many to make a perfect score like that," Flynn said.

"Anyhow, have you been around very much today?" he asked, apparently having something in mind.

"I volunteered to work today, remember? And this," he nodded to the quiz booth, "is most likely to cause conflicts, so I've been staying on this street."

"I think others have the same idea," Issachar said. Which was true; several of the master samurai were sticking around up here as well. "But, I've been looking around and went to find Kiccigiorgi's area, just out of curiosity. Your parents are there."

"Are they?" Flynn asked, feeling a twinge in his heart. "I haven't seen them in a very long time." They always ended up dying if Kiccigiorgi burned. The one time he'd seen them alive in this entire time had been the one time he'd declined being a samurai and came back home. That hadn't been for long, though, as that failure crushed Issachar and he had to be pulled away.

"I had a feeling it was like that," he said, sounding sad for him. "Well then, come on, let's go over there. My parents don't seem to have come, which I'm fine with. But you ought to go speak to yours."

He really should be around to help negotiate any potential arguments, making sure that this revolution stayed civil. But, he knew the samurai who were also on patrol over here. They were also open-minded towards the Casualry's complaints and protests; they'd handle any problems fairly. And with how village life was, his parents wouldn't have any other opportunity to come to the capitol. If things went well, he'd also have no reason to visit Kiccigiorgi any time soon.

"All right, that'd be good," Flynn said.

Issachar smiled at that. "Great, come on then! They have some really impressive produce this year, and even brought over a couple of the sheep."

Kiccigiorgi's community covered a large spread of land, used for farms, pastures, and orchards. As a result, they had one of the larger displays at this festival. The vegetables and flours they displayed were nostalgic sights, sure to be good since the whole community put everything they had into what they grew. As usual, they also brought out candied fruits made for special occasions and the colorful woven blankets that the villagers would never keep unless some mistake made one unworthy for sale. It would be nice to be able to buy from them this year.

There were people around that Flynn felt like he faintly recognized. They must have been people he once worked with often. But now, he didn't trust himself to remember their names; he'd have to rely on Issachar to stir those old memories back up if they wanted to talk. There were some that he recognized in a heartbeat. Not just his parents, but his two younger siblings and his older brother with his wife and their very small child (who seemed unsteady on her feet but she was doing her best to stand around). Flynn had a feeling like he sometimes felt about Issachar, that these people shouldn't be alive right now. But due to choices he'd forged because he wouldn't get offered them otherwise, they all seemed well and happy now.

For once, Issachar wasn't starting the conversation, so it was up to him. "Hoy, good to see you all again," Flynn said, trying to sound calm when he wasn't quite sure how he felt.

His parents both brightened as they noticed them coming over. "Oh, Flynn, here you are," his mother said joyfully, coming over and immediately hugging him. "My goodness, we didn't know what to think when that letter came, but you're really here, one of the blessed samurai."

"Yeah," he said, hugging her back. Tears fell from his eyes even as he tried to keep them back. It just didn't seem real, not when he could remember so well that initial time he went back and found them all dead. All this time, he'd been disconnected from his childhood years because of that. But here they were and he really hoped that they kept living.

"He's been having a hard time lately, so be sure to cheer him up," Issachar said quietly.

"Issachar," Flynn said, trying to rebuke him. But, that would have been why he made be sure to be here, in case he got overwhelmed like this. Flynn felt quietly grateful to him for that.

"Well you can stay around here with us, or show Joshua and Alyssa around," his mother said, warm and loving, worried about him now but glad to see him. She pulled away from him and smiled. "They haven't been here before, so they'd like that."

"I'm supposed to be on patrol today," Flynn said. "But as long as I'm free to respond to any problems, I don't have to be anywhere in particular."

"City life rougher than you expect?" his father asked in his low rough voice. He smiled a bit, something Flynn faintly remember that he didn't do often. But he would see this occasion as worth it.

"In some ways," he said, since he recalled that had taken a lot of getting used to. Although not nearly as much as it had taken to get used to Tokyo.

"Yeah, but there were six of us chosen as samurai during the rite this year," Issachar said. "And he ended up chosen as our leader because he's been doing really well, even though there's three Luxurors who were called in our group. He's been under a lot more pressure than me as a result."

"Oh my, you've already been chosen as a leader, that's wonderful," his mother said.

Flynn felt embarrassed. Even discounting his experiences, he usually ended up taking charge of the group because of the role fate gave him, and because other than Naverre, none of the others were inclined to take a leadership role at first. "It is rough some days," he said. "But I want to keep Mikado safe, so I'm doing the best I can." And since his friend was boasting for him, he ought to return that right back. "Actually, when you see Issachar's parents, you ought to tell them that he's really happy now. A lot of people have been calling him unexpectedly brilliant as a samurai."

"Oh come on, I'm not doing as well as you," Issachar protested, which helped drive some of the gloominess out of him.

"What do you actually do as samurai?" Alyssa asked, having come over to listen in. She was looking up to him with admiration; she still had several more years before she'd be eligible for the rite.

"We can't actually tell you, but it is an important job that has us working hard every day," Flynn told her. "A day like today when we're on street patrol making sure everyone is happy and not being troublesome is an easy day."

It did end up as a very good day for him, able to ignore the bigger picture for a while to just spend some time with his family and show his younger siblings around the city for the first time.

* * *

The head priest of the city churches was in the monastery today. Hugo was grateful for that since he didn't want to leave the monastery to speak with him. This year, winter was getting a cold start; it had even snowed two weeks back at the Harvest Festival. The more time he could spend indoors this season, the better. Still, he wasn't going to show any of that gratitude to the priest. There were things to address.

"Why did you marry a Luxuror man and a Casualry woman?" he asked sharply. "It's absurd, breaking the stability of our nation!"

"That was over a month ago, you're just now hearing of that?" the priest asked, mildly cheeky in his tone. "Those two have been a favorite piece of gossip ever since the Autumn Ball; a great many people have accepted it as a good match."

Hugo frowned at him. "You know that we don't hold much liking of gossip here in the monastery. It had escaped my notice until someone pointed out that it had entered the records."

"In that case, you've probably missed how interesting this year has been," he said.

"Never mind that, you haven't answered my question. Why was this marriage approved? It is God's wisdom that we are separated into the groups we belong in. Such lines should not be crossed! It invites anarchy and acceptance of other absurdities that are against God's commands."

"They were a loving and respectable couple, admirable in their quick devotion," the priest said. "I interviewed them very critically, but found them to be an example of what is ideal in marriage. If you want to see the transcripts, I can get them copied for you. Besides, the young man is a samurai, one who lives outside of class lines much like those of you in the monastery here. Both his and her parents were joyful for their union, so I saw no reason to deny them."

"It should have been denied because it simply is not done!" Hugo argued. At times like this, he found himself wishing that Gabby was back. She had a way with arguments, making things absolutely clear to those who got clouded by poor judgment like this. Where even was she? She simply had said that she had to spend some time on her own to commune with God and take care of some business for Him. She was extremely gifted; everything went smoother when she was around.

The priest narrowed his eyes at him, as if this struck some personal issue. And, that was the case. "Cross-class marriages are done more often than you see because they disappear into the Casualry and are willfully ignored. I've lost a daughter because of such attitudes. In fact, it happens so often that it seems a symptom of larger problems. But then, you wouldn't see much of that being secluded up here in the monastery away from the people."

"If there were large-scale problems in Mikado, we would know about them and be working under God's guidance to fix them," Hugo said. "As it is, it should be nothing but a bad fancy that is stopped before it really gets started."

"Are you having problems with the Casualry servants working here?" the priest asked unexpectedly.

"It's none of your business," Hugo said. That was a huge annoyance lately. He'd had to assign people to take care of winter preparations and other tasks because the servants were being purposely slow in some vain protest. The servants were even serving boring meals as a part of their efforts! It was ignoble, but they were stubborn and wouldn't listen at all to reason.

"You should be, given what's happening all across the kingdom," he said. "If you're being as obstinate with them as you are with not listening about what else is going on, you're at risk of them walking out on you completely. Mikado is changing, abbot. We should be willing to change with it."

That struck a nerve with him. "Nonsense, Mikado should never change! We are God's chosen people, living in His ideal society! Any change is bound to be sinful and will leave us in ruins."

The priest remained firm in his mistake. "Perhaps this society is ideal for you, but it is not ideal for everyone."

What was wrong with him? It wasn't the first time this year that this priest had caused trouble. For one thing, he'd instigated a review of one of the village priests. That ended up with the priest under investigation being called back to the monastery, something Hugo wasn't happy with since that priest had been sent away to get him out of the monastery. Hugo decided to have the head priest investigated, hoping to find any excuse to banish him.

Unfortunately, those investigation orders kept getting misplaced and the complaints of servants and the castle increased.

* * *

Hope sighed, rubbing his head as he reviewed the papers. After some initial outbursts, the tendency of violence within the Casualry protests had vanished. He did have Flynn and the other prentices to thank for that. They had keenly redirected the frustrations towards better ends. For the most part, the Luxurors were listening. The castle itself was divided, with the king saying that traditions should be upheld but with Princess Belinda making a number of powerful arguments in favor of making daily affairs more fair towards the Casualry. But the quiet protest with winter preparations had done a great deal to force the city Luxurors towards being favorable to the Casualry demands. No one wanted to deal with cold homes and plain foods over winter.

But now the monastery was taking a stance firmly against the Casualry. They didn't bother to explain their reasons aside from the protests being against God's will. They wanted all of the 'lazy, uninformed, and ill-mannered' Casualry protesters to be rounded up and arrested. Once a good number of protesters were jailed, they would be publicly humiliated in order to bring the rest into line. It might have worked in the past, but now Hope could only see that leading to the return of violence with the protests.

To make matters more complicated, the Casualry servants who took care of mundane tasks around the monastery had all failed to show up to work earlier this week. From talk he'd heard, the servants had left behind some bread, a large pot of vegetable broth, and instructions on how to cook for themselves. Either that was going to force the monastery to give in or Hope was going to get a number of angry visitors soon. It might even be enough to bring Hugo out to complain in person.

Hope knew about the trouble that the Casualry had in day to day life. He often donated money and items to the Casualry church in order to help them out. But even if Belinda convinced her father to her side, the monastery always had the final word on what went on in Mikado. They were staunchly in favor of tradition and division, obedience. Getting on the bad side of the monastery's favor was always a bad move.

"Good afternoon," a quiet voice called as someone came in his office.

Glancing up, he saw that it was Flynn. It gave him a better idea of what time it was. "Good afternoon Flynn. Sorry if I'm busy right now; this needs to be handled quickly."

"All right," he said, taking up a chair near his desk.

They still carried out this facade despite it being clear that Flynn was very experienced with leadership under adverse conditions. He also had quite a hand in more mundane conditions. If the Casualry had a problem they wanted to bring up to the samurai, they asked Flynn to be their representative. Or if they managed to get in to see Hope directly, they often hoped that Flynn could help take care of things. It embarrassed Hope any time he got positive comments on his influence over this prodigy prentice. But then, Flynn often had good advice for him and they needed some way to make Flynn's abilities seem believable.

It was all to prevent a future where Mikado got destroyed. But then, at some of these meetings where there hadn't been much to say, Hope had seen some troubling signs in Flynn. It was little things: extra tension at interruptions, moments where his mind seemed very far away and disturbed, strange reactions like how he got agitated at flute music. Yet, that was more proof of the reality of Flynn's claim. Those were troubles that came from samurai who had encountered terrible experiences during their service. There were a few times that K acted like that, part of why he'd been pulled off active duty.

"Has there been some trouble with the underground catacombs or with some strange disease?" Flynn asked.

That caused Hope some pause. "No, not that I've seen. Why do you ask?"

He closed his eyes, maybe relieved but maybe still concerned. "It's a request that comes up at K's tavern. When an unusual amount of undead start to act up. It's far more dangerous that the normal request that it appears. Even some of the masters could die to it, since they are ill-prepared for what the battles actually entail. If it does show up, I'd rather be alert to it so I can take care of it quickly. I just know K will get suspicious if I'm actively looking for it."

"He does suspect that there's more to you than there seems to be," Hope said. "So far I've managed to explain it as you being the quiet type that rarely shows off their true capacity."

"Sometimes I think his direct help would be valuable, but I'm wary of letting too many people know the truth of matters," Flynn said. "Then what is keeping you troubled now?"

As he was already involved, Hope didn't see a reason to keep Flynn out of this. "The monastery has finally made a clear statement on the Casualry protests, and they do not like it." He then explained more about the orders that had come in.

Flynn listened, and soon had an answer to it. "What does the Code say about who we serve?"

"The people of Mikado," Hope said automatically, then saw it for himself. "Ah, I see."

"That is how Aquila meant for us to be," he said. "A spoiled child will make many demands thoughtlessly if they are always pandered to. They won't learn until they are refused and forced to reconsider what they're doing. The monastery will be the same way. They'll raise a fuss and expect to be served without considering anyone else. Until they are firmly refused, they'll continue not listening and not considering."

"All that they say is that the protests are against God's will, no further explanations of why," Hope said. "It's difficult to go against the monastery. They can disavow people they don't like and get them completely ignored by society."

"They can't disavow everyone," Flynn pointed out.

* * *

Winter made it tougher to get out, especially as it got dark quickly. But the Sabbaths were still carried out weekly just outside of town. Since their favor was growing, they could start earlier when the sun was still out and be closer to the main road. People would even gather to discuss books outside of the Sabbath meetings, openly and without fear. Sometimes people got passionate about the books, leading to arguments. As a result, the prentice samurai would make sure such arguments didn't get out of hand. Nobody wanted these new ways to get stopped; keeping civil gave the ones who were still suspicious fewer means of condemning them.

There was one discussion that Walter found memorable, even there were things about it that he couldn't explain even to himself. It started because another copy of Paradise Lost had shown up and got passed around between a few readers. "Why do you find it tough?" Jonathan asked, since he had finished the poem and was interested in the conversation.

"Well it's got all these references that are easy to get lost in," the man said.

"There's a whole bunch of notes at the bottom explaining those things," a woman with them said, opening up the book to prove it. "They're on every page, just about."

Jonathan looked interested at that. "Really? My copy doesn't have many notes; I'd like to know more about those things that didn't mean much to me."

The woman nodded. "Yes, it's got notes on everything from foreign phrases to specific words. A lot of my questions in going through it were answered just by the notes the book provided."

"Maybe, but it makes it more confusing," the man said. "A discussion between characters will be going on and there will be so many lines referencing other things, which all have notes explaining them further. By the time you get back to the actual poem, you've lost track of what the discussion was going on about. Like early on when the demons were discussing what they should do about the place they'd been imprisoned."

"The references make things feel like the world the author was in was much larger and complex than we know of here in Mikado," the woman said.

"I felt like that too, even though I didn't have as many explanations for all the references," Jonathan said.

"Yeah, I haven't gotten to reading that book, but I've seen others with barely-explained references," Walter said. "Like I don't know anything about the history of my village, just what some of the old people talk about. But I couldn't tell you why the village got started. In those kinds of books, you realize that people used to know a lot about the past and it feels weird that we don't."

"They make me want to read the things that get referenced," the woman said.

The man just shrugged. "It feels to me like they expected you to know all that stuff before you started on the book. Anyhow, given how much it shows of the demons and makes a big deal of what they do, it feels like a warping of the truth presented by them, especially to make their leader in Satan look good."

Walter felt irked by what he said and nearly dismissed it as merely being his tone. But then Jonathan tensed at that. "Ugh, if there's one thing I don't like about that poem, it's that," he said.

"It was unsettling, but it makes you understand why demons might have hated humans and wanted to see us corrupted," the woman said.

"No, that's not it," Jonathan said, making the other two confused. Jonathan put his hand to his head. "Oh wait, I mean, sure, I'll agree on both points. You do get how the fallen angels felt about humans at first, and it's unsettling how they try to make their case look good. But the thing that gets to me is that Satan isn't the leader of the demons. That's Lucifer."

"Aren't they the same being?" the woman asked.

"No, they're not," Jonathan said, his voice raising a little.

"Hoy, don't take it so personally," Walter said.

"Ugh, sorry," he said covering his face for a moment.

"I mean, I get what you're saying," Walter said, trying to explain it for the other two. "Mostly, I think I saw something about that in the scriptures? I don't remember which book, but yeah, Lucifer is the tempter and Satan is the accuser, or something like that."

"There's two demon lords?" the woman asked, confused.

"No, the lord of all demons is Lucifer," Jonathan said, a little calmer. "Sorry, I studied angels as an extra subject in school and I hear people mix them up all the time, even priests who aren't as attentive as they think. Paradise Lost is actually telling Lucifer's story; he's the one who used to be known as the morning star, the bringer of light. But then he grew too proud and challenge God's authority. Ever since then, he's been trying to tempt humans into following him because we were favored children of God.

"On the other hand, Satan is called the most ancient of all angels. He is the judge who will accuse humanity of our sins and call for them to be accounted for, in the end of days. But the Messiah will be the defender of humanity and have the innate grace to allow those who believe in him to be pardoned of sin. He'll also be the one to put an end to Lucifer, and, um…" Jonathan looked down, suddenly unsure of what he was saying.

"I haven't heard about that in church," the man said, puzzled but curious.

"Where did I read that?" Jonathan wondered aloud. "I'm sure I did, but I can't recall which scriptures…"

"Oh man, there are so many scriptures," Walter said, feeling a bit weary recalling the church library. "I hardly blame you for not remembering which book had what. Sometimes, I don't know if I can read all that."

"It is a staggering amount of scriptures that we've accumulated," Jonathan said.

"I wonder how they compare to Literature," the woman said, which moved the conversation on to something Walter could have opinions on.

The meeting had to end early as snow started falling. On their way back, Jonathan still seemed preoccupied. Marie was with them, but had gotten into a cheerful conversation with Isabeau on something. Walter hung back and tugged at his sleeve when the others were chatting with each other. "Something bugging you or you just tired?" he asked.

"Oh, it's," he glanced ahead, then quietly said to him, "I'm still embarrassed I snapped at the guy about the whole Satan thing. It's gotten me rebuked before. Yet, it always happens; I shouldn't take that kind of mistake so personally, especially when it's commonplace." He shrugged. "I can't explain it."

"Well I was annoyed at it too even though I've only read about it recently," Walter said. "I can't explain it either; it just seems like something that shouldn't be mistaken."

Jonathan smiled at that. "Really? Well, at least I'm not the only one who gets easily peeved at a detail that should be minor. Still, I should try not to get angry about it." After a moment, he sighed, making a puff of white air in front of him. "I do feel strange about whatever I was trying to explain. I've been trying to recall where I've read that, and what it actually was. However, it keeps slipping my mind. I feel like I should know it as certain as my name."

"What was that, about some Messiah person?" he said, trying to remember that part of the conversation himself.

"They should be very important, but I can't seem to remember it right," he said.

"Well if you could remember which scripture book it was in, I wouldn't mind looking for that," Walter said.

"Really?" Jonathan said, looking at him in surprise.

Walter smiled and nodded. "Sure. If you think it was something important to know, then I'd trust your word on it."

"Thanks, I'll let you know if I remember that," he said.


	25. A Busy Day

**Chapter 25: A Busy Day**

Being married now, Jonathan had moved back into his family manor. There were a few who asked why he accepted such a low-born wife; even his father's cousin asked that. He kept telling them that he didn't see things that way. In fact, he'd never felt so blessed in his life as he did now. He had the honorable life of a samurai, Marie filled his heart with joy and he wouldn't trade her for anyone, and his friends were all such interesting people who often challenged him to take a fresh look at the way he viewed life, the world, and everything. While he might not have made some of these choices before, he was glad now that he had.

He got to spend more time with his father too, walking over to the samurai station with him every morning when they went to report in. Jonathan would technically be a prentice samurai until the next Gauntlet Rite, but Hope was already treating most of them like full-fledged samurai because they'd proven themselves enough. Jonathan already had most the training for that, and then Flynn was obvious since he had many inherent talents despite an odd aversion to using demon skills and spells. Not long after that, Issachar's natural intelligence and prior self-training with Flynn led him to be accepted. And once Walter's mathematic skills and general knowledge were deemed good enough, his natural talent in battle got him accepted too.

The subject of that came up one morning, leading Mark to talk about the other two. "I never had to consider training a woman before," he said. "And the most recent ones are both retired, so they haven't been in Naraku for a while. But Isabeau keeps picking up female demons who are doing a good job at teaching her and she's taking healer classes with the monastery. Having a field medic in our ranks is quite a blessing, since she can hold her own in Naraku."

"She's doing well like that," Jonathan said. "But what of Naverre? He's been helpful if we run across a request that asks us to visit a lower level, but he prefers to keep away from direct combat."

"His sword skills are improving and he can handle himself on the first floor alone," Mark said. "But even if he is willing to play a support role to stronger fighters, he needs to be able to keep himself safe if something happens to separate you on the lower levels." He smiled. "Although really, he's progressing at what we consider to be a normal rate for a prentice samurai without prior training like yourself. We'd consider Isabeau to be ahead of things normally. Your group is really something special in excelling beyond our expectations. Although, sometimes that worries me."

"How so?" Jonathan asked, puzzled by his father admitting something like that.

Mark shrugged. "It's a feeling I have sometimes. God calls us to serve Him and Mikado; we always seem to have a decent number of samurai to keep things peaceful. We were getting worried in prior years when no one was called. But now that He has called six of you together and you've all proven your worth so early into your apprenticeship, I feel like something is brewing and God wants us to be prepared. Especially around Flynn, have you noticed? I feel like he knows something the rest of us don't, what with the way he daydreams in training, but then is as sharp as a hawk in Naraku like he's waiting for some sign."

After considering that, he had to nod in agreement. "I haven't thought of it, but that is true. And there's some situations where he seems to know just what to say to get people to calm down, or to encourage them into a proper course of action. Even with me; sometimes he seems to know me far better than I know him."

"If we can notice such things, perhaps it's not something we need to worry about since it's in God's hands," he said.

That phrase came back to mind when Jonathan ended up talking with Walter, which he brought up when asked about how his self study into the Book of Foundations was going. "It's weird sometimes because there's a lot of stuff that is reassuring to take at face value," Walter said. "But then when you actually think about it, it gets hard to wrap your head around. Like this whole thing of being in God's hands so you don't need to worry so much. It sounds fine, kind of like when a kid is scared and their parent tells them to take their hand and it'll be okay. And the kid's reassured with that."

"Some people are assured when doing major things to think that they're in God's hands," Jonathan said.

"But it also sounds like an excuse, you know?" Walter went on. "It takes responsibility off your hands. Like somebody was requesting quills of a chagrin the other day and I took the request; it took me several days to get enough for them. I told the guy at one point that it was a problem that I couldn't do much about, and he just said that it was in God's hands. But then, I was doing the work fighting the demons and he would end up doing the work of whatever called for those quills. I was getting some bad luck in not getting quills, but excusing it as being in God's hands seems like it's cheapening the effort we'd both end up putting into his craft."

"I hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes some sense as something not to rely entirely on, like any other excuse," he said. Like their own training; they were working hard to get where they were. They might be following a secret calling of God, but they couldn't neglect their own efforts.

Walter nodded. "Yeah, and somebody managed to annoy me with something similar to that phrase the other day, when they said you and Marie had God's blessings to end up as you did. You certainly got lucky."

"Very lucky," Jonathan said, smiling but blushing some at that being brought up.

"But I know you took a lot of risks too," Walter said. "You could've gotten disowned by your family and lost all acknowledgment as a Luxuror, but you went ahead and stood up for yourself and her. I could agree that God or somebody was watching out for you two to make sure things went just right. But then, not only did you take risks, but I know she worked her tail off to get your attention and then to get you to discount social status to be accepted by you. You had God's blessing in some way, but I don't like hearing people talking like that explains everything, not acknowledging the courage you two have to do something that was unheard of."

"Then what you're trying to say is that it's fine to get some reassurance from that kind of thinking, but don't neglect your own efforts?" he said.

"That's sounds right, better than I've gotten in trying to explain it to myself," he said. "It's like a lot of things I'm thinking through with this study. I mean, a lot of it sounds well and good, but it seems like if you lived your life perfectly by the book, it'd be an awful dull life where you took very few risks. Like, how much room does a person have to budge and be different, but still be considered good?"

That reminded him of Issachar not being able to get through the Book of Deviants. Issachar was a good person; Jonathan didn't doubt that. But he was different from most people in so many ways that it was difficult for him. "The more I learn, the more that kind of question seems constraining," Jonathan said. "People are a lot more different from each other than I believed, so what seems obviously good to me isn't something that's good for another. And sometimes risks are needed."

Walter rubbed his head. "Yeah, nobody likes to be told they're bad because of something that's a part of who they are."

The conversation lingered in Jonathan's mind through the day, leading him to look around for Issachar after he'd taken care of some demons in Naraku. Jonathan wasn't sure what he was looking to say to him. Thankfully, Issachar had a question for him. "I found out that silk flowers are usually crafted by Luxurors as a hobby, not by Casualry craftsmen," he said. "So if you were looking to get one, where would you buy it? Do you have to ask the people who make them directly?"

After thinking a moment to recall what day it was, Jonathan had a good answer for that. "If you're looking for that kind of hobby craft, a crafts fair is the best place to look for one. There should be one going on today over at the dance hall, if I'm not mistaken. I haven't had much occasion to go to one, but my mother and sisters to do for their hobbies, and I know it takes place weekly."

"That'd be nice if it was today, although," he shifted nervously. "I'm looking for a particular kind of flower, a lotus, but I'm not familiar with what they look like."

"I don't mind helping you look, since I know what those look like," Jonathan said. "Is it for a girl?"

"Ah," he got embarrassed at the question, but that made his answer all the more surprising. "No, actually I want to get one for Flynn. He's been out of sorts lately and, well... the short of it is, he liked the lotus hair clip he borrowed from Naverre, but since that was one of his family's keepsakes, he couldn't keep it and Naverre's not likely to part with it. So I wanted to try finding another for him."

"Hmm, well I can't guarantee a hair clip, but the silk flower shouldn't be hard to find and it could be adapted from there," he said.

Fortunately, Jonathan was right about the weekly crafts fair going on at the dance hall. It traveled around the city plazas during the summer, but winter led it to most often be here, as one of the largest open public spaces. Many Luxurors kept a hobby of some kind, selling or gifting the crafts to each other as the Casualry (as much as Jonathan didn't like to admit it) were taught to abstain from any frivolities. Although, silk flowers were something of an acceptable exception, since they could be kept for special occasions for a long time. The stable demand of it led to it being an often chosen craft.

Finding a lotus specifically took some searching, but it led to a fruitful discovery. Near a supplier group that arranged sales of rarer materials like pearls, they found a small group of history hobbyists who were telling stories of the past trying to gather interest in their group. Telling them that his family actually had a copy of the fifth Guisse volume got their attention. Since it was an opportune time, he said, "The two of us have been reading some of those volumes, but we keep coming across strange gaps in the records."

"Yeah, and that fifth volume had two such gaps, one that was over twenty years," Issachar said.

"Would that be around 570 to close to 600?" one of the hobbyists asked.

"That's right," Issachar said. "Do you know anything about that?"

The man stroked his beard on being asked that. "Well, one thing we can say for certain is that these gaps exit across all historical records we have. Guisse's volume for you samurai, records of the monastery and castle, even census reports, there's just these gaps where almost nothing exists of what happened those years."

"We suspect it's not something pleasant, since any record with such a gap picks things back up by saying that things are peaceful," one of the women of the group said. "Like they're insisting on it; it's very strange."

"We noticed that ourselves with Guisse," Jonathan said. "Actually, the fifth volume might confirm that something bad happens during those gaps."

"Really?" she asked, leaning forward in her chair.

He nodded. "I don't remember the exact phrasing, but the historian for that time period was unhappy with being told to just ignore things, and his successor was apparently bothered by the uncharacteristic absence of records from his father, whom he said was a dedicated worker. However, the copy we have is frail, so you'll need to ask permission of my father to take a look at it within our library."

"That'd be good, especially if we could make a copy so the information is more available," she said.

"Actually, there is something about those gaps that we've been working on, but we would need your help on it," another woman said. "We'd like to do some research within the city catacombs, but the samurai have it locked off and requests to enter are usually denied."

It had to be because there was a tunnel that connected the catacombs to Naraku. There was a heavy door in the way, but that wasn't a guarantee to stop demons. "There's not a lot we could do about that as prentices, but we could ask around to see if anyone else might be interested in seeing your research done," Jonathan told her.

Even if they found that something bad had happened during those gaps, Jonathan felt like it might be difficult to figure out why those gaps happened. He kept recalling what the fifth volume asked when he got curious about things now. Is it such a sin to know tragedy? Other books claimed that controlling information led to controlling people. But who could control information over centuries, and why?

As they searched on for the particular flower, Jonathan felt like something in the back of his mind was nagging at him. It was like he was doing something wrong, straying off the path he should be following. But what was he doing wrong? He was keeping busy with work and listening to his friends, while whoever was telling him that he was making errors was speaking some other language. These are simple directions, how can you mess them up? But what was…?

It was puzzling, but then Jonathan spotted what they'd come to the crafts fair for. "Oh, here we are, these ones are lotus flowers," he said, picking up a lavender colored one.

"Those look right," Issachar said, smiling as he started looking over them. "I don't know if you got to talk with him that day, but he had been wearing it on top of his head, so I didn't get a good look at it. They are pretty; he was dressed a lot simpler than everyone else, but he was very…" he made an odd pause, then rethought what he was saying. "Memorable. I suppose that's how you'd say it." Then he picked up a peach and pink lotus to look at closer.

Jonathan felt a happy warmth briefly, thinking that he might get this happy if he was trying to find a gift to make Marie happy. Then he realized, there was this quiet but strong affection Issachar showed for Flynn. Jonathan spotted them together a lot over this winter: sharing meals often, discussing books and their work. While he wasn't around the dorms as much, he'd also heard Walter tease Issachar for being like a nagging wife over Flynn some mornings to make sure he wasn't sloppy, which would get Issachar really embarrassed while Flynn shrugged it off. Jonathan had chalked it up to them simply being best friends for years.

But seeing him right now, bright and happy one moment as he checked over the silk flower, then abruptly self-conscious and tense… and he hadn't been able to finish the Book of Deviants. While there were many items in that book that seemed to point out things that were natural to Issachar, there was one in particular that came to Jonathan's mind now. Was Issachar in love with Flynn?

There was a bold intense voice in his head saying, he should be condemned for such a perverse heart. There is no saving him. Cut off all ties with him, stop listening to him, and get back to where you belong.

There was another voice, Walter's actually, reminding him of what he'd heard just earlier today: nobody likes to be told they're bad because of something that's a part of who they are. Giving up on him just because of who he loves will hurt him badly, cause you two are getting to be good friends, right? You even told him about the secret forbidden book collection.

And there was a gentle voice, shaken by the others. What is this? The world is right and wrong, black and white. But from where I look now, there is so much gray… and color, color like I've never seen before.

And a much softer voice, is this love? It doesn't seem right to condemn someone for love.

Somewhere in the confusion, Issachar had got the attention of the crafter to buy the peach pink lotus. "Is it for your girlfriend?" the woman asked, cheerful and playful as she handed over some change.

"Ah, no it's for a friend," Issachar replied, bashful in spite of what he was saying.

"Yeah, someone who's having a hard time," Jonathan said, trying to cover for him although there was a feeling like he should expose and humiliate him for being wrong. But that feeling felt very wrong, to do that to a friend.

Issachar nodded, but then glanced at him and got concerned. "Hoy, is something wrong? You don't look so well."

"I'm probably just tired, it's been a busy day," Jonathan said, now trying to cover for himself.

While he didn't seem convinced, Issachar did a better job at making things seem normal. "Or maybe you have that cold too. Sorry for heading off, m'am, but I think I better go see him home to rest."

"Sure, you both take care now," the crafter said.

They didn't leave immediately, though. Instead, Issachar brought him to one of the side rooms that was still set up as a sitting room. "There was someone with herbal teas and hot water, so I can get you a cup of one of those," he offered.

"Thank you, and sorry about this," he said, taking a seat in there. "My mind is just, buzzing, I don't know."

"It's okay, I'll be back in a bit," he said, then left him there.

Jonathan closed his eyes, trying to calm down. This wasn't even something he knew; it was something he suspected, strongly now that he realized it might be like that. If his two friends loved each other… they were good people. They were hard-working as samurai, always helping others. They didn't shirk their duties like Jonathan was realizing that a worrying number of older samurai were doing. But a love like that should be unquestionably wrong. It had been unthinkable for him until he had read about it in the Book of Deviants.

That book would condemn everyone to hell because no one could meet the impossibly pure standards it demanded. And they clearly cared about each other, even if one accepted it just on a level of friendship. That didn't have the qualities of lust that could ruin a person. Then compare it to what he read about with Celia: two men who deeply cared for each other and might be in love too, or a man and woman who had a pristine marriage of empty feelings where one could be replaced with a wooden statue to little change.

You're taking wrong for right and right for wrong.

The world looks so different from the eyes of a human, not from the eyes of one in heaven.

"In heaven?" Jonathan asked softly into the empty room.

There was a fleeting moment of surprise, then things went still. Jonathan glanced around the room, but it seemed ordinary. Yet for a moment, that was strange. There was no one but him in here. Had there been someone here before? Or more than one, speaking in ways that his ears did not hear.

The door opened, but it was Issachar with two tea cups. "Here, I got you something good for warding off illness," he said, handing him one. "It was just an excuse, but you said your mind was buzzing with stuff." He smiled sheepishly as he sat down in another chair with his own tea. "I know how that goes. Sometimes you get so caught up in something in your mind that your body starts feeling terrible, and then you get sick on top of that."

"Thanks," he said, taking a sip of the tea. It tasted of rose hips and citrus. "I don't think I've been worried enough to make myself ill, but it felt like that. Guess I have had an easy life to coast through so far."

"Well if you want to talk about anything, go right ahead," Issachar said. "Though it's okay if you just want some quiet and then go back home early. Sometimes that's good too."

"Thanks, you're a good friend," he said, realizing then that his friends from before he'd become a samurai might not do this kind of thing for him. And here he'd thinking about being terrible to him just for a suspicion. Maybe he was a terrible person in some way; Jonathan was tempted to keep silent, but he should try to find things out for himself. "Pardon me for asking, but, did you want the flower for Flynn because you love him?"

"Wh-why would you ask that?" he asked, freezing like someone caught doing something they know they shouldn't.

The mental arguments nearly started up again, but Jonathan managed to stop it this time. Now that he'd started, he should listen. "The way you were acting just now made me think of it," he explained, keeping his voice steady and calm. He hoped that was reassuring. "But I've had to learn again and again that what I once thought of the world only described a small portion of it. So I want to hear from you, in your own words, what's going on."

"Oh, well…" Issachar clenched at his tea cup for a moment. Then he set it down, seeming like he was facing a challenge he wasn't prepared for but was going to face anyhow. "Yes, that's why. I love him…" he clenched his fist, though his eyes were soft in thinking fondly of something, "so much. But I haven't told him yet. I can't, really. He told me several times now that he dislikes the pressure he gets to be thinking of courtship and marriage, because he doesn't feel like he could handle it right now. Um, I can't tell you why that is. I know why he feels that way, and I know it's a good reason.

"But that leads him to take on his burdens alone, and that's just," he sighed, seeming helpless at it. "It's bad for him too. I want to help him, and comfort him. You know, you've noticed that he's troubled and it's not something with a simple solution. If I told him how I feel, he, well, it might be a feather to break him as he is right now. Or maybe more like a sack of bricks. But the fact that he cares so much about, well, everything, it's… Flynn's a wonderful and amazing person, but he's falling apart and it hurts me so much to see it happen even as I'm doing everything I can to support him without further burdening him."

Jonathan felt terribly ashamed of himself, and was certain he deserved that. The confusion that had been in his mind felt insignificant compared to the weight of emotions coming out in Issachar's words. "You are doing a lot for him," he said.

"Well he's done a lot for me," Issachar said. "For years, he was the only person who saw any worth in me. I mean it, even I thought I was worthless and wicked, like I should become one of the forgotten ones."

"Forgotten?" he asked, although he had a sick feeling that he knew what he was saying. And there was that stern voice saying that he shouldn't look too deeply into the shadows, and another voice saying that he shouldn't look away. There were lines in his family tree that were noticeably erased rather than noted as deceased.

Issachar rubbed his neck. "There are… people who don't feel like they deserve to be in Mikado, because it's a land for the blessed children of God and they feel like they don't deserve such blessings. Even for those of us in the Casualry who work hard every day and sleep on straw bedding on the floor. You feel like you don't belong to this beautiful peaceful land, so you make yourself disappear. And then people forget about you because you committed the grave sin of suicide. I wanted to disappear and I was certain people would be happy to forget about me.

"But Flynn didn't want that. He told me we should try to become samurai if I was unhappy with life, and then he expected me to show up every day for practice. So I struggled through every day to do that, and here I am finally, living a life beyond anything I could dream of." He beamed for a moment, but was soon concerned again. "I have more friends now, and people who actually admire me. But even though I don't depend on him so much now, Flynn still means so much to me, more than anyone else could. I could have disappeared quietly and nobody would have noticed but him. But he… it'd be terrible if he did, and so many more people would be affected by that."

There were people who felt like that. In Mikado, said to be the closest thing to Heaven on Earth in all of existence. Then it was all a flimsy act to cover for a hidden tyranny and Mikado should _burn to nothing but cinders so that mankind could be freed from the fetters of slavery_.

"R-right," Jonathan said, starting to feel sick again.

For a moment, Issachar didn't notice. "It's hard to keep quiet, but I have to," he said. "I decided months ago that I'd be there quietly for him. And you're helping too, you know, being friends with us. When you feel like that, every bit of happiness is precious. So I keep doing little things, like buying this flower because I'm sure it will help. I know it must seem strange to you, but thanks for asking. I'm glad I could finally tell someone about this, even if it's not Flynn. It's tough, but this is the best for both of us right now."

He remembered his dreams of the vast desert ruins, how he'd been told that the other man wandering through there had the balance of the world resting on his shoulders. "It sounds like quite a burden to love him like that," Jonathan said. "Knowing that he could make a decision and the world would end just like that, and trying to draw him away from that."

"Huh?" Issachar glanced over at him.

"What did I just say?" Jonathan asked, feeling like he was somewhere far away from himself.

He closed his eyes and saw white feathers whirling around him like snow kicked up in the wind. Where did the feathers come from? They didn't have any. And his feelings were alien to himself. There was so much filth embedded in this place, in these souls. It would infect the children and turn them into demons, so it all had to be eradicated even if it meant eradicating himself because the filth stained his own hands in trying to find something worth saving.

Then someone clasped his hands and it was like an enchantment broke. Issachar was now sitting beside him on the couch, looking over him with worry. "I'm sorry, I meant to listen to what was troubling you and ended up talking so much about myself. Something is wrong, so what is it?"

"It's…" his throat seized up. He wanted to say it was nothing. Who would believe this without thinking he was crazy? But then, Issachar had just been telling him about wanting to disappear completely for years. "It's voices in my head, arguing over things and I can't tell who's right or who's wrong. And… something that shouldn't be there, memories of not being myself. It's so strange, but it's happening right now."

"Is it like you're in the middle of a crowd and everybody's arguing over what you're doing and thinking? And some criticize you like you're scum while others are encouraging you to do crazy stuff that would hurt you or others?" Issachar asked those questions like he not only believed him, but knew exactly what going through that was like.

"Right, that's it," Jonathan said, clutching Issachar's hand as he realized he was trembling.

"It's really hard to think clearly when your mind is doing that to you," Issachar said. "Easy to fall back into too, even when you realize it's holding you back. But you can learn to take back control of your thoughts. When I find that happening, I find something simple to do to distract myself with. Like chores; they need to get done anyhow and you may as well use that time to clear your mind. Then when it's calm and quiet, you can consider what made your thoughts explode like that and figure out how to address the problem."

"Thanks, that makes sense," he said, looking down. "I've never felt like this before. Or, no, maybe it's just not been this bad." Because he had quite a few mental fights with himself this past autumn, but then Marie would be there and things wouldn't seem to matter anymore.

"Well maybe you can figure it out soon," Issachar said to encourage him. "I hope you can, and you can talk with me about things any time."

"Thanks," Jonathan said, although it made him feel bad for what he'd been thinking. Was it right or wrong? Wait, this was going nowhere and if he just decided which to stick with… "Issachar… I believe you're doing the right thing. With Flynn, I mean. I can see that you truly love him and I hope you can let him know someday. You both deserve to be happy, and to feel like you belong. But if it gets difficult staying quiet like this when he's not ready, I'll be there for you as a friend, any time."

And Issachar smiled so brightly at that that it felt like the stern voice faded into the shadows.

Not long after that, Issachar made good on his word and walked with Jonathan back to his family manor to make sure he was okay. Marie's bright smile on greeting him made him feel better too, although she quickly noticed things. "You seem bothered, is it something bad?" she asked, taking his hand and looking at him in worry.

"It's a lot of troubling thoughts that came on at once, but it'll be fine," Jonathan said, smiling at her and pulling her closer to quietly add, "because coming back home to you is finding light in a dark cavern and I know I can find my way with you always waiting for me."

She laughed a little at that. "I will be, no matter what happens. What was the trouble?"

"We can talk about it later, when we're not out in the hall," he said. "How was your day?"

"Oh, something great happened," she said, a sparkle in her eyes as she stepped aside so they could head back to their rooms. "Mother mentioned that she wanted some sweet bread today, so I decided to show her how they're made. She had no idea how much work went into them! But bless her, she did her best to help." Marie laughed at it.

"Mother was in the kitchen?" Jonathan asked, half joking about it. It was a much welcomed lightness after this day tested his ideas so much.


	26. Wu Kong vs Wu Kong

**Chapter 26: Wu Kong versus Wu Kong**

It started off like many bouts of trouble did: talking about girls. Isabeau had to leave early that day as a part of her healer training with the monastery, which left the guys in their group (sans Jonathan) to breakfast together in the dorms. And since she was gone, they were a bit freer to talk of some things. "Well I've got a date with a beautiful woman today," Naverre said.

"Really?" Walter asked as a skeptical joke, raising an eyebrow. He did believe it. With Naverre back in good graces with his family, he was once again a wealthy man of high status that women would be after. The main thing surprising about it was that it had taken this long for him to mention something like that.

"Really," Naverre said. "Her beauty shimmers like the jewels she wears; it's going to be a wonderful evening."

"What's she like?" Issachar asked, curious about it. He hadn't dated at all outside of a few group dates he'd been invited on, which did make Walter curious to know why.

"Well she's an ebony haired beauty that always carries a parasol when she goes outside to protect her lovely fair skin," Naverre said. "And she has some marvelous curves to her shape."

"But what's she like?" Issachar repeated. "I mean, does she read books or cook? Or grow flowers, or anything like that?"

Naverre shrugged at that. "I'm not sure, her family organizes farm trade. But that's what these dates are about, right? Finding out about the person who catches your fancy. Though for me, her loveliness has won me over already and I'm sure it will be a wonderful time."

"I think I know who you're talking about, and she is gorgeous," Walter said as Issachar seemed disappointed in that. "Nice catch, but you'd better make sure she doesn't get snatched away from you."

"Oh yes, I'm well aware that she could take whoever she likes, whenever she feels like it," Naverre said. "Or, were you after her?"

Walter shook his head. "Nah. I mean, she's got the looks, but her personality is so mild that I didn't go further than one conversation with her. And she's so careful with her skin and all that she's made herself overly delicate. Not even the monastery girls are that fragile, even though they spend much of their time studying and praying."

"Perhaps, but a delicate girl makes you want to protect her, right?" Naverre countered. "But maybe that isn't your tastes. I have noticed that you've spent a lot of time with the monastery girls, actually."

"They're an interesting bunch," Walter said, then smiled at a thought. "They're modest but when you get them comfortable with you, they'll uncover their heads and that can be hotter than what the other girls show on a normal basis."

"Oh, that is so true!" Naverre agreed quickly. "I remember it was quite a shock seeing Isabeau in a samurai uniform for the first time because her hair was out. She's quite pretty too, not like other girls."

He nodded to that. "You know, I can't imagine her in a nun's garb. The uniform suits her so well, even if she looks a bit like a boy."

"That doesn't seem fair to the girls to make judgments on them just based on their looks and one conversation," Issachar said. "You can't really know a person like that, and I'm sure they'd prefer to be admired for more than just how they look."

That was probably true, but Walter's mind seemed sparking with all kinds of fun. "Aw come on, haven't you ever seen a woman so beautiful that it made your mind stop and you want to just look at her?"

"Uh," he got nervous at that.

Walter playfully acted like he was thinking hard on it. "Or, are you secretly a girl pretending to be a boy?"

Issachar got so red at that that Walter almost felt bad for teasing him. Almost, but not actually. "Um, I'd make a rather ugly girl," Issachar said, shrinking back in his chair.

"No, you'd be cute," Flynn said out of nowhere.

"Flynn!" Issachar said, then hid his face on the table.

"What, do you think a girl dressing as a guy is hot?" Walter asked, trying not to laugh (Naverre failed at that). Although now that he said it out loud, it was quite nice.

"A woman would look good in pants," Flynn said, just as calmly as always.

"So, then you could see the full shape of their body including their legs?" Naverre asked, also intrigued by the idea. Flynn just nodded.

"Actually that would be something," Walter said. "I'm sure the old folks would kick up a fuss, but wow, yeah, that'd be quite a look."

"A-anyhow," Naverre said, "weren't you complaining a while ago that the monastery girls kept asking you about being responsible and disciplined?"

"For some reason, they have trouble seeing me as disciplined enough to study Scriptures even though I'm doing it," Walter said, then jokingly added, "I haven't the foggiest idea why they'd think I'm undisciplined."

"Oh really?" Naverre asked, smirking at him.

"Really, aren't I the most disciplinished and responsiwhatsit person you ever knew?" Walter asked. "I get my jobs done as soon as I can, accounting for time spent relaxing cause you can't work non-stop without going nuts, and for time spent training cause you don't get a body like this without putting some work into it. So yeah, I get things done, even studying stuff."

"You still can't get a perfect score on the math test in under ten minutes like the rest of us can," Flynn said.

"Hey, I'm doing good enough to pass," he said.

"I'll give you that," he said. "If you want to prove that you're responsiblish, could you guys all take some job off the blackboard in K's Tavern and complete it today? There's a challenge going around the group leaders; if we all could take and finish one job today, we'll be in a good spot to pass first. There'll be a small bonus for doing that."

"Sure it'll be business as usual," Walter said, then nudged Naverre. "Too bad you can't use that to impress your date."

"Well if I say we're serving beyond what we've been called for, that would be enough without revealing our mission," Naverre countered.

Walter was interested in the small bonus, since he had been doing a few more jobs than usual lately to save up money. He'd thought he could tough out batting demons without being encumbered by a lot of armor. However, a few close calls on the fourth level made him think twice about it if he wanted to keep pressing his luck deeper in. He'd cleaned up a discarded leather armor vest he'd found in Naraku a while back and found it not as bad as he'd thought. But it wasn't much extra protection and the armory had an unusual vest of chainmail that seemed better for him. Depending on how much the bonus was, he could afford it before someone else bought it.

He went in with the others after they finished breakfast to claim a few jobs before others did. However, K was quick to wave him over when he stopped by. "Oh hey, Walter, you looking for a request? I got one that came in last evening that I was going to let you look over first."

"See, told you I could be relied on," he said to the others, then went over to the counter. "Sure, what've you got?"

K smiled at that, then fiddled with one of his machines under the counter to send it to him. "Actually, sometimes you get demons who make requests of us. It's been deemed fine to complete such requests as long as they follow our guidelines, like not asking for something harmful to other samurai or the civilians. Yesterday, there were several requests from demons for someone to challenge one called Wu Kong so that he leaves, as he's been causing them trouble too."

"Wu Kong?" Walter asked, surprised at that. "I still have him since he helps me train, but he doesn't leave my sight if I call him out."

"I'm sure," K said. "But it could cause you trouble if this other Wu Kong keeps doing whatever he likes, since he is quite strong. It's not a demon often recorded, so I figured you'd be best to deal with him since you're familiar with the Wu Kong you have."

Wondering briefly if this was what he was thinking it was, Walter nodded. "Sure, I should be able to wrangle the other one. Where's he been spotted?"

"Mostly on the third level, but he might also be around down on the fourth," K told him. "That's where the others who took those requests fought him. Be careful down there."

As he was heading down to the second level, Walter called out Wu Kong. "Hey, I think your original self is hanging around here," he said.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, interested.

He nodded. "Yeah, I just got a request to chase him out of Naraku. K says he beat the snot out of a few other samurai on the third level around the time we were sparring on the first."

"It might be another shade like me," Wu Kong said. "But hey, I can beat other shades easy, and if it is the original, well this is a chance I can't lose out on. Let's go kick his ass."

They looked around the dry areas of the third level, then decided to search the fourth before delving into the poisonous marsh. It turned out to be the right path as they found the other Wu Kong hanging out on one of the higher spots in the large cavern. "Oh, it's another one of you guys," he said disdainfully. "Don't you know better than to…" his taunts dropped off as he noticed Walter's ally following up the ladder. "Hey, what's some kid like you doing with me?!" he demanded.

"He's training me," Walter said. "And we're here to kick you out of Naraku."

"Hey, I ain't harshin' on anybody's vibes, so don't be harshin' on mine," the other Wu Kong said. "I'm just taking a break from the heavenly yipyap, seein' what this place is like. And if any punk like you challenges me, I'll take 'em on. Ya know, the usual. No harm comes to those who don't come seeking it."

"Then you're the original?" Wu Kong asked.

"Yeah," he said like it was obvious. "And you must be some human-conjured shadow. Hmph, like you could train anybody."

"Well tough luck to you because I'm no ordinary shadow," he said, ready for a spar at any moment. "I've crossed many worlds and have been with many summoners to train myself up and track you down so I can defeat you in a duel."

The original gave a sharp laugh at that. "You're a nutcase if you think you can come anywhere close to me. I don't duel shadows because it'd be an uncontested wipe, no fun." Ignoring the shade's glare, he gave an appraising look at Walter. "Well, I'm bored anyhow, so tell you want: if this student of yours can give me a better solo spar than the other blue coats, I'll give dueling you a thought. Maybe two."

"I will be fighting you one way or another, even if I have to chase you down to the ends of the stars to get you to face me," the shade said, punching his fist in the air to emphasize his point. "Go on, Walter, show this smug monkey what you've got."

"Right on," Walter said, ready with his axe.

The original Wu Kong smirked at him, then darted over to attack. Like with the Wu Kong he trained with, this monkey god couldn't be hurt by ordinary weapons. Walter still struck him with his axe just to prove that he could hit the nimble demon. His plan was to then switch over to fighting defensively and using some strong magic stones he'd picked up to chip his health down. Hopefully, toughing the fight out long enough would be enough to impress the original enough to allow him to call on his other demons, including his ally Wu Kong.

However, the original monkey god darted well out of range after Walter's first hit with the axe. "Huh, you have one hell of an arm to nail somebody like me with a big heavy axe," he said. "But that's not going to be fun. I'm outta here." He then leapt away far across the gaps in the pathways.

"Hoy, get back here!" Walter called.

Of course, Wu Kong didn't listen and Walter had to jump down a few levels to pursue him. His ally darted along the air, leading him to a fairly large alcove hidden behind a misty waterfall. The original groaned when he saw them. "Oh come on, can't you respect a guy who doesn't want to be bugged? Or did the clowns of the heavenly court pester you into this?"

"You're from Heaven?" he asked.

Wu Kong rolled his eyes. "No, not Heaven, I mean the heaven of the Indian gods. Although, as tiresome as that place can be, I ain't got a desire to be anywhere near the so-called proper Heaven. I came out looking for some excitement, but it's awful quiet and boring in these parts."

"If you're looking for excitement, then why run off from a fight?" the shade Wu Kong asked, irritated at that.

"Cause I know in two seconds if the fight's gonna be anything interesting, and this isn't it," the original said. "You guys wouldn't be able to win against me even if I let go of the boon that protects me from weapons, so buzz off."

The shade growled, but Walter held a hand out to him as he thought of something. "All right then, so you know you'll lose and so you won't fight us."

"What?!" the original Wu Kong growled, narrowing his eyes at them.

Walter smirked at him. "Well you beat up several other samurai even though, by your own words, you would've known in two seconds that you could wipe them. So if you run off without touching me even though my axe won't hit you, you must know that you can't win against me even if you kept your protection."

"That's hogwash and you know it!" the original insisted. A light briefly appeared in the air and snapped before disappearing. "Or maybe you don't have the sense to know when you can't win and need a lesson in that. Well then, young fool, try hitting me with everything you've got."

"As you wish," Walter said, quickly calling out two other demons who were skilled in magic to help out. His ally Wu Kong joined in, not breaking his protection from physical attacks (and he might not be able to do that). So even though Walter couldn't attack as quickly as their opponent did, his ally Wu Kong could keep up with his original easily.

And it didn't take long until the original leapt back and grabbed hold of the wall near the waterfall. "Oh hell, I didn't ask for this," he said. "Quit bothering me!" He then darted out the waterfall, perhaps to fly off to somewhere they couldn't reach by the land.

His ally flew up to the waterfall, angrily calling out, "GET BACK HERE YOU COWARD!"

This time, a shriek of rage answered. "I AM NOT A COWARD!" The original Wu Kong then tackled his shadow through the waterfall, sending them careening through the air in a cloud of fur, dust, and blood.

"Uh, what now?" one of the other demons asked him.

"Hold off, we don't want to hurt our guy," Walter said quietly. Although, the two combatants were yowling worse than cats in their spat. He didn't think either of them would pay attention to anything else.

The battle managed to last longer than before, after which one threw off the other. The only way to tell which one was which was that without the protection against weapons, the original showed a lot more injuries than the shade. "Whoa, never thought a shade could actually give me a challenge," the original said.

"Heh, that was the purpose I decided on for my life," the shade said. "Didn't care if I'd win or lose, or what the hell went on around me, I just wanted to give you a good fight."

The original Wu Kong laughed at that. "Well, you've done my name good, so thanks. Hey, but I could think up some great plots to mess with the other guys if I was working with a body double of me. What do you say, want to team up and wreak some havoc?"

The shade grinned. "Sure, sounds great! Sorry, Walter, you've done good but I can't miss out on this. And this place is boring anyhow."

"Sure, but don't you guys be wreaking havoc around Mikado and Naraku," Walter said.

"Hmm," the original Wu Kong said, stroking his chin.

"Meh, this place has been boring," the shade said. "And not even boring enough to disrupt. There's so many weakling demons who think themselves strong because they can trouble humans. My student and some of his allies are good, but most of them are pushovers."

"You got that right. Well then, we'll leave this place be." The original Wu Kong shrugged, then added, "May as well do what I said I'd do and track down Krishna. He up and disappeared some time ago around here, to where nobody in our group can contact him. I think he just got carried away romancing some girl as usual, but some other folks were gettin' worried."

Walter accepted breaking contract with Wu Kong, to let him go off with his original self on whatever adventure they had in mind. Although, he half-wished he could take off with them. Naraku had been an exciting change to his life at first, somewhere he could be challenged and end up respected with what he did. There were hints of treasure everywhere, with jewels and mystic relics continually popping up to be discovered. There were seemingly many paths to discover, many little rooms and secrets to find before others told him about them.

After a few months of being in here daily, it became a dull grind where his progress was coming to a halt. Unusual demons like Wu Kong today did not happen much, maybe once a month. It could be a nice challenge if he caught the request before others. But most days, it was the same demons and similar requests. Now that he didn't have Wu Kong anymore, it wasn't even worth it to stay in Naraku more than necessary. Maybe he should participate in more of the hunting competitions? But those were getting easy too, unless Flynn was also participating.

He couldn't even break the wormwood barriers yet, just make a dent in them. Was he going to be able to make that goal? Walter used to not think too much through things, as it was easier to just do them in the first place. But in his studies, he'd come to see some merit to not being impulsive. Since this was bothering him, he decided to go up to the tower above the dorms to consider things.

There was a weak wind on the ground that became much stronger up on the tower. He didn't mind it, since it made him feel more alert. While it had been shoveled away from the entrance, snow and ice often got left to pile up around here. The view up here was still magnificent, even though the sky was overcast with gray and actual colors were harder to spot in the winter landscape. But it was much less likely for people to be up here; he shouldn't be disturbed.

In climbing up there, he'd thought of something else: the demons who worked with them didn't really care about them. They could impress the demons enough to learn their skills, yes, but demons were mostly interested in fighting and whatever mysterious energy the summoning program could provide them. Dantelion spoke of wanting a human for a student, but his intentions were clearly to his benefit, not the student's. Similarly, Wu Kong (at least the shade) had taught him how to fight better but then was quick to leave when something else interested him more.

Then whatever the demons said, they shouldn't be fully trusted. They used humans, and humans used demons. That equilibrium could keep things fair and peaceful… no, no it couldn't. It wasn't an equilibrium because the demons kept trying to draw him towards their way of thinking. Closing his eyes, Walter could recall how Wu Kong would frown whenever he said he wanted to stop for the day to do more of his scriptures studies. "It's all rubbish that'll keep you from doing what you really want," he would claim any time Walter tried to bring up those ideas.

But he wanted to figure these things out rather than just ignore them. Who had really made everything, and what did they want for the world? God was supposed to be perfectly and infinitely good, but bad things still happened in the world. Why did God allow evil to exist if He was all-powerful? And more importantly, what could Walter do to make the world better not just for himself, but for others?

Some good people like Kathy at the upper city church were glad to help him find answers, but others were skeptical. They'd hear how he didn't bother to stop sounding like a village Casualry; they'd see how he didn't give a damn about looking prim and clean (it felt unnatural to try). And even if they didn't say it, their doubts about him would be in their eyes. How could you ever understand the wisdom of God?

Even the demons were like that. Just the other day, he'd tried to recruit an ogre that had appeared on the fourth floor of Naraku. Walter knew you had to flatter them well, but when asked why he had a book of scriptures with him, he decided to be honest and say he was studying it. Then the ogre had laughed at him, saying that he seemed more like the sort that would get frustrated just reading it, much less understanding it. In the ogre's opinion, Walter was better off using the book to whack others in the head with.

His fist clenched on remembering that. He hated it when people misunderstood him, or underestimated him. However he might look, he wasn't just some thug who had no thoughts of his own. Walter was capable of doing more than he seemed, even understanding these scriptures. Maybe he would start with this spite, to prove them all wrong, but he did want to learn. He knew he could, as he managed to successfully complete the timed math tests not that long ago. If he could do that as an uneducated Casualry, then he could certainly become wise too if he kept working at it.

"I will," Walter mumbled to the wintry landscape below him. Then he grimaced as he realized that his head suddenly felt heavy and painful. His legs also felt like he'd stepped off a boat onto a steady dock, causing him to put his gloved hands on the stone walls. "Ugh, what the hell? I felt fine just a minute ago."

The icy air in his lungs felt painful too. While he waited a moment to see if this would pass, his vision got blurred. He thought he saw a strange girl floating in front of him, her mismatched eyes filled with a fiery glow and her hair fluttering due to the raw force of her own power. She offered a hand to him, offered the power to give true freedom to the world. When he got that power, though, his body became so gaunt, disturbingly more like death than life. All who were weak would perish, leaving the strong to remake the world. If they felt like it.

All who were weak… would perish? No, that wasn't right. It was his duty as a samurai to protect the citizens, no matter who they were. He knew quite a few people that he wanted to keep safe now, both back in the village and here in the capitol. That was something in the books, a good use of his strength. What did he get out of it? What did that matter since he got his dream of becoming a samurai? And since he had, he had to work to be at his best at it.

That was right, but why was the thought of it literally making him sick?

Then he felt like someone took his arm. But when he glanced down, there was no hand there. Instead, a faint voice said, "From eternal change to eternal foundation, from stasis to motion, you both shifted. What caused this?"

Just in case, Walter turned around. But again, no one was there. Visibly, anyhow. There was a warmth that wasn't a draft coming out from the indoors below. It was just there. "Who are you?" he asked quietly.

"Who… am… I? Who am I?"

This was strange, but this wasn't like looking a demon in the eyes and knowing they were there to fight you, or challenge you in some other way. Maybe whoever this was wasn't hostile. "Sorry, I asked first so I can't answer that," Walter said.

After a moment, the spirit replied, "I will be calm no matter what may come, for I have faith in God to lead me. I thought I was watching the world through one man's eyes, but here I am watching through yours instead. You feel like him, and yet not. You seek wisdom under God?"

There was a part of him that resisted having such faith as this spirit did. It was like closing your eyes to navigate Naraku, something that seemed completely dumb. And yet, "I think so," he answered the spirit. "I can tell those who are truly faithful from those who aren't in a few minutes; they always seem so calm and serene, and they have a dignity from being so sure of things that they don't need to show off or prove themselves. I never felt sure of things, not even where I should be going with my life. I used to dismiss faith. But now that I've tried studying scriptures, having such faith is starting to seem enviable."

"Do not listen to the whispers of envy, for you will feel frustration at what others have without realizing what you have already," the spirit said.

Most of the time, Walter would snap at someone for rebuking him like that, or laugh it off to not show how it embarrassed him. But this strange spirit was different. He rubbed his head at it. "Right… man, it seems like a nice way to be, but then I think over how much I'd have to overcome to follow these scriptures and there's so much I need to catch up on."

"If you wish to follow the ways of God, you must face your own faults and commit to overcoming them," the spirit said. "It is a straight and narrow path full of difficulty. But with each step you take, you will grow in spirit which will make your way easier."

"One step at a time, huh?" Walter said. His mind wandered back to just that morning, having fun with the other guys. But Issachar did have a point that they were being unfair in talking about women like that, even just in jest. While it would be hard to change his ways all at once, a bit at a time… well, he was already doing that.

There was an even softer sound, like a yawn. "I don't think I can speak to you much longer," the spirit said. And this time, it was easier to tell the feminine tone to the voice. "I can't be… much of a guide right now. To either of you. Your demons…"

"Hmm, what about them?" he said, tapping the screen of his gauntlet. It went right to the screen with the group he currently had recruited. An obvious gap was where Wu Kong used to be.

After a moment, the outlines around two of them flickered. "These ones. Fuse them. Then fuse that one no longer and you will have a guide and steadfast companion who will grow with you. That should help." Her warmth faded away and he knew she was gone.

Walter shivered a moment, then looked at the two that were still flickering. He recalled not being interested before in any demons they could fuse to. In fact, he'd considered dismissing his contract with them earlier. He activated the fusion app and checked what would come of fusing them: Divine Angel. He'd had an angel before, but that one hadn't seemed useful. But with the two component demons, he could pass on skills that he knew were useful to her. She didn't have the projected stats to use those skills well.

But… a guide to the path in life he chose, a steadfast companion that would grow with him… this angel might be useful now. Walter went ahead with the fusion. She gave a typical response to being summoned through the app. And since he was alone up here, he went ahead and called Angel out.

After taking a look at him, Angel tilted her head. "Hmm? There's something about you that doesn't seem like the usual person who calls upon us."

"Yeah, I'm probably not," Walter said. "But I've been studying scriptures for a while now, and I want to change. It just seems really daunting as there's so much I need to change and move away from. Just now, someone suggested I should summon one of you as a guide. I had been learning from another demon, but he proved that he was only using me to pass the time."

"If you truly wish to change and grow in faith, then it would bring me joy to light your way," she said, smiling although it didn't seem like a strong joy. "It is my duty to lead and protect the faithful."

"Well it's my duty as a samurai to help keep Mikado peaceful," he said. "Although I realize now that I could stand to take that duty more seriously."

Then someone else opened up the door to the tower. Walter put a hand on his gauntlet, nearly sending Angel away for now. But then, it turned out to be Flynn. He gave Angel a glance, then shrugged and came over. "I hope I'm not bothering you," he said, a frown briefly appearing on his face before he seemed expressionless again.

"Nah, but what's up with you?" Walter asked. "You look pissed off, for you anyhow."

"Don't be saying this to others, but it's about the masters," he said after a moment. "I knew they slacked off in their duties more often than not. A lot of the requests that involve the third level and on get taken care of by us already. But with that squad challenge I told you guys about, we won it handily. I didn't even need to encourage you three to make sure to take a request today for that. The excuses they gave were weak and awful. When trouble comes up, I don't feel like we could trust the defense of the people to them. And it feels like I have to keep reminding Hope that he doesn't have to be a doormat. It's little wonder that that one guy…" he stopped abruptly, then just sighed and closed his eyes.

Flynn did take duty seriously, Walter thought. Even though he often found ways to wriggle around an exact interpretation to do what he wanted, he still worked day in and day out both in and out of Naraku. If Walter could learn to be like him, it'd be a great improvement. "How did they get known as masters anyhow if they slack off like that?" he asked.

"Traditions, and they feel like they've put in a lifetime of duty already," he said. "You should be acknowledged as more of a master than they simply from dealing with Wu Kong today. But you won't be because those traditions haven't been upheld by you yet." He spoke of those 'traditions' like he felt they were garbage.

Walter could just accept that, although he knew it wasn't right. "Maybe not from that deal with Wu Kong," he said, shaking his head. "Most of the reason he left was because my Wu Kong gave him a good fight and they took off together to make trouble elsewhere. I mean, they're probably not going to return to Naraku, but I feel like I didn't handle that right."

"Where did they go?" Flynn asked.

"I'm not sure, but they mentioned going to find one of their own named Krishna who'd disappeared."

For some reason, Flynn stiffened at that. "Krishna…" he mumbled, looking down at the city below them.

"You know that guy?" Walter said, surprised and deeply concerned about this. He half-expected to see flickers of white on Flynn's skin. Although, why? That thing only happened in those strange dreams.

"He's a fop of a god who performs magic with a flute and can charm just about anyone," Flynn said, like he was trying to make something he dreaded less intimidating. But it didn't seem to work. "I've made mistakes where many people suffered the consequences, not just me. And then Krishna made something that had been right into something horrific. I hope I haven't made things worse by trying to make them better."

What had happened to make him feel that way? More importantly, what could Walter say to that? "Hoy, don't fret so much about every little thing. There's only so much one person can influence, right? As long as you're working to make things better, then things should get better. I think, maybe."

Flynn then gave him a curious look. "How much do you recall?" he asked.

"Uh," Walter scratched his head. "I don't know? What're we even talking about?" Then he laughed sheepishly. "I'm just running my mouth again when I'm not sure what's going on; I really should stop doing that. It's just, there's been some part of me that's always worried over how you're acting even though I'm not sure why I feel like that. I think all of us in our group have felt that way at some time or another, and it's hard to know how to help you when we don't know what's going on. And it seems like the longer this winter drags on, you're getting more stressed over whatever's going on in your head even though everything seems like a breeze to you. So, then," he shrugged, "what is going on with you?"

"It's complicated," Flynn said, once again seeming like he was far older than he looked, that he'd suffered more than he should have. "Waiting on something to happen can be more stressful than actually doing it, especially knowing you shouldn't move too soon and reveal that you're up to something. I shouldn't be second-guessing myself at this stage, but… it's complicated, a lot of moves that I haven't used together before. Maybe I can tell you about it someday, but not now. Experience would be the best teacher right now."

For a moment, Walter felt like telling him to trust in God, even though he was trying to learn to have that confidence in an unknown himself. But then he recalled how Flynn felt about God. This wasn't a time to let a door slam shut between them so they couldn't talk like this anymore. "You got that right," Walter said. "I had to learn today how demons that seem friendly might not be as loyal as they act."

"What happened?" Flynn asked, so Walter told him more details on what happened with Wu Kong. Maybe giving him other less worrisome things to think about would help.


	27. The Catacombs

**Chapter 27: The Catacombs**

It had been four months since the Autumn Ball, eight months since the Gauntlet Rite. It'd be another four months to when they'd be regular samurai instead of prentices. For now, though, it was the last part of winter. Still no hints of spring coming up, although that was bound to happen. The icy slush that was often in the streets wasn't as enchanting as the early pure white snows. And while there weren't as many trees in the city, there were still enough around with their leafless boughs to feel empty, still fast asleep from the cold.

Issachar was feeling a bit like that, listless and cold but spring had to break at some time. Although, he wasn't sure how much longer he had to endure on. It seemed like the right thing to do to continue on as he had all these four months. He quietly looked after Flynn and did various little things to help him: small errands, making sure to meet with him for meals, looking for books that might interest him. In the past couple of weeks, that turned out well. Flynn had gotten a cold and if Issachar hadn't insisted, he might have kept working and run himself ragged. As it was, he had to rest for three days to feel better and then Issachar caught him from overdoing himself immediately. It was something of a virtue to work like that in Kiccigiorgi, but that didn't help when they were fighting demons every day.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Flynn put his own well-being last amid all the other things he was trying to accomplish. He'd say that he could rest once he'd done what he'd set out to do. But still, how did he expect to do so much when he was wearing himself down? As it was only morning, Issachar wanted to go catch him before he left the dorms and tell him 'hold off, take some time to slow down while you can, I can be with you and hold you and tell you how much you mean to me, so take this day off and let me take care of you as much as I love you…' his mind had been rambling like this since he got up, trying to go through all of that and more.

He sighed to himself as he was making sure his uniform was neat and proper. As much as he wanted to say that, he couldn't. He had to keep at this quietly, keep from accidentally hurting Flynn when it wasn't clear when the next big change was coming. But it had always been hard for him to keep quiet. He wanted to tell people things and have fun with conversations. Just a couple of weeks ago at the craft fair, he'd told more than he meant to to Jonathan. Thankfully, he accepted that well and still considered him a friend.

It was even harder with Flynn when he'd been sick. If he pushed himself at a time like this, when they were biding their time and letting things develop with their peers, how would he get when the angels and demons began actively going against each other and humanity? They already trusted each other, but Issachar wanted him to trust him even more, to let him comfort him if things were unclear or the unexpected happened. However, there was that danger of if things went badly and Flynn decided to redo things. Would Issachar be left to continue on? Or were the times that Flynn left completely destroyed?

And would Flynn be able to take knowing that truth if he had to once again play out various parts to figure out what had gone wrong in this time?

"No, I'm just being selfish and want to escape whatever twist of fate keeps making me miserable no matter what happens," Issachar said to his reflection. It felt horribly true even if he was left only imagining what had happened to him in other times. "Or it's just winter and I'll feel better once this grayness is gone. I hope it's that."

He took a couple of minutes trying to clear his mind of all the distracting thoughts. He already had an assignment today: accompany the history hobbyists who wanted to investigate the catacombs. In the past few days, he and other samurai had inspected the catacombs to make sure there were no demons there. A hardy few would already be down there early to check on things. With the skeletons of the long departed being stored down there, demons that liked to animate the dead or desecrate such places were a threat to these rare visitors.

Having dealt with this kind of mental conflict for a long time, Issachar had himself together by the time he headed out to meet with the group at the catacombs entrance. It helped that they were doing something interesting. One of the hobbyists explained it to an older samurai that hadn't heard of the investigation. "And the last of these gaps was actually close to 170 years ago, which is a much larger chunk of time than usually goes on between these. Early on, the gaps would show up 40 to 80 years apart. So whatever is going on, it's been quite some time since it's happened."

"Are you sure it's something happening in these times?" the older samurai asked. "Mikado is a peaceful kingdom. Maybe it's just a bad castle historian every few generations."

"Well if it was just the records they're responsible for, it might be that," the hobbyist said. "But it's all records that we can locate. Like with family trees. In older records, you'll find that they'll have an entire generation of people just missing."

"Or the family trees will start or stop entirely at those gaps," another said. "Every Luxuror family today keeps a record of their heritage, but you'll find that all of them either stop or get very vague back at the last gap in the records. It's even with the family history of the royals, when you can get them willing to share those records."

"Then what do you mean to do in the catacombs?" the samurai asked.

"That's one record that we haven't been able to check. Every year, a stone memorial plate is made of the Luxurors that died, and an approximation of how many Casualry around the city died. They're stored in the catacombs once they get to be ten years old. We're hoping to find some tablets like that from the most recent gap, or even further back if we can find such things. Whether such tablets are there or not, we'll get some clue on what's going on, or so we hope."

It was something Issachar was very curious about. However, he was assigned as their guard. He wouldn't be helping them directly and instead would be watching the halls around them. But then, they knew he and Jonathan were interested. They'd surely share what they had found, if anything.

They had to bring torches as the catacombs they wanted to check were not normally lit. There were long halls carved out of the earth, leading off into rooms where old remains and the stone tablets were stored. In the first hall, there were rooms that held the dead of the past century. When enough time passed, a room would be cleared out and the remains were set in the level below. That level was full of dust and fragments of bone; very few pieces recognizable as someone once human were down there. However, the stone memorial tablets were mostly in good shape.

Before long, the historians got excited over finding a tablet from the year 1314. And they found others from years prior to that which were within the last gap in history. Issachar watched the halls lit by the torch he'd hung on the wall nearby, but he listened in to their chatter as they used charcoal rubbing to get copies of these rare remnants of the lost history. There were a lot of names and high numbers, as many had died. In fact, on one year's tablet, some disheartened recorder had not written down any Luxuror names, simply putting 'too many'. And there was apparently a curious symbol on the memorial tablets of the missing years, some kind of star with indecipherable writing.

Issachar had been wondering if he could get a glimpse of that weird symbol when he noticed something in the halls outside the room they were searching. It was something small falling in another room, probably a bit of bone falling off of a storage shelf. Right after, a little black body zipped out of the room and raced down the hall. A mouse. Mice were a mundane thing, finding some way to survive even down here. But the way it rushed off suddenly…

He took the torch off the wall and stepped into the doorway to light the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary yet. When he checked the gauntlet, it wasn't detecting any lurking demons. He'd even told Burroughs to be alert to animated undead, since that was a possible danger here. Issachar stepped back into the hall and heard something faint, a sound that hummed smoothly. Music?

As it faded from notice, he went back into position and paid more heed to the hall and room across the way. The historians had a samurai with them, and another pair were stationed in this very hall. Others would be in another part of this level and the one above, where the tunnel that went to Naraku was. But, that should be away from this area. Then, he briefly heard the music again. Something like a fiddle, or violin maybe?

Issachar waved over to the samurai out in the hall with him. "Hoy," he said, trying not to call the attention of the historians. "I'm hearing something over here, like music a ways off."

"Music?" the other samurai asked, coming over.

He nodded. "Shortly after that mouse ran by all spooked, I heard a bit, and then again just now. It's a bit hard… listen."

It took a moment for the noise they could hear out in the hall to hush down, but then the sounds came again. A pair of mice rushed to get away from something. "You're right, there's something like music somewhere," he said. "This can't be good if it's getting to the mice. They will keep away from demons if they can."

"What should we do?" Issachar asked, since he was the only prentice down here. Jonathan was on the upper level, and none of the other prentices had been assigned this guard job.

"I'm going to see if we can get some others to get the civilians out without worrying them too much," the older samurai said. "Keep an ear out and send an alert to everybody else on the job if that music gets clearer or louder. But make sure to stay here at your post; don't let it lure you off."

"All right, sir," he said.

A lot of messages went back and forth over the gauntlets. Once it was determined that there wasn't a concert going on overhead that might be drifting down here, some agreed that this was a worrisome sign. Others thought it might be a trick of the air flowing through the catacombs. Then, someone in the upper level called out a demon they said was sensitive to supernatural forces. Said demon had immediately freaked out over something in the area and recalled itself, refusing to come back out and explain. It was decided after that that the civilians should be evacuated quickly and the nature of this threat determined so they could figure out how to handle the situation.

Meanwhile, the music continued to drift in and out of being audible. It was unnerving at times and… oddly intriguing at others. Issachar thought a couple of times of going to investigate it immediately; he nearly walked off once without realizing it. But, the other samurai had recommended that he stay here. It was probably a good idea. Then he heard a stretch of music that lasted in the air for more than a few seconds.

'The music is getting clearer.' He sent the message off to the others; a few samurai were coming down into the hall, ready to escort the civilians out before they realized what was going on. Issachar glanced down briefly and noticed something new: flecks of white and gray on the floor, beginning to swirl like water being stirred up. As he started to step away, the ground became soft and he stumbled right through the floor.

There was a noisy clatter and cracking when he landed on a densely littered stone floor. The music, which he was pretty sure was a violin now, was clear and strong down here. Almost immediately, Burroughs spoke up. "Master, I'm detecting an extremely dangerous demon nearby. We should leave the area."

Issachar nodded, not wanting to disrupt the musician and get their attention. He tried to get himself on steady footing by clearing away debris when he noticed what it was by the small light that the gauntlet had. Bones, all scattered about to the point where they nearly obscured the floor. Why were these remains treated so carelessly? But right now, it was more important to leave this place.

Settling for what footing he could find, Issachar checked the map of his gauntlet. The display for this floor was dim, only a small open area around him. He shifted to the map of the floor above, which he had scouted out. Assuming that he fell straight down… the stairs shouldn't be far to his right. Issachar aligned the maps, then marked on this floor where the stairs up should be. It was not in the direction of the violinist, so he should be okay.

He got to where he could see the stairs when the bones ahead trembled. Issachar stopped just in time, as a row of spike poles shot out of the ground. While they seemed pale and dusty like all the bones around here, they were taller than he was and had a faint red glow. He tried to get around them, but more bone spikes appeared to pen him in. Strangely enough, they weren't appearing on his map; he had to add some of his own marks to note where they were. He could find his way out of this. Right?

As he tried to figure out which way to search first, a message popped up on his gauntlet. It wad from Flynn. 'Avoid this encounter as much as you can; I'll be down there shortly. If you can't avoid it, here's the data on who you're up against. Note that Blight hits your entire group and has a high chance of poisoning.' It had an attached entry from the demon compendium. 'Fiend David Null: Dark Resist: Fire, Ice, Light, Poison, Panic, Sleep, Bind, Sick Weak: Electric Skills: Mamudo, Blight, Pulinpa'

He could just wait here if Flynn was coming. If he had this information on the fiend, it had to be one that he'd already defeated. But looking at the data, Issachar began to wonder if he could challenge David himself. He had a demon who knew zio, and that was Hequet who couldn't be poisoned. Issachar had summoned her again to strengthen his needle shot skill. As she had done that, he'd considered fusing her into something else. But then, having a demon who nullified poison was far too useful if he had to go to the third level of Naraku. He also had a pretty good healing demon in Leanan Sidhe, which seemed like a necessity for challenging a powerful demon like this. And who else… he had a Naga who also had needle shot but had yet to whisper to him to increase its power. Naga was tough and strong, and calling on him for a challenge might be enough to please him. If Naga fell, he had a couple others he could call on as back-up. But he'd be in trouble if Hequet or Leanan Sidhe fell.

First, Issachar tried to find a way around the bone pikes to get to the stairs. But as more and more of them appeared, close together so that he couldn't just slip on through, he ended up being guided closer to the violinist. He stopped to call out the three demons. "Keep quiet, although I think he knows we're here," Issachar instructed them.

Naga gripped his spear tightly, a very serious expression on his face. Hequet put a webbed hand to her cheek, seeming nervous but she nodded. In contrast, Leanan Sidhe didn't look bothered. She did have a strange attitude, saying things like death was inevitable, so why worry about it? But even when she was being negative, she followed orders and didn't complain.

Issachar led them towards the music. Before long, it stopped and a number of standing torches lit up throughout the level. While he'd been walking over bone fragments this whole time, it was still disconcerting to see all of the remains piled about haphazardly here. Not too far ahead, there was a whole skeleton sitting on a stool of bones, pulling his violin away from his shoulder to look over at them. He was dressed in an outfit that seemed more appropriate to a festive performer, with bright colors and a long white feather pinned to his hat.

"Good, you did come," David said. "You know, it's not nice to cheat Fate, doubly so when you cheat Death at the same time. We'll find ways to correct such problems." He then ran the bow across the strings, causing a ear-piercing shriek instead of the vibrant music from before. There was a dark feeling like someone should die... mamudo. Fortunately, none of his demons fell to it. "The bones here are too weary from a hard shallow life; they are too in need of rest to dance to my tunes. But, you should dance quite well."

Issachar quickly sent orders through his gauntlet to his demons, general ones since he needed to be paying close attention to the fight. As Hequet and Leanan Sidhe stayed back, Naga slithered forward to stab David with his spear. Issachar kept close behind the snakeman, hoping he could divert attention from his other two demons; he could easily use needle shot from here, firing the magic needles around Naga and into David. Then the fiend proved that it didn't matter how they arranged themselves as sickly dark arrows rained down over all four of them. Issachar felt nauseated at it; it was quickly apparent that Leanan and Naga had also been poisoned.

Then Naga said something that got David to focus on him for a while, exchanging painful notes to blows back and forth. Issachar reminded Hequet through the gauntlet that her primary job here was to use zio; the spell caused David to flinch every time it hit, giving Naga better opportunities to strike him. He then used dia to support Naga while Leanan worked on removing the poison. But once she did that, David caused Naga to panic, giving himself the chance to jump back and use blight against them again.

Panic was no good here; Issachar called out a patra stone to get Naga back to his senses. Then one of the notes from David's violin struck him. It was no physical thing, but it vibrated through his chest painfully. The shock of it caused him to slip on some of the bones and fall on them. As the painful note slipped into a song, Issachar began to feel strange. Memories bubbled into a froth in his mind: hot summer afternoons spent with Flynn out in the woods practicing their swordplay, bitter arguments with his mother that left him feeling worthless and cursed, the initial encounter with a demon that left him bleeding and faint, seeing Flynn at the Autumn Ball and realizing what was really going on with his heart…

The song pitied him, saying he could accept fate and be left to dance until he lost all of his memories to feel nothing more.

No, he couldn't do that. Flynn had gone to great lengths to save him from dying; Issachar needed to stay alive and do all he could for him, if not for love than at least for gratitude. He made himself get back to his feet without falling to the lure of the song, even though he felt sickened and weak. Fortunately, Leanen Sidhe pulled through and used media to help them all. Hequet zapped the fiend with zio again; her MP was looking low on the gauntlet's status screen. David readied to attack him again, but this time Issachar could fire back with needle shot. And the fiend cracked into a thousand pieces before falling apart to nothing in his own death.

Or, was he dead? Issachar recalled hearing that the fiends were incarnations of Death as he heard a chuckle from David, seemingly just behind him. "Well done, boy, although I was hardly trying," he said. "Struck by an electric quill, the serpentine warrior falls for a dancing maiden of starry waters." Then his presence withdrew, taking a chilly feeling of dread with him.

"Congratulations, master, on winning a difficult fight," Burroughs said. "But the fiend left behind a strange message; I'll record it for you to figure out later."

"All right," he said to her, not sure what to make of that message himself. He then looked over at his demons coming over to him, feeling proud of them. He'd expected to lose at least one of them, but they all managed to pull through. "Great job, you three. We probably caught him before he could do anything big here."

"We did it!" Hequet called, immediately bouncing around like they weren't in a bone-filled catacomb.

"We merely defeated him, not destroyed him," Leanan Sidhe said.

"Oh hush, you downer," Naga said, grinning as he arrived by Issachar. "It takes a stout heart to walk right into an encounter with a fiend, and a real spirit of a warrior to win at all against one. You seemed awful nerdy when we first met, but I'm proud to have fought alongside you now. I should teach you to be a great warrior."

"Sure, thanks," Isachar said, leading Naga to put a hand on his shoulder. Burroughs called this method of teaching whisper, although it always felt to Issachar more like a buzzing that briefly blurred his sight. But it was vital to progress as a samurai. Now he could empower needle shot further, and…

Naga knew tarukaja? Issachar recalled that as something Naverre had learned over the winter. It was a useful spell that made himself and the demons following him stronger for as long as the current battle lasted. While Naverre was turning into their squad's main supporter with spells like that, Issachar couldn't always count on working with him. But trying to learn it made is head feel oddly crowded. Perhaps… he could drop his own posumudi. As useful as it was, he could use items that demons needed special skills to know how to use. And Hequet and Leanan Sidhe both knew that antidote spell. Once he decided to drop posumudi for tarukaja, the switch was made and things didn't seem so crowded.

As the buzzing of whisper ended, Issachar felt a tug at his pants. Hequet was by him now. "Hey, we're so strong, and I feel all sorts of energy rushing about. Can I use it to help you even better?"

What did she mean? She'd already used whisper on him and Issachar was pretty sure it couldn't be repeated without summoning a new shade of the demon. But then, she had been a valuable asset to winning this battle. "All right, if you feel it would help," he said.

"Great, you'll see!" She hopped back and suddenly vanished with a pop. Issachar checked his gauntlet and saw that the data was changing. When the name 'Holy Hequet' shifted over to 'Lady Delahornz', the same pop caused her to return in a new guise. There was something still distinctly frog about her, particularly her green marbled skin. But now she seemed almost human, wrapped in tan cloth to where it was difficult to see her face. "I will continue to serve you in any form." And then she croaked, much like she always had.

"Thanks, you've always been a big help," he said. Then he heard footsteps coming down the stairs behind him. The torches were still lit, so he was easily able to see who it was. "Flynn?"

"Good, you're okay," Flynn said, relieved and hurrying over to him. But he soon glanced about. "This air, though… did you already defeat David?"

"Yes, it got close but we did it," Issachar said.

"I told you to wait for me," he snapped. But from the way his eyes looked, he was on the verge of tears.

"W-well I was blocked from the stairs after I fell through the floor," Issachar said, feeling his face get warm out of embarrassment. At the same time, he wondered if maybe Flynn was like he'd been, not realizing what he felt. "David was trying to trap me from the moment I first heard him. And with the data you sent me, I realized that I actually had a pretty good party to challenge him with, so I had to try."

Flynn grabbed his shoulder and tried to give him a hard look. But he couldn't manage it. "At least you're still alive," Flynn said, his voice shaking. "I… be more careful from now on, all right?"

"All right," Issachar said, looking right back at him. It seemed like just the right moment to embrace him and tell him that it was fine, that he really was alive and he'd try not to worry him again. But he couldn't help feeling like that was a bad idea right now. "Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. There wasn't a lot else I could do when he dragged me down here."

Flynn still seemed like he might break down; he closed his eyes trying to collect himself. Then he tensed up further as everything went white. "The fiend wasn't the one to drop you down here," the White said in Flynn's own voice. "It was we who forced you to confront him."

Then another image of the White, imitating him. "Why do you keep resisting us? We know of the love you have left unsaid for years. You belong with us; we'll see to that if you keep refusing. We'll say what you won't."

No, this was not the time for this! "You have no right to speak for either of us!" Issachar said. "Leave us alone. We don't need your dismal bias in our lives."

"Well you have long wanted to be alone with him, always with him," his shadow of White said. "So much that it torments you and naturally draws you to us. Accept it and be us; that will solve so many of your anxieties."

"Shut up and go away!" Issachar said, firing needle shot at the one shadow.

It passed right through them like they really were nothing but shadows. "Fighting us is useless because we come from deep within your heart."

"Issachar?" Flynn said, starting to go pale. His lips kept moving but whatever he was trying to say wasn't coming out.

The White faded away, leaving them back in the torch-lit catacombs. But Issachar had a sinking feeling that he hadn't driven them away. They'd done what they'd set out to do. His own mind was blank. "Flynn, I…"

But as soon as Issachar tried to take Flynn's hand, he jerked away and screamed, "Why won't this just end?!" Something about him intensified into a feeling of oppressive power, like Flynn could erase them both from existence to where no one would find even ashes among the littered bones. White cracks flickered across his face and the power drew into a spell.

Driven partly by terror, Issachar snatched something out of his inventory: the silk lotus. He'd hoped to give it as a present, but it felt like the most promising thing to stop him right now. "Stop, please, just take this." He took Flynn's right hand and put the lotus there.

The spell failed to form, thankfully, although that feeling of power lingered. The cracks vanished and he was left looking at the flower in confusion. With a faint murmur, he brought his other hand up to touch the flower carefully.

Not wanting to make this worse again, Issachar thought over what he should say. "I know what they said must have hurt a lot to realize, but please, calm down." There was so much he wanted to say, but couldn't yet. Still, he put his hands around Flynn's. "I remember that you said this flower kept you calm, although you weren't sure why. I've thought about it, and I think it's because the flower reminds you that no matter how dark and terrible things get, you have something you must protect above all else. Like that god Vishnu you told me about was irrational and twisted by all that he had lost, but he still knew that he had something to protect even if he'd mostly lost sight of it."

Although it had been an ordinary silk flower when he bought it, the lotus briefly glowed as the power nearly unleashed dissipated. Then Flynn grabbed him and started crying into Issachar's shoulder. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to kill you," he said in a trembling voice.

Issachar wasn't sure what to say to that, but he knew what he could do. He hugged Flynn back, keeping a tight hold on him. It really shouldn't have been revealed in this way. But since it had, he could be this close to Flynn when he needed it.

When he calmed down, Flynn pulled away and checked on the lotus again. "Thanks, for this," he said. "I should…" he kept looking over the flower, not sure what to say.

"You should take a few more days off and get your wits together after this," Issachar said, making himself smile to try not worrying him. Flynn laughed a little at that. "You really should. Look, we'll tell them that you got here while I was fighting David and got hit with a pulinpa extra hard, to where it didn't immediately fade after battle." It was something that could happen, as he'd read about an incident like that in the history books. "I think the response to that is to make you rest for three days, then have you on light duty until a week after and you can pass a test or something. It'll do you good even if it's on the wrong premise."

"All right, if you insist," Flynn said. "I don't think I could hide this from the others anyhow. But, you have been watching over me closely for a while now. How long…?"

"Hoy, don't worry about that right now," he said. "I'll tell you more later when you can handle it calmly. Though, it has been a long time and I thought I could be okay with just taking care of you quietly. I definitely didn't want you to learn about how I felt in a way that left you troubled. But since you know, you can be sure that you can rely on me for anything. I know that you've got over a thousand things to coordinate at once to reach your goals, so you won't have much time or energy for me. But that's okay. You've already given me a life I technically shouldn't have and I can wait for things to settle down for you."

He thought about it for several moments, then nodded. "Well, you can defeat David with your demons, so you should be fine with what's coming up. I just hope you can really be okay with what all I have to do."

Issachar thought of something a little silly, which made him really smile. "Well, I might want a hug out of you every now and then, but you'll probably need it too."

Fortunately, it made Flynn laugh too. "If you must. You know, I never did tell you much about what went on with me and Belinda other than I just didn't see myself being with her."

"I've heard that it didn't go as well as she'd hoped since she didn't expect that anybody would deny the courtship request of a princess," he said. As a result of those rumors, he hadn't worried about that much.

"There was that time she invited me into the castle to try persuading me further," he said. "And she said that she knew that a samurai's work was hard on a person, so she could be the salve to my soul." He frowned just remembering that. "I had to keep myself from snapping at her for that remark, since she has no idea what I've been through."

"Seems like a nice try, just given to the wrong person," Issachar said.

He nodded. "Actually, when she said that, I almost immediately thought that you were far more like that then anyone else could be. I'm trying to save all of my friends, but there are many times that I end up feeling better just listening to you talk excitedly about one thing or another, or watching you do things that put others in awe of you." He tapped one of the lotus' petals. "Bad times are ahead, but still, there are times that I'm looking forward to seeing how you react to them. There's going to be all kinds of things in our future that you can't even imagine now."

"Are you sure of that?" he said jokingly. "I have a pretty strong imagination."

"I know it for certain," he said, looking much better now.

Still, Issachar gave the report as planned and made sure Flynn got forced into having time off to recuperate.


	28. Dreamscapes

**Chapter 28: Dreamscapes**

Little wind chimes rang softly in Nanashi's mind, making him wonder if someone had stuck a miniature fan in front of them again. But the question faded from his mind, soon replaced by a soft sense of relaxation. The sweet call of slumber was always welcome in his opinion.

Not so much getting shaken back to alertness by Asahi. "Hey, we'll get in trouble if you guys fall asleep in the lounge."

"Oh, huh?" Nanashi blinked, then rubbed his eyes. "Sorry," and a yawn escaped.

"You'd better not push it through another movie," Nikkari said, getting up to disturb the two newcomers. "Take Hallelujah here to your bunks, and Asahi can take Toki to hers. We'll just want to make sure they're recorded as being based here tomorrow."

"All right," Nanashi said, starting to hear that chime sound again. "Someone's trying to make us sleep," he mumbled.

"Well make sure to send a message to Flynn, remember?" Asahi whispered to him.

"Oh yeah, thanks." He touched the screen of the demonica and stared at it for a moment. Then Asahi whispered to him what he could write since he was too sleepy to think through it himself.

'Flynn- Sorry, I'm too tired to stay up any longer. And I think something's trying to make us sleep. Toki and Hallelujah are the same way. - Nanashi'.

Almost as soon as he sent it off, he had a reply.

'Nanashi- It's fine, I've gotten prepared quicker than I thought. Sleep well, and I'll be seeing you soon. -Flynn.'

That was good. Once Hallelujah was awake enough to get up, Nanashi waved him to follow over to one of the rooms assigned to the men and boys of Kinshicho. There was a free bunk and Nanashi had some clean pajamas to lend, so they were both fast asleep before long.

* * *

The city burned. Flames that had once stretched up the tall buildings to reach into the sky tried to keep enraged and violent. But, there wasn't much left to burn.

"What do I do?"

Toki found herself at a crossroads in the infernal city. She knew she was dreaming; she'd been told this would happen. But, she'd not been told what to do within the dream. There was nothing in her training on working in dreamscapes. Or in protecting people, to be honest. That was what she was supposed to do, protect Nanashi. Toki knew how to protect herself. But, how did one protect another?

And… there was no voice in her head, whispering the answers to her. She had to solve this herself. It was most perplexing.

She stood there watching the flames and tried to figure it out.

"Hoy there!"

Before she knew it, a man came from one of the streets, jogging over to her. He wore a strange blue coat with long sleeves, although he wasn't wearing any shirt underneath it. "What?" Toki asked flatly.

"You all right?" he asked. "This city isn't the kind of place for a girl to be on her own. There's a beach down the street if you want to get out of the fires."

"I am capable of defending myself," she said. She didn't know if she could trust this man; the voice wasn't there to let her know. In fact, it had been missing since Krishna had removed her mask. "I do not know how to protect another."

"Oh yeah?" he asked, curious about that.

She was already talking and this was a dream. It couldn't hurt. "I've been asked to protect someone I don't know," she explained. "But I don't have the voice to guide me as it did through my training. I don't have the mask that closes off my feelings. So, I don't know what to do."

"Sounds to me like that could be a good thing," the man said. "I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't feel any emotions. Heck, sometimes all it takes to motivate me is some anger, some excitement, or something like that. It focuses my mind and makes me feel like I could do anything. Although, it does lead me to being rash and plunging into things that I probably shouldn't be. Still, being without emotions seems so stiff and boring to me. They might seem hard to understand for somebody like you, but I think you'll come to appreciate being able to live life as you should."

"I don't remember feeling anything before," Toki said. "I think, I'm scared, of being like this. But it's good?"

He nodded. "It will be once you get the hang of things. New things are always scary, don't you think? But they're also exciting, breathing new life into you."

"I must always improve myself, so perhaps it is another means of improvement," she said, finding some comfort in that familiarity. "Thank you."

"No problem," he said.

At that point, someone else joined their conversation. It was a strange figure clad in blue and gold, looking as though he was barely alive. But he emanated a dark aura of power, as though he'd endured the depths of hell and would not be stopped by any mere mortal. "Then this was a ruse," he said.

"Hoy, you…" the man turned, seeming confused. "You seem familiar, but I don't believe I've seen you before."

"You should know me very well, since we've met here many times," the demon said, gesturing the man closer. "I don't know who set up the false flag with this girl, but she's not important. You're the one who should be here, not her; she's a mistake. Still, we are united in a wish to change this rotten world…" a bellowing roar disrupted him. "What now?" He looked up, cross at the interruption.

The man looked up too, his eyes going wide as a dark dragon descended upon a wider part of the street. It bore an aura of power much like the demon, yet different enough to conflict. Clenching his fists, the man looked back to the demon. "Wait a moment, this doesn't make sense. I feel like this dragon is the one I'm always chasing around here, not you. Who are you and why have you invaded our city?"

"That's nonsense, we're one and the same," the demon said.

However, the dragon had other ideas. It snarled before swiping at the demon with its claws. The demon retaliated by punching its scaly foot, inciting the fight further.

The man soon had a large axe in his hands, ready to join right in. "No, the dragon is the one meant to be here, not you!" He swung his axe with the full force of his body, staggering the demon.

What to do… the man had explained things to her, so Toki felt like she should be on his side. "Allow me to assist you," she said, darting in and slashing at the demon's ankles with her knives. She let herself tumble past the demon, to get out of both his and the man's attacks. Once she got a good angle, she could start throwing knives at the demon too.

While the demon had an aura of power, he was unable to stand up against all three of them fighting against him. He growled in rage, but was forced out of the dream. With the demon gone, the dragon quickly calmed down. It bumped its head into the man with an odd affection.

He laughed and patted the dragon's snout. "I don't know what just happened, but it feels right. And thanks, girl, you're way more dangerous than you seem, so I'd be glad to be friends with you."

Friends… like the others had said today, they would be friends. "I don't think I'll be a good friend, but I appreciate the offer," she said, then recalled more of what had occurred earlier. Normally people expected to know each other's names, it seemed. "And I'm Toki."

The man smiled at her. "Nice to meet you, I'm Walter."

The true hero of Chaos… Walter.

* * *

Sands stretched out as far as the eye could see. A mysterious head of some long-forgotten person lay abandoned nearby as the sole landmark that wasn't the lip of a crater. Overhead, the sun beat down fiercely, mercilessly. Hallelujah felt strange being here, like he was exposed to the sun's bitter judgment. "What's gotten into you?" he asked. "I thought the sun was supposed to be good; people miss you."

Of course, the sun would not respond. But someone else did. "What are you doing here?" a man said, walking around from the other side of the weathered head. His blue and white clothes contrasted with the bright bronzed sands, yet somehow he seemed to belong here. "I've never seen anyone like you here. Or ever, if I'm to be honest."

"I…" his mind got into a dream state of being muddled. He knew some significant dream was supposed to happen tonight, but wasn't sure what to expect of it. As such, the reply his mind came up with seemed random. "I'm lost, I think. People keep telling me what to do and I try to live up to their expectations. But, it feels like I can't quite reach that, then I learned they weren't as good as I thought they were. I tried to get away but ended up listening to someone else who might not be good, and then it's all confusing of who I should listen to and what I should do. So, I'm lost, pretty much."

"It seems like you need to figure out who you should have faith in," he said. "Which is understandable. There's so many voices that try to lead you in what they say are proper ways. But then the more you learn of yourself, them, and the world, the harder it becomes to keep faith. I've felt lost like that myself, and I've had to blindly jump in a direction I never considered with faith in the person I wanted to have faith in. It's taken some time for me to regain my footing after that, but I still feel like I did the right thing. Learn more, and figure out what you truly want for yourself. Then your path ahead should reveal itself even if it is one you never considered before."

That actually sounded like pretty good advice. "Huh, well there is a lot I should figure out soon. Thanks, I hope I can find my way too."

He smiled kindly. "I have a good feeling about you. It…" he put his hand to his cheek. "It will be tough for you, but I feel like you can find your way and become a good person. Maybe more than you expect out of yourself."

For a moment, he felt like he could have faith in that. But then a woman interrupted them. "No, it's clear now that he will never amount to anything. He'll be forever branded by what he is." She had a bright presence even in this sun-roasted desert, making it unclear what she really looked like.

"Now now, you can't hold someone responsible for something they had no control over," the man objected. "I've learned that you can't judge someone solely based on their birth. You can't hold someone to be a sinner for a sin they did not commit."

"All of you humans are natural born sinners!" she insisted, her light quivering. "We try to return you to grace and you irrationally resist every step we take! I'm just about fed up with you all getting the wrong ideas about everything. We are as old as time itself; we naturally have a much greater perspective on things, but still you refuse to listen."

"Maybe if you weren't such a bully about it, people would listen," Hallelujah said before he really thought about it. But, he would much rather listen to the mysterious man here than the mysterious light. She gave a half-growl half-scream, then flew off to get away from them.

"Not a good sport, was she?" the man said. "It's strange though. She sounded like a voice I hear here, but the words didn't sound right… wait…" he turned and looked off in a direction that seemed empty. "There she is. I haven't heard her in a long time, although…" whatever problem he had, he shook his head and ran off to find the voice.

There wasn't a lot else that could be done here, so Hallelujah ran after him. After some time, something suddenly appeared within the desert: a golden birdcage tall enough to hold a man, but not wide enough for him to lay down in it. Gabriel had said she was an angel, but the being singing inside was very clearly an angel. She had pure white skin, with golden accents like her fingernails and… some other places that made Hallelujah feel embarrassed to look at for long. Long white feathered wings came from her head rather than hair and two swords magically stayed on her back.

The man took hold of the cage bars, but quickly had to take his hands away. "What are you doing in a cage?" he asked in concern.

She stopped singing her alien song and looked at the both of them. "I was not aware that I was caged," she replied. "What am I doing here?" She bowed her head, then added, "Who… who are you?"

Stepping back, the man seemed shocked that she didn't know. As a newcomer to this dreamscape, Hallelujah was less surprised. "I'm Hallelujah," he said.

"And… I'm Jonathan," the man said.

The true hero of Law… Jonathan.

* * *

This beach was a place frozen in time, literally. The waves curled up but never crashed onto the shore. The soft sands didn't seem like they could budge. On top of that, it was completely silent. There was no sun in the sky, although an even light filled the air. Fog could be seen out in the distance in every direction. And not far from him, there was a round garden table with a few chairs, like someone had been trying to have a fancy picnic before something went catastrophically wrong.

Before he realized it, a young girl was having a conversation with him. She had very indistinct features and a plain white dress. "We wanted to make a better future for everyone," she said. "But some people lost sight of that and were willing to sacrifice a few for many. And now, I hope it is not sacrificing many to save a few."

Nanashi wasn't sure what to make of that. "I only know a small area, so I've only worked to protect those few people," he said. "But… who are you? You seem familiar somehow."

"Do you remember?" she asked.

Unfortunately, the fact that he couldn't see her properly made it harder to figure out who she was. "I'm afraid not, sorry. But I'm…"

A hand clasped his shoulder unexpectedly. "Do not speak your name in this dream," a man warned him. "For that matter, don't speak mine either."

He looked up and recognized his face, if only because he'd seen it in a video not that long ago. "Why not?"

Flynn moved ahead of him so they could speak comfortably. "Confusion and surprise are a good strategy against an opponent who has grown comfortable with their ways. Granted, it can't last long now. They'll be able to reason out who we are by our connections to others. But by the time they do that, there will be other things to confuse them with."

"You are confusing your allies as well," the girl said.

"I know," Flynn said with some regret. "But it took an immeasurable amount of time for me to learn what I know. I can't simply tell them everything, for the sake of time and the risk of letting our enemies know. I hope I can do enough for them to trust me when I need them to."

"Is the future of the world really at stake with what we're doing?" Nanashi asked. It was the kind of thing he'd admired in comics he'd read, but not something he'd seriously considered himself doing. Every day was a new challenge for survival. With that being the truth, Nikkari had taught him that as long as he kept the people of Kinshicho safe and content, he was doing a good job.

"Yes," Flynn said without hesitation. "At this point, you can still choose to keep out of it any further than this if you're not comfortable with that. Helping me will put you and your friends at risk, and I won't always be available to advise or help you. But I hope that I've found a way to escape the cycle of war that never benefits humanity. Even just trying to stand our ground and stay in place leads us to lose control of our lives so that the angels, demons, and gods can keep fighting over control of our souls. If you want to help me in fighting them, you'll have to remember who you truly are. And, who she is."

"You should already know," the girl said. "The answers lie in your soul, you just have to know how to listen to them."

"Who I am…" Nanashi said, wondering if it was better to not know and keep his home safe, or to know and be drawn into a struggle to keep the world safe.

The hero chosen by the Great Will, the wild card of this game is… is…

…is unknown to us.

* * *

They don't know who the Messiah is.

That lack of knowledge is absurd to us. But then, we have a stronger hold over his soul than they do. He sees little difference between their paths now. But us, he knows choosing us is more significant. Ever since he chose our path, he has to fight himself not to choose us again. As such, we will always know him.

This world is sick. That is an undeniable fact. It is beyond repair. What of it is worth saving? This cycle is never-ending, having gone on far too long to escape. It is time to have mercy and stop everyone from suffering.

If he would just accept us fully, without a single doubt, this would unquestionably be over.

We have shown him a great deal of evidence into the truth of matters. Why does he insist on continuing to suffer?

Perhaps it is time for us to think further outside the constructs of this game.

* * *

Who is the wild card?

It should be one of the six apprentice samurai, as we thought. All of the build-up was towards them; we should have been more suspicious when the names from Tokyo came to us. But, who could mix up the names of the key pieces? And why?

We can't know that at this point. We have to figure out who the wild card is. Otherwise, we won't know until they make a move that is unmistakable, one that we might not be able to counter or redirect quickly.

Very well. There is the girl.

* * *

"The fact of the matter is that you have to be either a woman or a samurai. You can't be both."

This parlor felt strangely constraining for how normal it looked. All the old furniture, all the cute knick-knacks, all the painted portraits on the walls… but no books, no pens, no way to contact what was outside the home. The delicate curtains fluttered, but they showed an outdoors scene that for some reason she couldn't reach. The door was open, but it merely led to other small enclosed rooms like this. When she had visited this place, Isabeau had thought it was lovely and warm. But this dream made it feel like a prison.

"Why can't I be both?" she asked. "I want to serve my kingdom, but I don't want to deny who I am. I've found out about a lot of female warriors like Jeane…"

"You can't believe in the fantasies that the demons invent to confuse us," the woman said. She had been chosen as a samurai. However, she'd elected to give up her gauntlet to get married. Isabeau suspected that she actually had this woman's former gauntlet.

"Well I've read many books that had women who weren't afraid to fight, like Anathema," she continued on.

"We can't trust the validity of this Literature either, it's too different," she said.

Isabeau tightened her lips; this was like she remembered it going. But, she also knew this was a dream. "I think you've been closed up in this house for too long," Isabeau retorted, something she wished she could have had the courage to say. "I've read plenty of things that suggest women can be great people and true to themselves as women, but it looks like you've not read anything at all. Maybe I'll have to be the first in Mikado to set an example, but I'm fine with that. I want both these things and I don't want give up on either of them."

"Well do you want children?" the woman asked, something she hadn't done in their meeting.

"Well, yes, I do," Isabeau said. It was something she'd taken for granted, that no matter what path her life took, she'd want to be a mother eventually.

"And that's why you can't be both," she said, like it was the final word on everything. "You can't be a good mother if you put your life at risk while your children still depend on you to be there, and especially not if you're putting your child's life at risk too. Besides, what kind of man would want to marry a woman who chooses to remain a samurai? Gaining muscles and scars is a good way to drive men away from you."

"Well I can think of one man who might accept me as both," Isabeau said.

Although, if he didn't accept her like that, she might end up having to choose one life over the other after all.

* * *

She might be the hero. She has choices to make which could shift the world.

But mostly Mikado.

That's a minor difference. However, it is unusual for a woman to be chosen. It's strange.

So what if it is? One would think you'd be fine with a woman leading the way to the future.

I am neither man nor woman, so it means nothing to me. I simply do not want to make any more mistakes. With nothing obvious about her, we should look on to one of the men.

* * *

This forest worried Issachar. It was pale and misty, completely still. While he knew he was dreaming, it felt like he'd been wandering around here for hours. But the paths began to look the same. There were no obvious markers to indicate any particular place, nothing to make a marker with. And the silence was unnerving. This should be a nightmare, but there was nothing fully frightening yet.

"There's really no point," someone said. It was himself as the White, sitting against a tree just ahead. "People drift in here and never find their way out. Don't wear yourself out. Just stop and accept that all things must end, so it should all end."

Issachar clenched a fist. Was it really not possible to defeat the White? "I can't just give up. Someone is counting on me; no matter how bad things get, good things are ahead. So I have to keep going. I'll find a way out of this place, just you watch."

"You're a naive fool," the White said. "When your eyes are opened, you will find out how utterly useless everything is."

"You're a jaded fool, not able to see the good in the world," Issachar replied, then moved on.

There had to be a way out of here.

* * *

That's promising; he could have the strong hope and courage that the heroes need. Especially as the White are already bothering him. They would be looking to claim the heroes as well.

If he is the one, at least he already knows to resist them. We can't risk losing them to the White, especially not the Messiah.

Well I think he's a strong candidate. He already seems to be aware of destiny's watch over him; it sounds like he was asked to be a hero.

He mentioned nothing of who is counting on him, just that someone is.

I know you want to be skeptical of these humans, but it will be one of them and he shows some signs of being a Messiah.

Not enough. We'll try another.

* * *

"I know it's got to be down here somewhere," Naverre said, hurrying along the aisles and looking through the racks of the storeroom. There were all kinds of things, all in their places, so then… "Ah-ha, knew it!" He grabbed a gold and silver staff out of a box. "Now I have authority over the sun and moon! Let's see them counter this!"

He then zoomed out of the storeroom, much faster than he should. But that was how the heroes of legend moved: swift and right for their objectives. Before long, he was at Aquila Plaza before a massive crowd of rabbits. A full rainbow of rabbits, actually, as no two rabbits had the same coloration. They were all chewing away at the buildings around them, not heeding that they were eating stone, wood, and brick.

"Hold it, every single one of you!" Naverre called, brandishing his sun-moon staff.

The horde of rainbow rabbits all stopped and stared at him in fright.

"That's right, I've got the means to end your toothy menace!" he continued, feeling powerful and heroic. "I will now banish you from the kingdom so that you never trouble us ever again!"

"W-wait, mister hero, just wait now!" One of the rabbits darted out in front of Naverre, one whose fur was a delicate pastel mix of blue, purple, and pink. "Ah, you have the sacred sun-moon staff! It has restored us to sanity and it can save our kingdom! Please, mister hero, I am a princess of the moon, cursed by a horrible tasteless demon to be mad and strangely colored in tacky ways."

"You're facing a crisis from a demon with no taste?" Naverre asked, his eyes widening in shock. Then he gripped the staff, knowing that he was a hero. "That cannot be allowed! Fear not, little princess, I will save your kingdom and return you all to your natural states!"

"All right, but just one thing," the rabbit princess said. "You need to be a rabbit to leap to the moon, so hah! You're now a rabbit!"

And just as he said, he was now a rabbit wielding the sun-moon staff. "I'll do whatever it takes, I promised you that," he said heroically.

And then Naverre jumped to the moon.

* * *

Huh.

…what was that we just saw?

Well I would say it's a child's dream, but he's no child. It's very strange.

And it told us nothing about his potential to be the Messiah. Although, I would doubt that. On this night of significant dreams, an important person would not be having a dream of utter nonsense.

Right.

Has he never seen a rabbit? That's not how they work.

…right, like that's important. He's probably someone to keep an eye on, but not a strong candidate like the other two.

I agree. Then, the last of the prentice samurai.

* * *

"Are you ever going to learn how to tie a hook?" Issachar teased him, getting the task done quickly.

"I don't fish as often as you do," he said, taking the pole back. "Thanks. I'd try, but I'm distracted today."

"How come?" he asked.

He would hesitate on anything like this if it came up, but this was a dream. It was very definitely a dream. "Because I'm with you," Flynn said.

"Hmm, were you wanting to come along for the fishing, or other things?" he asked. And suddenly the poles were well out of reach.

Which was fine, just as he wanted. "We should come back with something, but I just wanted to be with you, away from everyone else. Where no one else can see us."

"Right, so they can't judge us, or find out," Issachar said, then put an arm around him and kissed him. A warm haze overcame his mind… things were unclear but there was a new awareness of how much he could want this… how far could it go?

* * *

What was that?! That kind of behavior should have been weeded out of Mikado a long time ago! I erase knowledge of it whenever I can. Why does it keep cropping up?

Ah ha ha! That seemed so innocent but got dirty real fast. It's almost a pity that he didn't speak his lover's name. If I knew that, I would love to get in contact with them both.

Of course you would like it. Ugh, there is no way that he can be the Messiah. Not if he's like that.

Oh come on. Don't forget that he's chosen by the Great Will. There have been very atypical Messiahs before, in other worlds, but still with the traits and goal of the role. Although, that was like the last dream, no clues whatsoever on if he could or could not be the one.

I think it's very unlikely that he's it, the least of them all.

Even below the weird rabbit dream guy?

Much beneath him. Then the Messiah is most likely the woman Isabeau or the man Issachar. Either way, we made the mistake of coming down to Tokyo. We need to get back to Mikado and regain control of the situation.

I've been wondering, why is this happening? I don't recall the start of the war ever going so badly for both of our sides before.

It won't matter once things get back on track. Let's go; we don't need anything more from these dreamscapes.

All right, I'm coming.

* * *

"Hang on, please," Flynn said, trying to clear his mind. It was very difficult to do in a dream.

"Why?" the image of Issachar said, flickering briefly as he spoke for a part of Flynn's mind. But he did let go. "Well, all right."

"Of course your will would be formidable," someone said from nearby.

Him… well, he had to get in contact sooner or later. This was an invasive way to do so, one that made him uncomfortable. "What are you doing here, Krishna?" Flynn asked, sitting up and looking over at him.

"I wanted to see what they would know from this," he said. Thankfully, he didn't seem to have his flute around. Krishna smiled at him. "It was a clever attempt to fake them out. Just, one little problem in that you don't know enough to make it believable for long. I could let you know so you could please your love…"

"No, you stay out of that," Flynn said firmly.

He shrugged. "Fine, but feel free to ask me for advice if you change your mind. Your act seems to have masterfully driven them away from suspecting you, for now."

"It did work, but what are you doing in this dream?" Flynn asked. "You weren't invited."

"No, but I knew forcing these dreams would be their next move. I pulled a little ruse myself, telling your distractions that I was responsible for the shift of power everyone felt." He tipped his hat. "As you can see, I intend to be on your side now."

That was good, although he had to be skeptical. Krishna might know enough to keep his role as a force to be reckoned with. "Well can you contact me through the gauntlet so we can make sure our ideas line up? The dreams aren't a reliable method."

"I'll give it a try, but it'll be tricky until you come down into Tokyo," Krishna said. "In that case, I'll leave your uncertain dreams to you." He chuckled, then vanished from the dreamscape.

Flynn closed his eyes, waiting a moment to make certain that he was leaving. "I really did not want to see you in my mind again, Krishna."

Then the dream image of Issachar came back to his side. "He is gone, and we don't have to hold back in dreams. This is not time that can be wasted, it's a dream where normal things don't matter. And you mean everything to me."

"I should be careful of letting myself desire too much too soon, when they will be back in Mikado soon," Flynn said. "But this dream is no longer being watched…"

"You could forget that, be with me," the image said, from parts of his mind that he hadn't paid much attention to before.

"No, that was…" terrifying, since Krishna was trying to take back control again.


	29. Good News is Bad News

**Chapter 29: Good News is Bad News**

Walter found himself with a little extra time that morning. Their group was getting together for breakfast before taking care of their usual duties and he'd woken up earlier than he meant to. Since he was otherwise prepared for the day, he picked up one of the books he was currently studying. He'd moved on to studying the Mikado Book of Prayer, but in trading books of Literature around, he'd managed to find two more on the same subject: A Book of Prayer for Mesians and On the Importance of Prayer. It had seemed like a good idea to try studying them all in tandem.

However, On the Importance of Prayer was far more interesting than the other two. The two Book of Prayer books were lists of standard prayers with little explanation of why they were the way they were. And, the listed prayers were almost identical, just with a few specifics changed from things that had been forgotten about in Mikado (except for Burroughs, she strangely knew a lot about the background information in Literature). What Walter had heard about of Mikado's history was just that the world had been thoroughly corrupt and the founders of Mikado had been blessed with God's wisdom and knowledge. But they still copied these prayers?

The book about prayer was exactly the kind of thing he'd been looking for, though. The author got more philosophical than Walter was used to, but they explained the whys and hows, even with some supposed historical and personal examples. While the standard listed prayers were stated to be the framework for order and security in a community, the author felt like it was more important for people to understand their own needs in prayer. That kind of prayer was a refuge to the person praying, a time they could reflect on where their life was going. For life, as the author wrote, was hectic and busy, bound to throw surprises at you when you were least prepared. But you'd have to respond right then and find time later to sort out what just happened.

"Well most of us don't have higher guidance directly in life," Walter said to himself as he read over that. "And the rest might just be bluffing to keep a strong position over the rest of us, hmph." Then there was a knock on his door. "Hang on a moment," he called, putting a bookmark in place before going over to open it.

It was Isabeau, also prepared for the day. "Good morning, Walter," she said, smiling at him. She had warmed up to him, although she wouldn't hesitate to get stern if he was doing something idiotic.

He smiled back, glad that it was her who dropped by. "Hoy, good morning Isabeau. Am I late to breakfast? I was doing some reading."

"No, I just wanted to catch you before you headed out," she said. She bit her lip, then asked, "I would like to speak privately with you; may I come in?"

At this time of morning? "Ah," he rubbed his head, caught off guard by the request. It sounded like one of those courtship formalities. But while they'd gone on several dates over the winter, they hadn't moved to the stage of exclusive courting. There was some social rule to not be alone in private quarters like the dorms right now. But then, she did seem serious about wanting to talk; whatever it was troubled her. "Sure, just for a bit until we join the others," he said, figuring that no one could call him out on it if it was a limited time.

"Thank you," she said, coming into the room and waiting on him to close the door. "I'm sorry if this is sudden, but I had a strange dream last night and it made me realize something that's very important to me."

For a moment, he thought about saying that he'd had his own weird dream, about a dragon and some girl who really kicked ass. Something about her reminded him of his younger sisters even if she was clearly different from them. Maybe later. "Oh yeah? Go ahead and sit down, it's fine."

"Sure," she said, taking a seat on the couch he had. "I've been trying to figure out my place as a female samurai. There aren't any others on active duty, only a few who retired to get married. So of course, they all tell me that if I want to be married, I have to give up being a samurai. In their minds, if I want to be a samurai, I'd have to give up on being married entirely."

Walter went ahead and sat next to her, even though the normal custom was to take separate chairs. It seemed more right, and she didn't object. "That seems like a weak reasoning," he said.

"I'm sure there's other reasons behind it, but they all treated it as if those reasons should be obvious and unquestionable," Isabeau said. "Which it is even if I'm not happy with it. I don't know how it was where you're from, but even in the monastery, girls are taught to keep a clean and healthy appearance, as pretty as you can be without straying into vain arts of cosmetic enhancements. And I know some Luxuror girls outside the monastery who were pushed by their parents to constantly keep a beautiful appearance to get married quickly. Being a samurai doesn't help with that. I even had a guy refuse me by saying that I was bound to become indistinguishable from a man in a couple of years."

"A jerk like that shouldn't be listened to if looks are all he cares about," he said, offended for her. If he'd overheard that, he would have given that guy a piece of his mind.

"Right, and I did warn a couple of my friends away from him," she said. "But even if they don't say it, I know other men have to be thinking something like that. Others that I've been talking to have all been quick to ask if I mean to quit, or they just assumed that I would." She glanced at him, then smiled at some thought. "You took a lot of getting used to, but at least you've never brought that up."

"Well why would I?" he asked. "You work as hard as the rest of us and you want to be here, so I see no reason to stop you."

Isabeau rubbed one of her arms. "That's nice, although I'm already getting away from the delicate feminine beauty people expect around here."

"Some of those delicate beauties seem sickly to me, since I'm used to women who do manual labor alongside men," Walter said. "Heck, one of the more popular girls back in my village was one who belonged to a family of lumberjacks that delivered wood around to villages without many trees like ours. She was out chopping trees with the rest of them and wrangling the bulls to pull the wagons, but she was quite a beauty too."

"It would be nice if the Luxurors considered that there's more than one way to be beautiful," she said. "But that's just one of the problems. I, um," she hesitated, clutching her arm trying to work up the courage to say something. Then she looked at him. "I apologize for bringing this up so soon, but the fact of the matter is, I don't want to give up being a samurai, but I also don't want to give up on things like being a mother. I would love to have a family of my own and raise my children while protecting them and our kingdom as a samurai. But my duties would keep me out of the house regularly, and even as we grow more skilled, it will always be dangerous to be fighting demons."

There was a part of him that was immediately uncomfortable with this. Raising a family wasn't something he'd thought about at all, even though that was the assumption that always was there. You'd get married, and you'd have children, and life would go on. Besides, she wanted to keep serving as a samurai while she had kids? Women and girls had to be protected from more dangerous things, especially the mothers with young children. Then again, it was brave of her to want to pursue both paths.

Now that she'd started, she looked committed to finishing. "And I wouldn't want to be like some ladies I've seen, who immediately give up their work once they get pregnant and stay out of it for years until they're sure they don't want any more children. I want to be able to serve as long as I'm capable of it. Besides, unless we're on street patrol, our daily work is often just a few hours a day, with occasional trips out of the city to handle disputes in the villages. I should be perfectly capable of maintaining my duties as a mother and a samurai at the same time."

"Isn't that rather dangerous?" Walter asked, worried about her. "I mean, I know women can be strong, and I've seen mothers who kept up their daily tasks around our village right up until their child was born, and then be back at it a week or so later. But, we battle demons who can have the magic to curse and harm us. That would be a terrible risk, to you and your child."

"Well I know I would stick to the top levels of Naraku and not go anywhere near that poisonous sludge on level three," she said. "But I do have a healer's training and I was called to this life. I want to be an example for other women who might get chosen, that they don't have to sacrifice one duty for another. Would you be okay with me doing that?"

This, it was exactly what he'd just been reading about. It wasn't a simple issue and it was important enough to Isabeau that she wanted an answer straight away about it. "Uh, well I never gave this kind of thing any thought before," he admitted. But then, the answer came to him. It was very much like the women he'd known in South Ooida. He hadn't realized it as a kid, but demons were a risk at least on sea level. "But look, I'll make a deal with you over it."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Walter put a hand on her shoulder. "Well first, I think you're an incredible woman for wanting to do this, especially if no other lady has tried taking on the duties of a mother and a samurai at once. That takes a lot of guts and a strong will, which you certainly have."

"Thank you," she said sincerely, looking relieved that he was taking it that way. "I would be unhappy if I had to give up either of the things I want."

"I figured, so I'm proud to stand by you on that," he said. "But I don't like the idea of you being too risky with it either. So while I promise to support you on that, you've got to promise to me that when you do start having children, you're not going to go into Naraku alone, ever. You should always have someone with you when you go in there for the protection of you and your child. Hopefully, I'd be able to always stick with you at that time and make sure you're safe. I know you're a very capable fighter and I trust you a lot whenever we partner up in there now. But demons can do terrible things to a person, like Naverre was out for months because of Alarune and Alice, and even Flynn's had to take this week off because a demon managed to disturb him. You let me and the others protect you when you need it, and I'll help convince them to let you keep serving as long as you feel capable of it."

"All right, I can promise you that," Isabeau said, leaning over to put her arm around him. "And I feel a lot better for that; I'm glad I could count on you, even though I'd be shocked to hear myself say that a few months ago."

"Hey, I'm not that unreliable," he protested, but then laughed when she did. "If we're talking a few months back, I would've been shocked that I'd find such a special sweet lady behind that iron masked girl I met."

She laughed even harder at that. "A few months does change a lot," she agreed. "Well then, Mr unreliable roughneck, how about we get married?"

And she had him surprised again, gaping briefly. "Huh? Uh, aren't we supposed to go through a lot more hoopla to be asking questions like that?"

Isabeau put her head on his shoulder. "Yeah, but I don't care about that now. I mean, what's the point when we have a promise like that between us? The rest of it is formality and getting to know each other. But if you feel that strongly about me already, and I know I can trust your word on this, it all seems useless now."

"That's a good point," Walter said, hugging her a little tighter. "Sure, then there'll be nothing to get between me protecting you and making sure you can shine like you're meant to."

* * *

There was a detailed plan for the next series of moves, with many back-ups and arguments in the certain case that things would go awry. He was dealing with events that involved over a million people all across Mikado; it would affect everyone's lives. In the time of anarchy that was to come, people could die. There was nothing he could do about that other than to do his best to complete his solution as fast as he could.

Of course, that required Issachar's cooperation and awareness. Flynn was sure he could trust him, but there was so much to do in such a short period of time, and it was going to hurt Issachar in some form. And there was that mental health check he had to pass tonight or else things would start going wrong out of his control because he'd still be on restricted duty. So many ways this could go wrong or right, and he was manipulating so many people without them realizing it…

So why bother? Playing on the level of the gods wasn't something that a human should be doing. And he was barely in good enough shape to have ambitions on a human level. Why bother with all this mess that he might only be making worse?

Flynn stopped in brushing his hair and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked tired even though he'd slept through the night. But, it hadn't been restful sleep when he'd had to be alert and capable of rational thought within dreams. Could he just run off with Issachar, away from Mikado and Tokyo, to not care about any of this?

Unfortunately, he knew the answer to that was no. He'd confused Gabriel and Lilith as he intended, but even if he ran away right now, they would eventually find him and hold him accountable for what he'd already done. Or they'd just drag him back into everything, which was likely to grow worse if he wasn't around to counter moves made against humanity. But he was clearly not in the best shape to be dealing with what he had to do. There was so much to keep in mind.

"I am making things better," he said to himself. "I have to do this, for her and the people I care about… and everyone else. This has to be done." Flynn sighed and started brushing his hair again. "The White know what they're doing; they timed this all too well, trying to break me right as I need to be vigilant. And Issachar… I'm afraid you'll be left with a broken mess of me at the end of this all. But, I can trust myself with you."

He closed his eyes and his mind nearly drifted back to the last parts of the dream he could think of clearly. But he cut that off quickly. That was a distraction that he did not want to deal with on top of everything else, and it had been the result of an intrusion as well. Several intrusions, since even though he was prepared for the observers of the dreams, they had not been invited to do so. Flynn had taught himself to recognize the signs of supernatural beings observing his mind as a necessary precaution. But they were treading somewhere they shouldn't be, even though they thought little was wrong in them doing so. Even here in his room closed off from the outside, he was still vulnerable to these beings picking apart his thoughts because he was useful or dangerous to them (or both).

Even here and now… he felt nothing, but he couldn't be sure his self-taught method was foolproof…

Flynn immediately stopped what he was doing again and went to pick up the lotus Issachar had given him. That was bad. If the master samurai realized just how unstable he was, how far apart from normalcy, they would want him locked up as being suspected of demonic possession. Even as they tried to keep knowledge of demons hidden, the monastery knew and they were quick to denounce irregularities as the result of demonic influences. That was true for himself, at the root of it, but he needed to be trusted to go down through Naraku to Tokyo very soon.

Not long after he sat back down to look over the lotus, his mind slowed down from its frantic pace. Issachar might have a good point in why the lotus still soothed him. But it was more than just the reminder of what was important in all this. There was something to the lay of the petals, the reminder of the real thing. Maybe it was something Vishnu knew or believed, but Flynn couldn't comprehend it as just himself. It reminded him of the early cycles of this life, realizing that the world was much larger and more troubled than he'd once believed. But still, he had known with certainty that there was goodness in the world and its peoples. That needed to be nurtured and protected.

When had he started to lose faith in that? Maybe it was after so long of being tortured in the name of Krishna's warped vision; maybe it was after realizing how much he was sacrificing personally for the sake of people he didn't even know the names of. Flynn was sure those people were important too, precious to each other like his fellow prentices had become precious to him. Even now, what was he going to gain from all his efforts? His friends would live, but he himself was walking on thin ice and might just break through once he managed to accomplish what he was after. He felt some comfort in seeing their lives develop unhindered, but that was comfort for so much pain that he had crumbled from it all in several times so far.

The lotus seemed to promise him that even he would find a deep and lasting happiness when the duty that he'd accepted was fulfilled. Remember? When you were a child, being out in nature was all the serenity and fulfillment you could need or want. Someday, you'll feel like that again.

Someday… that dream (a promise?) became a shield from his more painful thoughts and let him feel still and untouched, like this lotus.

Then a hand gently shook his shoulder. "Hoy, Flynn, we'll be late for breakfast," Issachar said. "I've got your gauntlet here; you were out of potions, surprisingly, so I gave you a couple of mine. I know that you're on street patrol today, but you might have to help somebody out still."

"Oh, thank you," he said, coming out of the trance and looking for his brush. Wait a moment… his hair was already pulled back, like he always had it. Issachar must have done that since he was sure he hadn't gotten that far.

"You going to be okay for the test later today?" he asked in concern. "Actually, I don't want you to cheat your way through it even if you probably could, because that'll only end up hurting you. But I know you've got plans that need you to stay on active-duty."

Flynn put his gauntlet on so he could double-check his inventory. "There's no time," he said. "I have to pass it tonight. The demon and angel who have been toying with us are coming back to Mikado now. That means that people will start to turn into demons soon."

"Oh, I thought you were able to buy more time than this," Issachar said, nervous but trying not to show it. His fingers clenched up and his face paled a little.

"We got enough time, I hope," Flynn said. "It couldn't be helped. But, there's a lot I need you to know now, and they won't be able to make it back today. So we need to have a long talk about this."

"All right, how long are you supposed to be out on patrol?" he asked.

"For the morning at least," he said, fairly certain he could get away with only working five hours up to noon as long as breakfast didn't take long. Some thoughts came into Flynn's mind that he was uncertain of. But, there wouldn't be a chance for this again for a long time. "And I'll probably have something to do constantly when things get going. I feel bad about possibly having to ignore you for times when I need to negotiate with people who don't realize they're working towards their destruction, and those whose goals will make things worse for everyone."

"It's fine, I've already said that dozens of times," Issachar said, smiling sadly at him. He was already suffering for this. But then, the alternatives were much worse.

"I still feel bad about it, so I'll let you have me to yourself this afternoon," Flynn said. "We could get lunch somewhere different, then go to Lake Mikado for a few hours. It won't be as long of a trek as it was from Kiccigiorgi."

"Sure, that sounds great to me," he said. It'd make him happy for a little bit, at least.

After making sure he was ready, Flynn left with Issachar to the common area. They weren't the last ones there, actually. Isabeau and Walter came in together as well not long after. "What are you two doing together so early?" Naverre asked, looking like he'd make fun of them if given a chance.

Isabeau shook her head. "Naverre, I know you saw me going to talk to him. Don't try to be ridiculous."

Jonathan laughed at that, especially when Naverre pouted. "Nice way to stop that nonsense."

"We were just talking," Isabeau said. "And now we're engaged so you can't complain."

"Whaaat, really, you two?" Naverre asked, acting far more shocked than he needed to be.

"That's great," Flynn said, feeling glad they'd decided get married. Every reason they had for living was better.

"Yeah, it just worked out right to go ahead," Walter said, happy for whatever had clinched it. "You doing all right this morning, Flynn? You look tired."

"I've been better," he admitted. "But I'm feeling calmer than I have been. I'm sure I'll be better once I can sleep through the night."

"It was some unlucky timing with the fiend battle so close to when you were sick," Isabeau said.

"I could help you get some tea that would help you sleep," Naverre suggested. "My mother uses it frequently when the other residents of the castle are being difficult or quarrelsome."

"For herself or for them?" Walter asked with a smirk.

"It can be both, right?" Naverre said with a shrug.

"Thanks Naverre, it wouldn't hurt to try," Flynn said. He knew that his family and a few others back home used one of the wild herbs in the fields for that purpose at times.

"The tea shop always keeps a good stock of their blend, so it's simple enough to acquire," he said.

"Actually, I had some news too," Jonathan said, an eager glint in his eyes. It had him about as happy as Walter and Isabeau right now. "Marie's going to have a baby, we're not sure when but probably early fall."

"That's awesome, congratulations," Walter said, clapping his back in a friendly manner. Jonathan beamed at that.

"Yes, that's wonderful news," Isabeau said, smiling. It seems the others were happy for the three of them too, the two getting married and the one becoming a father.

But… that last one bothered Flynn. It had been a possibility given how strongly Jonathan and Marie were in love. However, the demon plague could begin as soon as tomorrow. Flynn wanted to solve that quickly to keep the danger as short as possible. That would probably lead them down to Tokyo; he felt it was a strong potential but there was some margin of error. If they went down to Tokyo now… a few hours could lead to Jonathan's child being born while he was away with unstable means of communication back to Mikado. Kinshicho's entrance was hidden behind a park, Ueno's was obvious from the main streets but further away, and he had no idea what Akihabara would be like. It'd be all too easy to spend those hours going from Sky Terminal to whichever terminal he managed to reach. And then he'd have to find an excuse to get them all to check back in with him, or at the very least Jonathan.

Sure, having a child very nearly guaranteed that Jonathan would not choose to sacrifice himself, but realizing the time difference could be a very hurtful shock to him.

And it would be all his fault for playing with their lives in this game, even if he was doing it to save them.

* * *

There were a number of things to do to about getting married. They did need to find a way to get a house. Usually, prentice samurai stayed in the dorms for the first year. Jonathan had already left due to getting married since his wife wasn't a samurai and he already had a place in his family manor. While both Isabeau and Walter were samurai, these little apartments weren't ideal for a couple. But they couldn't count on her family since they were a part of the monastery. Unless one of the two of them quit to join the monastery, that was out.

There was time for figuring that out, as the more immediate issue was that she hadn't introduced Walter to her parents. They hadn't been serious about a relationship yet, so there hadn't been a point to it. Now Isabeau was worried about it. The monastery had expressed their dislike of the Casualry protests, being the main hold out on the issue. She didn't know what her parents thought about that personally, or what they would think of Walter being Casualry born. This could become a problem.

Since there had been a lot of the process they'd skipped, Isabeau arranged for her parents to meet with them over lunch, then spend the afternoon talking with them over marriage interviews. Normally, they would have to do the same with his parents. But since they were in a distant village, that would probably end up being skipped.

Surprisingly, they agreed to meet up at a restaurant in the city. "The kitchen has been making terrible meals all winter and then they forced us to make the meals ourselves," her mother explained. "Nobody is sure why they're complaining now; the terms have been the same for generations."

"Though they do have a point in that we took their work for granted," her father said. "It takes a lot more than I thought to make sure every room is clean and every meal is made every day."

"Right, so we've agreed that we could give them more respect and free up their allowances. That may lead them to be less callous about their spiritual studies."

Isabeau felt like they were missing the point, but it was a step in the right direction. "That's good, they would prefer to be respected and treated fairly," she said. "How does the rest of the monastery stand on the issue of their protests?"

Her father sighed softly. "It's divided us far more than any other issue in anyone's memory. It feels like most of us are in favor of accepting the Casualry workers' demands. However, the ones who have the power and authority to decide on matters like this are all firmly against it."

"Are they the ones who are skipping out on picking up the slack left behind?" Walter asked.

"That's right," her father said. "They all claim that such menial tasks are beneath them."

"Hugo's been particularly obnoxious about it," her mother said, briefly looking frustrated. "He says such petty matters ought not to be of his concern when he has to tend to the spiritual health of our nation; both he and his wife are taking that position. But when those so-called petty matters are not attended to, they're some of the loudest complainers."

Her father nodded. "Some of us have tried telling them that it's difficult to tend to spiritual matters when the physical matters are troubling. Hugo has said that as the abbot, he is beyond such limitations. But if you ask him to prove his words, he gets furious. Just yesterday, he started ranting at me that I had no faith and little moral fiber just because I too asked him to back up his claims with a long demonstrations of devotions and self-denial."

"That's absurd," Isabeau said.

"You know how Hugo is," her mother said. "One has to be clever to get him to do something he hasn't first thought of. He hardly acknowledges anyone else aside from his wife and Sister Gabby, and the latter is still off on sabbatical with no word on when she'll be back. Although if Gabby was back, whichever side she takes will likely become official. She seems quiet, but she has a force of personality that's something to admire, or fear."

"Then why isn't she leading the monastery?" Walter asked.

"No one's sure of the answer to that," Isabeau said. "Although she seems involved at least partly in anything the monastery does."

"That's true," her father said. "Things always seem noisier and more chaotic when she's not around. Some people have been saying for a while now that if she'd been around, this wouldn't have happened at all."

They seemed to be getting along, so at the next lull in conversation over lunch, Isabeau brought up their reason for meeting today. "Walter and I have decided to get married recently, so we came to discuss with you both about it."

"This seems sudden," her mother said.

"A bit, but a couple of our conversations lately have made it certain that it's what we both want," Isabeau said. As she was sure they'd bring it up, she added, "And I don't mean to retire by getting married. I'm going to keep serving as a samurai too."

"Are you really?" she asked, more worried about that.

"Hoy, it'll be fine," Walter said. "She's thought about this carefully and decided that she'd be unhappy giving up either marriage or being a samurai, and I'm proud to support her in that."

They didn't seem sure about her not retiring, but by the end of lunch, they seemed to like Walter at least.

 _A/N: 'On The Importance of Prayer' wasn't taken from a specific book, although I'm sure I've read something like that at some point. But I needed little things here and there to help nudge Walter more into a Law position. In most cases, it's not that hard to swap a Law hero to Chaos in this setting even if they don't entirely shake their lawful traits. But moving someone from Chaos to Law is tougher to do believably; Walter is particularly tricky because he has a trait of spite, which isn't as easy to reinterpret as something like goodwill._


	30. Explaining Things You Barely Understand

**Chapter 30: Explaining Things You Barely Understand**

The homes for the monks and nuns of the monastery were mostly contained within the tall tower that stood right next to the northeastern part of the outermost walls. They were smaller than the grand manors like where Jonathan's family lived, but the apartment Isabeau's family was in was larger than the samurai dorms, and the small crowded houses that Walter had grown up with. Although, there didn't seem to be many children around. They'd passed by a classroom of ten to fourteen year old boys on their way down, so they might just be at studies in the afternoon. No wonder the priests knew so much, if they spent most of their childhood just studying.

Isabeau's mother had asked to be excused if their home was untidy as they hadn't been expecting a guest over. But it seemed perfectly fine and tidy to Walter. In fact, everything seemed austere. It wasn't roughly made, worn, and simplistic like anything his family owned. But it wasn't as polished, plush, and ornate as what he saw out of other Luxuror residences. All the furnishings were plain, practical, and not distracting. A small bookshelf had some books, study workbooks, and journals in it. Other than some sewing samplers on the walls, there wasn't anything decorative here.

Since there were a lot of formalities to go through, Isabeau and her mother went off to find some of the other older women around the monastery to talk with them, while Walter stayed with her father Matthew to discuss matters with him. Revealing where he was from quickly brought up the issue of the priest in his old hometown. "Well he always looked down on us and spoke as if the slightest transgression would get you a punishment in hell," Walter explained about him. "I heard that when he first arrived, a few people tried to get favored by him to have a higher standing in the village. But he wouldn't make friends with anyone and stayed shut up in the church. At church gatherings, he'd be quick to ignore any town gossip or talk about our work."

"That is a grave failing in a village priest," Matthew said sympathetically. "Although I have to say, no one likes him around here either, for much the same reasons. And since he's failed as a village priest, our rules state that we can't assign him to another village posting. People have tried to find excuses to keep him out of everyone's business."

"I don't blame you for that," Walter said, having thought about a few things. He was supposed to impress Matthew as his future father-in-law. But, he'd always said things just as he thought of them. Why cover up who you were just for the sake of being polite? It had gotten him in trouble with others many a time, but it was something that seemed ingrained in himself. "But because of him, I'm afraid I'm just now learning about the teachings of religion and the church. I don't know a lot of it, but I'm trying to understand it."

Matthew nodded; he had the same prim and serious attitude that Isabeau often displayed. "It's fine. A full study of the scriptures takes around fifty years, including the school education that all of our children go through."

"Are you serious?" Walter asked, wide-eyed in amazement. "Wow, I hadn't realize there was so much of it."

"And that's if you follow the prescribed path of study in all that time, not missing a day," Matthew said. "Oftentimes it takes to one's mid-fifties or close to sixty to complete it, at least among those of us in the monastery."

"I don't even know many people who've lived that long," he said.

"We do tend to be blessed with longer lives here, but there aren't many who complete the whole study," he said. "While we greatly honor those who do, it's a difficult and life-long journey that shouldn't be rushed, so one can have full understanding. Laura has completed the core studies and stopped there, but I'm working on the full study still." He reached out to the bookshelf, touching one of the books. "Where are you in your studies?"

As he'd already spotted the Mikado Book of Prayer, Walter pulled it out. "I'm working on this one now, since I finished Foundations. But I don't find it as interesting."

"What about it do you find less compelling?" Matthew asked, taking it calmly so far.

"Well it's just standard set of prayers, which doesn't feel helpful," he said. "I mean, it's the same prayer for potentially many situations, so it doesn't feel personal at all. We used to have a silly game we'd play as kids where we picked a random word, like sheep, and used it for everything in conversation. After a while, the word felt like it didn't mean anything at all, not even for what it originally meant. I was writing in my work journal just last night that the standard prayers might eventually feel like that, without any meaning to what they'd once had."

"That's a different way than I've heard it explained," he said, thinking it over. "Prayer is important for us in the monastery. We pray to God every day so that the seals that keep the demons within Naraku remain strong, for one example. After a while, it can feel tiring to be repeating the same prayers every day. Usually that is said to be a sign to change your prayer duties. I hadn't thought of it as the prayers losing meaning after being repeated so often."

"Well it's also repeating such things without thinking about their meanings," Walter said. "Have you heard much about Literature?"

Matthew nodded. "It's such a highly debated topic that a few of us got copies of those books to see what all the fuss was about. We had a really good one come to us, The Pilgrim's Progress, and a really bad one that I don't want to mention the name of. But most of them we got were curiosities that were neither good nor bad."

"I picked up a couple pieces of Literature that you might find interesting," he said. "I don't have them right now, but I can lend them to you later. One is called a Mesian Book of Prayer and it shares a lot of the same prayers our Book of Prayer has."

"But Literature isn't of Mikado?" Matthew asked. "I have seen mention of the ancient group called the Church of the Messiah, which is often shortened to the Mesian Church. Would Literature be of the lost world before Mikado came into being?"

"Some of it suggests that it's the case," he said. "But the other one I have talks about prayers rather than listing prayers like the other two. It talks about the personal importance of prayer rather than the general usage of it."

"Really? Some personal memoirs talk about such things, but they're not part of the canonical scriptural study."

They ended up talking a lot more about scripture study and prayers than following the engagement scripts, but Walter felt he'd much rather be friends with Matthew now than if they had stuck to the script.

* * *

Over lunch, it had felt like Issachar had done most of the talking. But that was fine. Whatever Flynn wanted to talk about would make others suspicious of them, surely. And while he said he wanted to do this for Issachar's sake, Issachar wanted to make Flynn happy with this date. He needed it for the strength to keep doing what he was doing, especially given what had happened with David.

"Oh yeah, I picked up a piece of Literature that was about the god Vishnu and one time he lived as a human," Issachar said.

"As Krishna?" Flynn asked, tense at that.

He shook his head. "No, as a prince named Rama. It was called The Ramayana, although apparently it wasn't the original Ramayana. See, it started as a epic poem which the introduction said could take days to recite, but the book I got was a prose version that was much shorter. Actually, Vishnu and Rama did remind me of you at times."

Flynn smiled at that; he didn't seem as concerned about that as he was over the Krishna incarnation.

As he hadn't asked to see the book, Issachar tried to get him interested. "It was a really exciting story, a lot more fun than the stories we got told as kids."

"So more like your stuff?" Flynn asked.

"No, better than that because I was limited by all the things we were kept ignorant of," he said. "It starts with a demon called Revana who rose to power by doing favors for various gods and asking for blessings of protection in exchange. Like, he'd ask one god to protect him against godly fire, and another to protect him against godly lightning. Eventually, he gathered so many boons and blessings that he was invincible against anything the gods could do to him, which he used to kick them all out of power and humiliate them."

"That sounds familiar," Flynn said.

"Have you read The Ramayana before?" Issachar asked.

Shaking his head, he said, "I don't think so. Anyhow, I did know a demon who was resistant to almost anything, and reflected or absorbed what else there was. He was a rough one to take down, and a part of my team that I couldn't entirely trust."

"That does sound incredible when every demon I've run into seems weak to something," Issachar said. "Even David had a weakness. But anyhow, about Vishnu, he was one of the three most powerful gods of that land, along with Brahma and Shiva. The lower gods who had their power stolen came up to him all upset and distraught, begging him to do something.

"In contrast to them, Vishnu was very calm about the whole thing and told them that he'd been thinking everything over. Revana had gotten protection from everything that the gods could do to him, but he'd never asked for protection from what humans could do to him. The demon had figured that humans could never be a threat to him. But because he had no such protection, Vishnu decided that he would be reborn as the human Rama in order to defeat Revana, and he was perfectly confidant that he could do so."

"Most of the gods I've met would be appalled at the idea of living a human life," Flynn said.

"I wouldn't think they'd understand us very well if they feel that way," Issachar said, then smiled at remembering the story. "Oh, but Vishnu did tell the other gods that they could help him get revenge on Revana. In order to do so, however, they'd have to agree to being reborn as a tribe of intelligent monkeys."

That made him laugh. "They might find that worse. Did they agree to that?"

"Yeah, they were desperate to get their power and authority as gods back," he said. "It's actually a small book and shouldn't take you long to read if you want to borrow it."

"I don't know if I'll get the time for that," Flynn said, although he seemed reluctant to say that. "Maybe in short pieces. It'd be interesting at least to see who Vishnu was within the culture he belonged to."

Speaking quieter in hopes that others wouldn't overhear, Issachar said, "Well if the flower significant to Vishnu is significant to you even though you haven't seen it outside of the one he has and the silk versions, maybe you should know more about him."

"That's true," he admitted, and soon after agreed to trade one of his books over in exchange for The Ramayana. He was even willing to give over the first book he'd gotten, which so far he hadn't shared with anyone else.

After lunch, they headed out to Lake Mikado. "You know, I forgot that I don't have any fishing equipment now," Issachar said as they got out of the city. "Couldn't even make due with found things for a makeshift pole, since the lake's bound to be iced over."

"Sorry, it was somewhere I wanted to go," Flynn said.

"That's fine, don't worry about it," Issachar said. They needed somewhere to talk where they would definitely not be disrupted.

While Flynn took a while to start talking, he got right to the point. "I had a significant dream last night, which was what told me that Gabriel and Lilith were coming back here. Whenever I throw them off, they try forcing their plans to work rather than making new ones. So very soon, people will be turning into demons, including you."

"How many people are we talking about, turning into demons?" he asked.

He shrugged. "The initial wave is mostly those who were attending the Sabbaths, but not all of them. It can eventually spread to nearly everyone in Mikado. In the first wave, they'll turn into more intelligent demons. In the stronger wave, they'll turn into mindless and violent zombies. I hope to never see the latter wave in this time. However, we will need the first wave to happen to prevent that."

"What do you mean to do for that?" Issachar asked. He didn't like the idea of turning into a demon, but he wanted to help.

He fiddled with his gauntlet, pulling out a bracelet with a charm on it. "First, here, you'll need this. It will delay your transformation if you wear it, but if you take it off, you'll lose that protection immediately. I'd like you to delay the transformation once you sense it coming since you always turn in the first wave and that's what I'm counting on."

"Okay," he said, taking the charm. "So I wear this, or put it on when I see some sign?"

"You should wear it all the time since you'll be able to feel the transformation coming," Flynn said. "You've told me that it's a sudden burst of emotions, rage or despair, that leaves your thoughts feeling like they're burning. Send me a message once you feel that way. And since you tend to be one of the first even with that charm on, that message will let me know when to get into action."

Issachar thought immediately it was like something he had read, a canary kept in a mineshaft as a warning of lethal air. Then he recalled that the canary died as its warning, so he knew it was better to not mention it. "I see."

"I'm sorry about this," Flynn said. "I tried to find some way I could keep you from turning at all. That charm is poor protection since it's easily undone if you take it off. But in the end, the charm only saves you. If we let this happen to you, we have the means to recover those who get turned along with preventing any more transformations. But are you okay with doing this?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Issachar said. "Especially if it does help everybody else."

"There is more to the plan that could be bad for you," he said. "There was something I discovered by accident with an ability that Trojan taught me. I can enter the dreams of a person with that person even if they are awake. If I enter the dreams of someone of Mikado turned into a demon, I can access a particular point in the Expanse easier. So I'm having you turn so we can get there to turn the tide."

"How does that work?" Issachar asked, thinking that it sounded like something out of a fairy tale.

Flynn scratched his head. "See… the thing is, I know it works because I've tested it a few times. But explaining it's a different matter. It has to do with one of those fields of science, biology."

"I haven't seen anything on that, but I've heard what it's about," he said.

Trying to explain it, he waved his hand in a circle. "It's… there's these things called genes and DNA that act like a blueprint to everything about your body and how it works. The actual cause of the transformation is a D-gene, a demonic gene, that was written into the blueprints of our ancestors in a way that it passes from parent to child. I have some mutated version that makes me immune to that type of transformation, but you have a stronger version."

"Where did you find out about this?" Maybe he could read it to see if he could understand it.

"A journal in the monastery storage," he answered. "It could be hard to get to now, but I'm sure of its general location since nobody else would have any interest in it."

"So what is the Expanse and what's it got to do with this?" he asked.

"Well genes are something that science once let us know about," Flynn said. "It's not the same way with the Expanse. If you imagine it as…" he gestured ahead to the winter-bound countryside they were walking through, "a land like this, but as the place where all the dreams and thoughts of humanity takes place. That's the Expanse."

"But if this D-gene is something implanted into our bodies, what would something affecting it be doing in the place where our minds think and dream?" Issachar asked. He could imagine the Expanse more clearly, but didn't see the connection to the transformations.

"That's something like how Commander Hope can affect our gauntlets even though we can't affect his in return," he said. "The ones who implanted the D-gene in our ancestors put in a control dial in the Expanse thinking that they would be the only ones to know of its location. Actually, that is a sound plan. I had read about it when I found that journal, but I had already known that the Expanse is an immeasurable space. Then in one of my efforts to save you through the dream power, I found your connection to the Expanse along with a line of demonic power that led me right to their work."

"Then you can shut it right off when they turn it on, huh?" Issachar said. Who was going to such efforts just to turn people into demons, and why? He felt like he was barely grasping the how of this happening too.

He nodded. "I think I can shut the D-gene off entirely so that they can't turn it back on, perhaps even to the point where it won't get passed down to our descendants. It's hard to say just knowing this time period."

"If you know it works, then it would let us keep the advantage you've been trying to build," Issachar said, smiling at the idea. Flynn really was doing something incredible, much more than they could have dreamed up as kids. "That's great! We won't let them think they can bully us just because they're gods, angels, or whatever, and we're not."

"But it means going into your mind to get things done, and letting you transform once we can meet up after it triggers," Flynn said, still worried about that. "I really shouldn't be doing this to you. A person's mind is a private place and others shouldn't go intruding in on their thoughts."

"I'm okay with that," he said. "Honestly, it scares me more thinking that I will end up turning into a demon with little notice. But since this plan stops a lot more people from suffering that same change, I'm willing to face this head on. Having you come into my dreams doesn't worry me at all. I know you won't mess around needlessly in there."

"I won't, you can be sure of that," he said quietly, looking down at the path ahead of them.

"Flynn? What's the matter?" He took Flynn's hand, hoping to get some reaction out of him. "Hoy, Flynn?"

He sighed and squeezed his hand, but did not want to continue that thought. He remained quiet the rest of the way over. Why was he so concerned about this? Was there something he wasn't saying about this plan? It was strange to think of someone entering his mind. But, it was Flynn, someone he trusted completely even if he had changed a lot from who he'd been as his childhood friend. Flynn knew that he loved him, and Issachar was sure that Flynn loved him back even though he hadn't said anything like that. There was too much in his actions and expressions to not be love at this point.

As it was February, Lake Mikado was still frozen over. Most of the plants that weren't covered by snow were browned, iced, or leafless. Even the evergreens were coated in ice or snow, making their colors stand out boldly in this colorless landscape. Thanks to them, it wasn't something unsettling in being a reminder of the White. As the animals and birds were hiding from the cold, this place was still and silent. There hadn't been any warm days lately, so the ice should be thick enough to walk across.

"Hoy Flynn, you want to walk across to some other parts of the lake shore?" Issachar asked.

"No," he said abruptly, like the idea spooked him.

"Oh, all right, sorry for asking," he said, feeling sheepish. What should he do? Issachar had been able to understand Flynn's panicked reaction in their last encounter with the White. But this, he had no idea what was wrong. Maybe this would inevitably fail… no, he couldn't think like that. Be positive; that was definitely the kind of support Flynn needed now. "I just thought it could be interesting since the ice should be strong enough."

More silence for a response. Flynn tugged at his coat like he thought it wasn't secure enough; his shoulders were hunched forward.

"It'll probably be breaking up in about a month," Issachar said. "But, we won't be here to see that, huh? I don't know where we could be going, but you act like we're going somewhere after this plan works."

"I really shouldn't be using you guys like this, even if it's to save you," he mumbled. "But I've done many of these parts before. I've done terrible things, careless of everything because I meant to throw those times away anyhow. I want this to be the last time where it all works. But, I'm still manipulating you all, using you all."

"You said it was a game of the gods that you were taking part of," he said. "So, you can't really get lost in what goes on at human level until you win."

Flynn shook his head. "Winning is meaningless when they can just call a new game. I want to break the game so thoroughly that they don't want to play with our world anymore. And even if I'm playing their terrible game, I'm not a god. I'm a human. That does make me responsible for what I do on a human level."

"It's to save us," Issachar reminded him.

"Ends don't justify the means," he disagreed. "If I take that excuse, then I'm no better than someone you'll probably meet, and hate, later on. I'm trying to save you all, yes, but I'm also hurting you in ways you don't realize. Like Jonathan… he might not be in Mikado when his child is born. He probably will miss it, and I have a bad feeling about how that will turn out. I've even had Burroughs help me figure out the timing and it's going to be difficult to find an excuse to get us back here in a reasonable time close to that event. And Walter and Isabeau are planning their wedding now, but I can guarantee that unless they deliberately choose a long time ahead, they will both miss that date without realizing it."

"That would be bad," he said. "But you can't focus on the negatives. They should live and be able to get through their own troubles. Maybe some of the blame would go with you, but you're doing everything you can to make things better. That seems better to me than the people who won't accept blame and don't do anything to improve the situation."

"Well it would be better if I wasn't leading you all into harm," Flynn said.

Issachar clasped his hand. "But if you weren't, things would be much worse. I know because you've told me. It's like," after a moment, Issachar thought he knew how to explain this. "Like we were given a bad plot of land with demons lurking around, and a distant manager who never comes out to see us but makes all sorts of demands for what we grow."

"This is what we were dealing with in Kiccigiorgi except the land's good and the demons aren't out there," Flynn said. "Although, very much accurate to what people as a whole are dealing with."

He nodded. "Yeah, so we don't have a good situation to work with, right? But because of what's happened, you know the details about our situation far better than anyone else realizes, even the manager. So you're making the best out of what we were given, even though there's risk and hard work involved for those of us who don't see to the scope you can. But, those risks and working conditions would be around even if you weren't leading us. We'd be working blindly to a future that's at best no better than what we started with. Since you're leading us, we can find that unseen path that will actually give us a better future. That's what I believe now, at least."

"I didn't think I'd told you enough to grasp the situation like this," Flynn said. He was still looking down, but he was looking at their hands now, with the kind of expression he got in looking at the lotus.

So this had to be working. "I know I don't fully understand things, but I've listened to you a lot lately," Issachar said. "Your mind's in a rut, isn't it? You're criticizing yourself a lot even as you're trying to encourage and help others into more positive actions. And you do end up complaining and worrying a lot. And, I can't imagine what it's like for you to be trying to think on two different levels, in messing up the game of the gods without them realizing it and then trying to live a normal life, or at least pretending like you are. It'll be tough, but we need to keep hope in getting that better future. Hope lights the way through the darkest brambles, like the folk songs say, right?"

"Mmm," was all he would reply to that. But he did look calmer.

Issachar felt sure that Flynn was listening to him, just caught in his own thoughts. Maybe he was ready to hear of certain things; it should encourage him. "I can guess at that because I was the same way years ago," he said. "I mean, not to all the stuff you're involved in. But I was in that kind of rut, thinking I was only making things worse just by existing. I tried to talk with someone else about it, actually, but they said I felt like that because I was doing things wrong and it'd all be better if I did things their way, which was exactly what was making me miserable in the first place.

"Then I told you, and you told me not to give up. You gave me something else to focus on, the hope that we could become samurai and change our lives. And you were always there to listen to me gripe and complain while I was still in pain, and encourage me and push me on to get better in the ways that I wanted to be. In the end, you even defied fate to make sure that my hopes became real. I shouldn't even be alive now, but now I have a future that will be what I make of it.

"But you know, all along I had these feelings that I wanted to be more than friends with you. I didn't understand how I could feel like that, or even what I was feeling. Because everyone else was always telling me that I was wrong, I just thought it was another symptom of that and tried to ignore those feelings. But they were always there. Eventually I did figure it out, but that was in reading a book that declared all the ways that people are deviants and the horribly specific punishments they'd face in hell for being that way."

"That sounds like an awful book," he said, proving that he was listening even though one might think from his expression that his thoughts were very far away.

"It was," Issachar said. "But then, it was actually that Stephan guy who helped me. It was back during the Autumn Ball," he smiled, not feeling ashamed this time. "I know everybody was talking about Marie and Jonathan, but you were the most beautiful one there in my eyes. At the time, I was actually terrified of myself for feeling like that, like it was some final proof that I was irreparably perverse. But Stephan, well he didn't say anything directly, but he did agree that you were just not in a place in your life where you could be thinking about courtship or anything like that properly. We both knew, though, that it's a terrible idea for you to be doing what you're doing all on your own. He was the one who suggested that I quietly support you in any way I could, which has actually given me a clearer head to think over how I feel and what I'm willing to do.

"And, I want to do for you what you did for me. I had been in a position where I had all kinds of things to sort out in my head. Maybe because of that, I wasn't really a good friend to you back then. But you stuck with me and never complained about it. And I think that was what I really needed. Because of you, I always had someone who accepted me; I knew you didn't think badly of me. So you don't need to worry about me, think of it as repayment for all the years you supported me, and for letting me be here. Flynn, I love you and I want to be someone you can count on."

Flynn squeezed his hand again and finally looked up at him. He seemed like he could cry. "I should've been thinking like that. I wanted to trust you, but I've seen too many ways this could go wrong. You really held out for a long time; I didn't realize that."

"We were in no position to know," Issachar reminded him. "And then you really didn't have a chance to think about this. It'll be fine."

"Someday, it could be a long time," he said.

"So what's really bothering you about this plan to take care of the D-gene? I'm okay with it."

"I do have your permission," he said. "But I know others who would not ask at all. I know my enemies keep watch over me even in my dreams. But someone has actually invaded my mind and took control over me. Since the D-gene immunity acted as a wall to him, he got in by slowly breaking into my mind with torture. So this plan really worries me."

"I see," Issachar said. "You don't deserve that."

"Too many people don't deserve what happens to them," Flynn said. He put a hand on Issachar's shoulder and nearly hugged him. But he stopped. "Actually, the one who did that is active now, earlier than he should be. I know because he showed up in the dream too, and he's still really insensitive even though he seems to be trying to help me."

"Really?" He had a sick feeling that this was something worse than he was saying.

Flynn nodded and took his hand away. "Sorry, I'm uncomfortable with being close right now. I might be like this for a while."

It was disappointing, but he didn't want to hurt Flynn any more than he was. "All right. You just let me know any time what you feel like."

"Thanks, I hope we both get through fine."

* * *

He was going to cheat this mental health exam. Flynn couldn't afford lost time at this stage. As he'd been through this before, and had gotten to look at the forms they used, he knew what questions they'd ask and what answers they wanted to hear. It was detrimental to himself to do so, but he felt like he had to. He had to be there to lead the other prentices through Tokyo and make sure what needed to happen happened.

Isabeau wasn't a problem; she'd be mystified at women being treated more equally than in Mikado, but that would end up helping her (especially with her ideas this time around). Issachar might come across as too enthusiastic, but Flynn didn't expect him to have trouble with the people of Tokyo. But while the others had evened out more, they could be trouble. Walter was brash and didn't think too much before speaking; Jonathan might seem nice but his loyalty to Mikado and slowness in accepting ideas that went against his ideals made him more prejudiced than he realized. And then Naverre had amplified faults of both of them. They were improving, but they most likely would be entering the Sky Tower before March. Had they had enough time to open their minds enough to be accepting of who and what they found?

There was so much to get done and he knew he wasn't in the best shape to do it all. Still, he felt a lot better about it than he had this morning. Flynn had started with mixed feelings over the date. He wanted to be close with Issachar now, before any chances they had for time for each other would be small and far apart. At the same time, he had some thoughts about convincing him to stay as friends so Issachar wouldn't ended up frustrated with or disappointed in him. It'd be a lot easier to detach himself from situations if Issachar had fallen for someone else in this time.

But, being unable to detach himself fully from what was normal for people might end up helping if Issachar kept finding ways to encourage and calm him. First the lotus, and then his perspectives on what was going on and what Flynn was doing about things. There was so much to get done that it was easy to lose sight of why he could do all this: because he harbored the Spirit of Hope. Its voice was still there, just a lot harder to hear lately. It might be that the spirit had decided to speak through Issachar for that reason, or that Issachar's own hope (which Flynn had built up in him) was enough to bolster it.

There was something else he'd said too. "Well this place seems cold and miserable now, what with all the settled snow and ice," he'd said, about their usual spot at Lake Mikado. "But we both know that about a month from now, the ice on the lake will crack. And then another month on, it'll be all water, and more of the plants will be turning green and readying flowers. So we know the beauty is still there; it's just waiting on spring to be visible with more than just your mind."

"We won't be here to see that," Flynn had said. Even monthly check-ins with Mikado would be impractical due to the difference in the flow of time.

Issachar was still smiling though. "Maybe not this year, but there will be other springs, other winters, and other years. Right? Because this is all for a better future for all of us to live in."

It was hard to say what state the world would be in for that future. There was what Flynn would like to see, of course. In that case, he was right. They'd be able to come back to Lake Mikado, and Tokyo would see the sun again. The beauty was there, just not something you could see with your eyes alone.

So he might be cheating this exam now, but someday, he might be able to pass it with honest answers.

 _A/N: The prose adaptation of The Ramayana I have was done by R.K. Narayan if you're interested in reading it yourself._


	31. An Unwelcome Return

**Chapter 31: An Unwelcome Return**

After their meeting in Kinshicho Park, Krishna had taken off with no indication of where he was actually going. Maitreya felt concerned about that. Their leader did have a spark of something that made him unpredictable at times. But this… "Can he have really given up on the dream he planned out so thoroughly? I don't like this."

Odin nodded. "Neither do I, it's too sudden. I don't know if we can trust him anymore; something must have happened to him during his sealing to make him this erratic."

He rubbed his chin; he should be able to see the answers to this issue clearly. But, the answers were eluding him. "We know enough about Salvation to keep that plan going, but there are pieces still missing from the board. Perhaps trying to educate the humans more?"

"That will be difficult for the very reasons he stated," a third voice said as another god emerged into the physical realm. However, he didn't become physical himself. Dagda, for some reason, chose to remain as a spirit. "It was a weakness in the plan that I thought could be overcome as long as Krishna believed it could. But now that he's given up on it, the contradictions within the human self that will undo Salvation will be more difficult to overcome."

"Oh, there you are," Maitreya said. "Did you end up being defeated in the chaos of our last attempt?"

"Believe what you will," he said dismissively, which indicated that he might have lost those battles. "I had my own ideas to help things along, but if Krishna has given up on it and we don't want to, we have even more of an uphill battle to endure."

"We'll definitely have a harder time controlling the forgotten ones like Inanna," Odin said.

"That and we don't have one of the key pieces that makes it all work," Dagda said.

"Krishna?" Odin asked.

"No, Shesha," he corrected.

"Oh right, this will be immensely more difficult if we don't have Shesha's powers at hand," Maitreya said. "We could lure Shesha away from Krishna."

"Hmph." Dagda crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you really think you are capable of that?"

"Well I'm not versed in snake charming, but perhaps another," he said.

"No, it has to be Vishnu or an avatar of Vishnu to command that snake," Odin said. "It's no shade, remember? And Vishnu is one of those who can't be summoned normally into the world in the state it's in. We'd have to contact another one of his avatars."

"And have a perfect argument to persuade him into working against another avatar of Vishnu," Dagda said. "They're more likely to trust each other than to trust us, save one but he's definitely not going to cooperate with us."

"Who is this one who might work against Krishna, though?" Maitreya asked. "I might be able to persuade him."

Dagda shook his head. "You won't. I can guarantee that he's already inclined against you."

"Must you always be so difficult to work with?" Maitreya asked. "Such negativity is unhealthy in anyone."

"The point is, we need a means other than Shesha to cut off the souls of humanity from our common enemy," Dagda said. "And our options there are extremely limited."

After a long discussion, they could agree that cutting down on the number of active demons in the world was a sound play. But as to how to fulfill their plan for Salvation without Krishna and Shesha, that was much more difficult to agree on.

* * *

"Ah, looks like we came in time to greet the sun as it rises," Lilith said, pleased with that. It was a wonderful thing about coming up to Mikado, along with all the promise in these humans to break the limits set on them by angels.

But that wasn't enough to burst Gabriel's sour mood. "We've been distracted too much already. I'll get things going."

"Hmm, I thought you couldn't activate the gene alone?" Lilith pointed out, wondering what she meant to do.

"I figured out a way," she said. "We should make sure of the current situation here in case plans need to be changed."

"Sure, even though it's infallible," Lilith said. Both sides of the plan counted on the natural curiosity of humans. The humans had put themselves into a position where they'd need to rely on one side or another.

"Now let's go before anyone sees us like this," Gabriel said, even though she'd already entered her human guise as a nun.

They parted outside the terminal, Gabriel hurrying on. Lilith chose to appear as a normal Mikado woman as she made her way through the city. While she could check immediately on her hero, she agreed that assessing the situation was best. Her best information source in the city was in the Casualry district with the baker. He was aware of who she was, partly.

At this time of morning, the bakery was busy preparing for the day. In a short time, maids of the Luxurors and women of the Casualry would be coming here to buy their daily bread needs. This time should be fine. Nathan was outside, filling some baskets with crusty breads. "Good morning," he said cheerfully, smiling like usual.

"Good morning, Nathan," she said, then showed a mark on the back of her wrist. "It's Yuriko; I'm back."

"Oh, hello again," he said, bowing his head. "How did your business go?"

"It was something of a wild goose chase," she said. "How are things going here?"

Eager to answer, he explained, "It's been really exciting these days. Do you remember my daughter, Marie? She got married this past fall to a young samurai and became accepted as one of the Luxurors in being his wife."

What? Lilith was pretty sure that Luxurors who married Casualry got degraded down to Casualry themselves. "Really? That's wonderful." But worrisome.

"Yes, it's been wonderful for all of us as Casualry this winter," he said. "And the young samurai have been key to that. They invited more of the Luxurors to attend our Sabbaths and read Literature. Even the princess came several times, and she convinced the king that we weren't doing anything bad. Because of that, our protests went well."

"You went ahead without me?" she asked. The protests weren't meant to go well; they were meant to turn violent, sparking civil war to overthrow the upper class.

"Sorry about that, but we had a brilliant idea when everyone was preparing for this winter," Nathan said. "The Luxurors always relied on their servants to cold-proof their houses and do everything else that had to be done. So the servants intentionally worked very slow at that, while the cooks made plain meals. It forced them to listen to us if they wanted to spend their winter in their accustomed comfort."

"And did they?" It was clever, but a revolution without bloodshed just didn't feel right.

"Nearly all of them have at this point," he said. "The main holdouts are the monastery and a few who blindly support them. And technically the king, but that's because of the abbot being stubbornly against us. But we've had good news on that just yesterday! There's a schism building within the monastery as it's mostly their leaders against us. There might just be a move to kick them out of power in the coming weeks."

"That's certainly unexpected," Lilith said.

"Yes, but it feels like the nation is really coming together because of Literature," Nathan said, pleased with that.

But if they weren't angry and frustrated with the Luxurors, how was she going to get the Casualry to turn into demons even with the D-gene active?

* * *

The mood within the monastery was strange to Gabriel. There was a feeling of passive-aggressive conflict all around. While the residents were taught from an early age to not be openly aggressive or violent, this felt different from the usual petty power struggles. Along with that, there were signs that things had not been kept as clean and orderly as usual. Bits of dust in the corners, streaks on glass from improper wiping, messy piles of paper in the office she worked in: what was going on with the servants?

Before long, she was found and given breakfast, an overly thin porridge and bitter tea. "Is there something wrong with the servants?" she asked the nun who'd brought it to her. That in itself was unusual; a servant should have delivered this.

The nun nodded. "Yes, the Casualry servants walked out on the job until we meet with their requests. We've had to take care of the meals and cleaning ourselves this winter."

"They walked out?" Gabriel asked in disbelief. How could that happen? The Casualry were taught from a very young age to value hard work, dedication, and modesty. She couldn't imagine them even thinking up such a protest without someone like Lilith around to corrupt them. Had Lilith left a demon behind that Gabriel was not aware of?

To make things stranger, the nun wasn't bothered by this. "Yes, they want to be treated with respect and have their restrictions lifted. The abbot and a number of other high-ranking members have been against agreeing to their terms, so we've had to take care of ourselves. It's been unexpectedly educational for many of us."

Educational. That was not a word Gabriel wanted to hear outside of controlled situations. "Hmm. And some of you want to meet their terms?"

She nodded. "Yes, my lady. Many of us here do. After all, the scriptures teach us to practice gratitude and mercy. It only makes sense that we should have treated them better in the first place."

That was half true, an ideal state of things that humans in a sinful state always managed to mess up. If Mikado was truly ideal, then there would be no class structure. There would be the humans following the lead of the angels, practicing complete gratitude to God and mercy to each other. If she could have gotten Mikado in a state like that, God would surely have returned to her and restored her peers to their true states, rescuing them from that horrible bondage.

But, it wasn't ideal. The humans who were most corrupted, through ambition, knowledge, or other sins, would always work themselves into a higher class over the humans that were closest to returning to innocence. Every so often, Gabriel would initiate a purge of the corrupt Luxurors through using the D-gene. The gene would also pick out hidden corruptions in the Casualry and get rid of them too by using them as instruments of destruction. After the purge was done and peace restored, however, a new Luxuror class always emerged and the whole thing started all over again.

Gabriel dismissed the nun who'd delivered her meal. Once she was gone, she used a little magic to make the breakfast more palatable. She didn't mind the plainness of things, but being made improperly was not to be tolerated. Then she straightened out the piles of papers and started checking over reports.

By the time Hugo came to greet her, Gabriel's concerns about what had gone on in her absence had only increased. He came right over to her desk. "Gabby, welcome back! It's wonderful to see you again, although I apologize, but things have managed to go far downhill in your absence."

"I've noticed," she said, looking disdainfully at the report she'd just read. "There's some discussion about self-directed study of spirituality and seeking a connection to God on one's own, outside the prescribed path."

He nodded. "Yes, some claim to find it an enlightening experience."

"It's a rubbish idea," Gabriel said. "The prescribed path is that way because it is the best way." It kept humans occupied for their full lives, setting their minds up to think and behave properly. The main improvement would be to eliminate the need for literacy altogether, since that skill risked them recording vain ideas and sharing them.

"Of course," he said, quick to change his tune hearing her word on the subject. But he did it out of his ambition to maintain his power. "It was outsiders who brought that idea into circulation, along with that accursed Literature. Have you heard of it yet?"

"They're worse than rubbish," she said. "Far too many of those books contain dangerous ideas that will break down our peaceful society. And it seems it's already done so."

"Yes, this winter has been an absolute disaster because of Literature," Hugo said, frustration and anger coming out at the thought. "All of the Casually suddenly got the idea that they were too good for their assigned place in life. They've been talking about fairness, equality, and learning, believing in ridiculous fantasies. In fact, some of them want to start educating their children, which is utterly useless for them. But they quit their work and won't fulfill their assigned responsibilities! Their new habit of reading eats up hours of their days and a fair number have started neglecting church activities in favor of their foolish fad. It's even happening among the Luxurors! This country has fallen into disgrace, but they all think it's a big step forward."

Gabriel winced at that. Any time humanity thought it was moving forward, they were always moving away from God, away from their proper place in the world. Over the centuries here alone, she had to struggle in secret with that, pulling them back to where they should be. But here she'd left for a mere eight months and they were rushing back for becoming lost to what they believed was knowledge and wisdom.

"And both the samurai commander and the king have been working against us here in the monastery," Hugo went on with his rant. "They claim they're not, of course, but they both refuse to crack down on the troublemakers distributing this Literature and foolish ideas. Hope says he won't interfere unless they lash out violently, and Akazuya's daughter Belinda has become one of those attending the Sabbaths and supporting the Casualry, so he is hesitant to rebuke Hope or speak against the protesters. And then some among the monastery itself have been grumbling, complaining about stubbornness in not giving in. But we must be resolute and true to God's ways!"

"Of course we must," she said. Although, a stray thought in her mind wondered if this was a good opportunity to get Hugo out of power. A proper abbot could have found ways to arrest these horrible developments and keep Mikado in line while she was away. And Hugo's attitude, while simple to keep control of, was grating and a poor example of a man who served God.

"I wanted to have the ringleaders among the Casualry and a few outstanding troublemakers of the Luxurors to be publicly humiliated," Hugo said. "But I can't even excommunicate them now since the samurai, the royals, the nobles, and even most of the monastery would refuse to acknowledge that status. I can even pick out some of the worse offenders, like the whole baker family of the Casualry and a young samurai named Jonathan."

Wait… "Jonathan?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes, the foolish boy fell madly in love with a Casualry girl at the Sabbaths and somehow got her invited to the Autumn Ball where they showed off some romantic scene that made so many among the laymen happily accept it when they married as a Luxuror couple just three weeks later. That breech of rank has enhanced much of this trouble with Casualry thinking they deserve more than they do, I'm sure of that."

Gabriel closed her eyes. That couldn't be her hero; that was about as bad as Hallelujah as a representative of Law. If he had to be married, he should have followed the proper forms and not made a spectacle of it. He should have a clean relationship with his wife, with minimal passion in it to blur his judgment.

"If we could just find some way to get them punished in sight of the community, then people might realize their mistakes and give up on these shiny new ideas," Hugo said.

"I'm still assessing the situation, but it doesn't look good," she said. "We'll discuss what to do later. There are some things I need to take care of outside the monastery now that I'm back."

She prayed silently that this Jonathan wasn't the same Jonathan that she'd just learned the name of. But she had a suspicion that quickly got rooted in her mind that it would turn out to be him. If so, then this distraction of the false heroes in Tokyo was a terrible omen of what might come.

Was Lilith responsible for this?

* * *

Lilith spent the morning gathering gossip from the Casualry, hoping to find someone dissatisfied enough with society to lead a demonic uprising. However, that led to several problems. First, just like Nathan, the rest of the city Casualry were pleased with their pacifist efforts. They were hopeful that the monastery would give in too so that their new vision would become accepted as the new direction for Mikado. It was a vision that was better suited for Law than Chaos, though. This so-called change was likely to get everyone settled into a new order quickly.

As a result of that, there were few who had the rage or despair to transform. And that was her hopeful estimate since she didn't run into anyone promising. It led back into the problem of not being certain of who the Messiah actually was. Back in summer when this game got started completely wrong, she had planned on locating someone connected to the Messiah to tempt into becoming a demon. In a best case scenario, that pulled the Messiah directly to the cause of Chaos. The more likely case was that the Messiah would have his or her eyes opened to the festering sickness caused by Law being too powerful in this land.

Now… now she had no idea of who would most affect the Messiah. Or of any person that would cause a chain reaction of transformations by reveling in their new freedom and knowledge. Not even Nathan was good for that any more. Lilith had left her most powerful ally up here, Dantelion, to watch over and support the baker as he worked to spread Literature and unwittingly spread discontent. But Nathan was in high spirits and Dantelion was nowhere to be found.

It got to be noon and still she had found no one suitable to push. Even the resident drunks were of no use, although they'd surely turn into demons in their state. But they'd still be drunks as demons, which was good for a quick violent start but not much else. Perhaps guiding them to cause some disaster that made tempers flare and tensions rise… if she had some more time to set such an event up, sure, that might help. But there was nothing in place for that now other than a plan.

No, the wiser move was surely determining who the Messiah was and working from there. Lilith slipped into an alleyway to transform herself into a spirit, to move unnoticed and observe without being seen. It could be worth it to meet up with Flynn and make a connection to him even if he wasn't the Messiah. After all, a secret love that went against society's norms was sure to breed all kinds of anxieties and frustrations that would make him easy to tempt. And the Messiah should be one of the young samurai, so Flynn would definitely be a close contact with that important person.

Lilith was curious about her hero too and decided to track down Walter first. If he had better traits as a Chaos hero than Toki did, he'd likely be in Naraku seeking strength and combat. She did a name divination and… he was in the castle? Perhaps there was a meeting for the samurai there.

She came into the office he was in and found him with the female samurai Isabeau and a castle official. "Sorry, we don't often get a situation when someone is looking for a home," the official said, searching through files in his shelves.

"Most Luxurors live in family homes that have been owned for generations," Isabeau said. "And the monastery assigns living quarters, so I suppose our request is unusual."

"We don't have much room to build anything new either, at least within the inner circles of the city," the official said. Finding what he wanted, he took several folders over to the desk. "But there are a few families who, through inheritance or other means, have acquired multiple properties and haven't been using them all. We'll need to negotiate with them to get a home for you both. I will warn you, they'll be more likely to want to give up some of the smaller properties in the outer Luxuror districts rather than the ones in the inner district."

"I wouldn't know what to do with a massive house, so I don't mind that," Walter said, glancing to Isabeau. "But what about you?"

"It's fine with me too, since I'm used to the smaller living spaces of the monastery," she said.

"That should make the negotiations easier on you," the official said, then showed them some of the listings of excess properties that might be available for ownership negotiations.

He should get bored of this quickly, Lilith thought. That would be typical. As the meeting went on, there were some signs of restlessness: shifting in his chair, almost letting himself get distracted in other things. But he managed a self-discipline to listen and discuss these mundane matters. He and Isabeau were to be married, Lilith quickly realized, and he was doing what he could to make sure his bride could continue a comfortable and secure life.

But for being engaged, his passions towards her didn't feel strong yet. Walter was attracted to Isabeau, and he had a deep respect and admiration for her. It was all on a level untouched by lust, though. As a result, it was the kind of marriage that Gabriel would approve of, but made Lilith irritated because it reminded her of Eve far too much. Maybe she could introduce him to real passion by letting a more attractive woman lure him away from this plain domestic relationship. She could do that herself and it would be satisfying to have control over him that way.

However, Mikado fashions were much too modest for Lilith's liking. If Walter got down to Tokyo, though, appearing in a more attractive outfit and being more aggressive with her advances was an option. Lilith checked over the information in his gauntlet for what demons and items he had stored. That could give some indication of what he might like.

He had an archangel, with signs that it had evolved up from an angel. The rest of his team was standard fare for what the samurai could negotiate and then fuse from the demons in Naraku. None of them were the sort she normally associated with; it might be tough, but she could get a lilim to join his team as a spy for her. If nothing else, the lilim could counter any ideas planted by the archangel. In his inventory, she spotted a book and a journal. Lilith could tell that he'd learned to read and write from a Sabbath, as that left a clear magical marking on his mind. She could learn more by seeing what Literature he liked too.

But then… the book he had was a book about prayer. It was what Mikado considered Literature, a book written outside their culture. But it was still about prayer and a person's connection to God. Why was he reading such a thing? And when she glanced in the journal, she found that he was not just reading the book. He was studying it, teaching himself the constrictive nonsense that the side of Law spread to control their followers.

In her mistaken absence, the Chaos hero had become more knowledgeable about Law. And if his relationship with Isabeau was any indication, probably more accepting of Law too. The Casualry was losing the energy that would feed the flames of revolution. If the D-gene got turned back on, there would be no widespread anarchy to overturn the status quo. It would just be isolated transformations that got put down quickly.

Was Gabriel responsible for this?

* * *

The reports angered her, enough that Gabriel gave up on them before she completed reading them all. It was clear that it was just continuing the same dreadful refrains. In nearly sixteen centuries separated from the last bastion of sinful human knowledge, Mikado had very slowly changed as she tried to return the humans to a state of innocence. She'd tried gently and kindly, using force as little as possible since she didn't have her peers to back her up. And in just eight months left to their own devices, the humans had undone nearly all of her progress.

Why did they rebel so easily? Why was it so hard to get them to accept what should be their true state of being? What would it take for them to accept the truth?! They needed to be purified so that God would return to them all. It was so simple to do what one was told and be happy with where one was. As a servant of God herself, Gabriel would be very happy simply to have Him talk to her. Perhaps they didn't realize how difficult it was to truly be on one's own, without any guidance and an immense responsibility to fulfill.

Gabriel changed to a spirit and flew around the kingdom, taking quick looks for herself. Everyone in the city appeared detestable to her. They were happy to have new knowledge and options. Fools, before long they'd become overwhelmed with choice and conflict. They would desire more than they deserved, fighting with others over petty things they wanted. More deviants would emerge thinking that they could be accepted, muddling up the norm and causing others to start accepting the immoral. If she'd been gone much longer, they might become no different from the filth trapped in Tokyo.

Out in the villages, the humans were changing at a slower rate than the city. The young people embraced their corruption, spreading it to the children and their elders. There were a few places like Kiccigiorgi that Gabriel felt she could reclaim quickly. There, morality was so deeply ingrained in them that aside from a few young adults and teenagers, they were continuing on as they always had, ignoring the restlessness and return to corruption going on in the rest of Mikado. It was still deeply disturbing that she found no community where all of its members remained proper.

Gabriel and her peers had given these humans everything they needed to live comfortable and honest lives. They had removed the poison of knowledge from their society, giving them just enough to keep them occupied and satisfied. With the system of the samurai and the demonicas, they kept the vast majority protected from demons. And they had made this land bountiful and blessed so that there was plenty of food and safe water. That was as much as they could do without God's power, but it should be enough.

Apparently, it wasn't enough. Humans still found ways to make themselves unhappy. It happened all the time and Gabriel had long since given up on trying to avoid that. Until this became a true paradise under God's direct guidance, that might be an unfortunate truth to the human condition. But this regression was simply ridiculous!

She'd thought that maybe, her hero could be asked to begin correcting these errors immediately. He could be an example of purity and ethics. With some widespread mental suggestions, Gabriel could ensure that everyone would admire him and want to follow his lead. She could also make sure that the simple folks who remembered modesty were exalted as well.

She located Jonathan entering his home around half past noon. He went over to a private dining room where a young woman was already eating. "Sorry I'm late," he said, smiling warmly at her. "Are you feeling better?"

Getting up from her chair, she hugged him as soon as he was in reach. "Yes, sorry if I worried you. Could we take a walk together this afternoon outside the city? I think the fresh air would help, even if it's cold."

"Of course, as long as you're up to it," he said, then kissed her.

And that wasn't a plain modest kiss as one might expect from a man and his wife. They would revel in even small passions like this; something made them break away from the kiss and laugh, for one thing. Marriage was the practical outlet for those kinds of instincts in humans, a healthy productive way for them to live. But even if they kept faithful to each other, letting passion take control of their relationship was ugly cheating of the marriage vows. Jonathan even forgot to give a prayer over their meal by thinking too much on her health, happiness, and request.

How could this happen?! He was marked as an important soul, Gabriel could see that clearly being close to him as a spirit. He should have a natural inclination to the values of Law even if he was not taught them (which wasn't the case). And yet here he was holding his facade of Law while falling for the follies of Chaos! This made no sense whatsoever.

Disgusted by them now, Gabriel left and tracked down the other young samurai who might be the Messiah. Maybe working with him or her directly was the necessary direction. She located Isabeau, but then discovered that she was engaged to the Hero of Chaos; that discounted her. She didn't want to check on Naverre since his dream had been too much childish nonsense, and she didn't want to check on Flynn for obvious reasons.

That left Issachar, still the most likely candidate in her view. Unfortunately, she found him with Flynn in the tavern that samurai gathered in. That was a friendship she should break up since Flynn would be a bad influence. Now that she was near him and could see his soul directly, Gabriel noticed that Flynn was a damaged soul in a slow process of healing himself. Perhaps his perversions were the result of abuse from someone else; that still didn't excuse him. But damaged souls were vulnerable to being turned into zealots if one knew how to use them. If he turned out to be the Messiah for some freakish reason, he would take a lot of work to guide but could become very reliable.

The two of them were playing chess; an instruction book for the game was left open nearby. "I'm thinking about it," Issachar said, observing the board. "Because if I move this piece one way, you could take it out if you make a certain move. But you might expect me to move the other piece, so I'd want to move another piece to catch you making a play that way. Or, um…"

"I'm not thinking about these moves that deeply," Flynn said, amused enough that he didn't mind the wait. Issachar looked up at him. When their eyes meet, both of them softened and smiled.

It didn't go any further than that since there were a lot of people around them, but that was all Gabriel needed to see. She shuddered in anger and disgust, silently cursing the one who'd given her the wrong names and sent her off to Tokyo. What was that, the twentieth time today she'd done that? But this made it clear that Issachar was Flynn's lover and therefore also unsuitable to be a hero of any kind. Why were the potential pieces this time around so awful, even the one already assigned to her?

Or… wait, Issachar's soul didn't seem like one experienced with physical passion. He probably hadn't even kissed anyone yet. His connection to Flynn was very deep, so he was probably aware of the circumstances that made him this damaged. As a result, he had an affection that wanted to protect and heal, while Flynn's affection was one of gratitude and seeking further assistance. That would be highly admirable if one of them was a woman, but that wasn't the case and didn't excuse either of them for indulging in this folly.

Why did she have to rely on humans? Gabriel took off, leaving the city unseen and not wanting to return. She could faintly remember being fond of them once, but that was when they had been promising children of God. They'd seemed so creative, a source of endless possibilities. But once things had gone wrong, they stayed wrong. They should be punished and forced to acknowledge just how disgusting they'd made themselves.

They should be shown how disgusting they were. She had to turn the D-gene back on and make it active; that would be a lot of effort, but there was someone she could get help from to do so. And since the humans had strayed so badly, she could make sure this was a violent purging, even worse than the one that had occurred in the sixth century. Gabriel knew she'd have to go out quickly to make sure the good people in the villages were safe. But the city could burn for all she cared.

In the crater of Shene Duque, she landed within the cocoon. Most of the ancestors of those in Mikado had once been here to be purified while the corrupt world had been purged with its own follies. It had seemed promising at the start. But like past attempts on this and other worlds, it only lasted a single generation. They had tried for a while to purify all the newborns to keep them innocent, but even that wasn't working. Maybe if the others hadn't been captured…

The cocoon seemed empty, but in truth there was one soul still here. She went to the sole occupied cell and put her hand through the shield keeping it sealed. "I'm sorry for disturbing you, Merkabah, but there is a grave situation that I need to borrow your power to settle."

Once she had contact with her soul, Gabriel closed her eyes and extended her reach into the Expanse to manipulate the controller of the D-gene. Merkabah was powerful enough that she could not be summoned into the world physically except by God's direct command or an extreme sacrifice. She'd been left to sleep here until contact was made between Mikado and Tokyo, which should be happening soon. Even as a spirit, Merkabah was able to help her reactivate the curse and change its parameters.

The level of knowledge needed to trigger the transformation was always lowered with every purge. But, this needed a more drastic lowering to compensate for the presence of Literature. And erase that vile literacy… no, not quite yet, something like that needed to be at the end of the adjustments. As for the forms they would take…

The base form of the D-gene could allow humans to transforms into demons based upon the strongest emotions in them at the time of transformation. But if that was left in base form, any emotion, virtue, or vice could be the trigger. Which meant if they were happy as their strongest feeling at that moment, they could turn into something apparently good like a fairy or a holy beast. They had to be limited to grotesque forms like the undead and vile beasts. Maybe snakes and vermin this time as well.

And the trigger emotions had always been the same: rage and greed to teach the humans how bad those sins were, and despair to eliminate those who might become agents of the White. Clearly lust needed to be added to the triggers this time, and pride because that might stop the rise of a new Luxuror class…

A hand clasped hers in a way that disrupted her focus on the adjustments. Long fingernails pressed into her skin. Opening her eyes, Gabriel saw the flickering form of Merkabah trying to manifest. Her heart quickened in alarm. "Shhh, shh, I've got this covered. It's not time for you to awaken yet."

"What are you doing?" Merkabah asked in a faint voice that held a haze of heavy sleep. "Have they been tried? Punishment given without fair judgment is cruelty."

"It's fine, this is for their own good," Gabriel said, doing her best to soothe Merkabah back into hibernation. "They were judged sinners and will be purified to meet with God's expectations. This is for the sake of a true lasting peace that will continue on for eternity."

"When did I become caged?" she mumbled, her spirit growing faint from sight again. After some more assurances, she fell back into her slumber.

Gabriel pulled her hand out of the cell once she was sure she was asleep. This could also be very bad; it scared her half-witless to see Merkabah stir like that. While she was definitely a powerful representative of Law, Merkabah was something of a war machine among angels. She needed proper guidance and a clear goal in order to safely awakened. Otherwise, she might take things the wrong way and get carried away with her reactions.

At least she had reactivated the D-gene… except, she'd been disrupted in the middle of the adjustments. Had they'd been set right? Or was this going to spiral even further out of control? But she couldn't tap into Merkabah's powers again to fix any errors, not without potentially waking her fully.

"God, I didn't mean to mess up so badly," she said, her voice quivering. "It's in Your hands now, please, forgive me…"

Before long, she was on her knees in tears, begging for some kind of contact and guidance.


	32. Mind Dive to the Expanse

_A/N: Bonus update because it's my birthday!_

 **Chapter 32: Mind Dive to the Expanse**

Being that it was a winter afternoon on a day with low demon activity in Naraku, K's Tavern was packed and lively. Flynn and Issachar were to be on call all day to take care of any emergencies, but the masters said that about ninety percent of the time, nothing at all would happen. The other prentices were all away on personal business; Naverre and Jonathan were with their families, while Walter and Isabeau were busy with their marriage arrangements. Without family in the city or any courting they were willing to be open about, it left the two of them to take up waiting for potential work like this.

They were teaching themselves chess since one of the boards was open when they'd come in. Flynn put a finger on the black castle tower-like rook. "So this was in a straight line, one to seven squares."

"Right," Issachar said, not having to glance at the instruction book again.

"Okay then," he shifted it to where one of the red pieces that had been advancing towards his side would be in danger of being taken out if it moved in its prescribed ways.

"And then," Issachar picked up another piece and took out the rook immediately. "Gotcha."

"Well that was my own fault," he admitted.

"Oh wait, I think that could be a mistake," Issachar said, looking back over the board. He rubbed his head. "Man, how are some of the others doing this so fast? You have to keep track of how all the pieces can move, what moves you can make, what moves your opponent can make… this really is tough."

"They've been playing this for years while we're just bumbling through this first match," Flynn said. "There is a lot to think about here."

"I think I'd rather be reading a book if I wanted to think in my free time," he said. "Or, hmm…" he looked over the board but didn't seem to be looking at it. Then he flinched.

"Issachar?" There was nothing odd going on that could account for that.

"Mmm." He put his hand on his forehead, leaving it there for a moment. Was he sick now? Or, was it that time? But this didn't seem like what had happened before. Flynn half-expected him to suddenly slam his fist on the board and knock all the pieces over, or something like that.

"Hoy, you okay?" Flynn asked quietly.

"W-we should go, now," Issachar quietly said back, putting his trembling hand on the table. His face looked pale too.

Flynn got up and took his arm to help him onto his feet. Those who saw them might think Issachar was suddenly ill and he was just helping him out to a healer. But in being next to him, Flynn could see flickers of faint lines underneath his skin. Where to now, where no one should disturb them…

The dorms were the nearest place they could get some privacy. "What's going on?" he asked once they were outside. "This doesn't seem like other transformations I've seen in you."

"But my thoughts are still burning, like you said," he said, closing his eyes and letting Flynn guide him. The lines faded some, like he was willing the transformation to slow down. Maybe even stop? "But I don't feel angry, at anything. I was just thinking, even though the game was frustrating, I'm happy just to be with you. Even if I can't show it. And then I was bathed in fire, not condemned to the fires of hell but something is…" he gasped, thoughtlessly tugging at the charm, "trying to be."

This was strange, but as his words started getting delirious, it was back on what he expected. Flynn stopped him from ripping the charm off. "Hang on for a bit; we'll go to your room since it's closer."

Issachar nodded and managed to hold out as they went up the stairs to where their rooms were. As it was the middle of the afternoon, there seemed to be no one else in. Flynn guided his friend over to the bed he had and lay him down there, for the least chance of him hurting himself. "You can let it happen now," he said. "I'll close the door and we'll head into the Expanse when it settles down."

When Issachar took off the charm he wore, it snapped and flew off across the room. Flynn activated his gauntlet and made a last-minute check on his information. Psychodive was one of Trojan's abilities, along with the Memorial Illusion he'd used with Hope previously. They were abilities he'd never seen on other demons. But according to his sources, they were both in a class of mind-affecting demonic skills that weren't useful in combat but were excellent for situations like this.

Then Issachar tugged at his coat as he paced by. "Flynn," he pleaded.

He'd been trying to put what was happening out of mind. Feeling guilty about that, Flynn stopped his review and sat down next to Issachar. "I'm sorry," he said, taking his hand. "Are you scared?"

"I was, but not now," he said, tugging his hand. "You're… more scared than me. I think? But don't ignore it."

"That could be," he admitted. Issachar was going to die briefly. How could that not scare him? He'd not seen the transformation abort yet, but it seemed like a reasonable possibility. Then Issachar tried to sit up, only his whole body was shaking and he couldn't hold himself up. "Careful, don't make this worse on yourself."

"A-all rig…." he stopped suddenly. His eyes flickered with a strange light. But not red. It was silver this time. And he was staring up at him. "Oh my lord…"

Flynn felt caught in his stare. An odd feeling came over him, like he was being watched. Of course he was, but there was something inhuman in Issachar's eyes. Which, of course, he was in the midst of a demonic transformation. Flashbacks of seeing this before came over him powerfully, jarring his thoughts in painful ways.

"Flynn," Issachar pleaded again, tugging at him and somehow having sat up now.

He wanted to run and hide, feeling the verge of a meltdown. He'd always hid these ever since the first got him imprisoned in the monastery, except when they came on far too fast to hide. "What?" he asked, then felt awful for even thinking of leaving Issachar like this.

Before he realized what was happening, Issachar had embraced him tightly and was sobbing into his chest. Flynn stared at him, the sudden panic frozen at this shock. What was going on with Issachar? For that matter, what was going on with himself?

Then he remembered checking on Issachar after leaving the ball. He had smiled and said he was fine, but that was when he knew the situation he was in. Just yesterday, he admitted that he found him to be the most beautiful one there at the ball. Whatever was going on here, he could trust Issachar. Flynn hugged him back, hoping to calm him down.

He did stop trembling, but he didn't go completely still. Instead, Issachar vanished for a moment even though Flynn still felt him there. He came back looking like himself, still with the same brown hair and his samurai uniform. But now his body had a faint sunlit glow, strongest along his hair. And he had white angel wings, faint like mist near his back but looking very real at the tips. There was also how, from the feeling around his chest, he was in a woman's body now.

"I'm sorry, I got carried away there," Issachar said, loosening his hold and rubbing his eyes. They did have an inhuman silver color to them instead of red.

"It's fine," Flynn said, patting his back. "We knew you were going to lose control of your emotions there, though I didn't see this coming."

"That was a flood of everything," Issachar said, then set his head back on Flynn's shoulder. Now that they were like this, it wasn't that bad. "I don't know how, but somehow I can see so many scars on your soul. All this time, taking care of you this week and even before that, I really wanted to be close to you like this. But I wanted to respect you as well if you weren't comfortable with it, so I held back. Then I just couldn't help myself when I saw these, and," he brushed his hand across Flynn's hair.

There was no scar there, at least none Flynn could remember having. But, he said it was his soul that was scarred, which was definitely going to be a terrible sight. "You could never see the state of a person's soul before."

"Hmm, really? It seems clear to me now, a glow in and around your body. It should be beautiful, if it wasn't so fractured." He sighed. "I wish I could just, wipe that all away for you. Make your soul clear again. But I have this feeling too, that doing so wouldn't really help you. You should be allowed to heal naturally; I think it could happen."

Making his soul clear had Flynn worried, but he was relieved that Issachar also saw the problem in that right away. That was a promising sign that he wouldn't be like the others. But still, was he going to lose his free will from being a human in becoming a being like this? "You also never transformed like this before. You were always an undead; you're an angel right now."

"I am?" he asked, lifting his head to look at him.

"Yes," he said, then reached up to poke a physical part of his wings. "You'd see it in a mirror, but you can feel that, right?"

Issachar got startled at the touch. Then his wings shifted, folding against his back. "Oh… huh, that's weird." When he moved away, he also realized what else had changed. "I wasn't expecting to change this much."

"Does that feel strange?" Flynn asked. He could understand becoming a different being because he'd experienced that himself. But he couldn't imagine changing into a woman.

He shook his head. "No, I feel perfectly fine. I wonder if the form of transformation is affected by the emotion triggering it." Issachar smiled then, blushing a little. "I was happy just being with you when I felt it start, and then I could think of nothing but you this whole time. There was no anger or despair at all, just that I loved you and wanted to help you."

"That could be the case, although I haven't heard of anyone transforming out of love." The reports he read suggested that they restricted the kinds of emotions that could be triggers. This suggested that something had gone wrong in reactivating the gene; it was a mistake on part of his opponents, although he knew he couldn't get lax about his strategy. "Whatever's going on, we can't waste time. This spell should put us to sleep and into your dreams. Once we locate each other, we'll go through your passage to the Expanse."

"All right," Issachar said. "Do you mind if we lie by each other for this?"

"It'd be the practical thing," Flynn said, briefly worrying about what might happen in the odd case that someone came into this dorm and found him in Issachar's bed with a female angel. But, that shouldn't happen. "All right."

Of course, Issachar soon had an arm around him like that. "Don't worry, you're safe with me," he whispered, stroking the side of his head. "If you're ever in my dreams, I'll keep you perfectly safe, even from the White."

That sounded wonderful, but he couldn't help a worry over what Issachar would go through trying to do that. "Will you be able to keep me safe from myself?" he asked, feeling bad for asking but really wanting to know despite that.

"I'll do my best," he said confidently.

* * *

Since Marie wanted to spend some time outside, Jonathan arranged to get some picnic snacks to take out to where the Sabbaths were usually held. It wasn't the time of year people usually took picnics outside the city, since it was snowy and the scenery was barren. They had to dress warmly, but that was fine. She seemed happier out here.

"It seems like I've got so much more to learn," she said, taking another small cookie from the tin. "Your mother does help out, but all the little things are hard to keep in mind."

"I think you've been doing well," Jonathan said. He didn't want her to change too much, she was wonderful as she was.

"I'm doing my best," she said, worried about it. "But a lot of the ladies I try to make friends with are always critiquing the little things I do and say. I can't even get them interested in Literature, even though I know there were a few ladies like the princess who came to the Sabbaths. But I don't run into them; those I do see seem so mindless. But I can't keep up with them, it shouldn't be so hard."

"Marie, you don't need to compare yourself to the others," he said. Would that help? She did have a lot to deal with. Maybe he should speak with his mother and ask her to try being more encouraging.

"But I need to get better to stay with you," she said dismally. "I can't stay like this, I can't…" She shuddered and was crying.

"Hey, that's not true," he said, going to hug her. "I think you're wonderful; I won't ask you to change."

"Get away from me!" Marie shrieked in a strange voice. Her hair whipped around, smacking him in the face and actually knocking him back. It felt like a heavy rope had struck him there, not loose hair. By the time he sat back up, a black haze had surrounded her, turning her lower half into a snake and her red hair into red snakes. And she was still sobbing.

She was a demon? How? And more important, what did he do about her? Jonathan wanted her back to being herself. But what did he do? He should destroy her because she was a demon now and he was a samurai. But she was still his wife and he didn't want to hurt her.

What did he do?

* * *

After a hazy moment, Issachar found himself in a strange forest maze. It wound around, with a thick undergrowth discouraging him from wandering out into the trees. It felt a bit like the woods near Kiccigiorgi, but if this was there, this was no path he was familiar with. It looked and sounded like those woods too, with the tall trees of thick trunks and sprawling leaves, the warm humidity of the swampy area, the scents and sounds of familiar wildlife and plants. Was the village at the end of one of these paths? He didn't want to end up there.

He found his way to an opening that was on more familiar grounds. There was the stump and trunk of a fallen tree, both of which were still sturdy enough to sit on. Right near him, there was an old stone shack that they didn't know the original purpose of. He and Flynn had used it to hide a few things over the years. There were always fallen branches around here, so they would practice sword fighting against each other here where their families and neighbors were less likely to find out.

If there was anywhere to pause and wait on Flynn, this was a likely spot. Issachar sat on the tree trunk to do just that. Although, since this was his mind, shouldn't he be able to sense where Flynn was? Or since he was an outsider and had done this before, would Flynn be able to find him quicker? There was also the possibility that he might have a harder time getting around because this wasn't his dream. "Let Flynn find me here, that's what I want," Issachar said, hoping that the dream could respond to him.

Glancing down, he noticed he was still in the body of an angel. And a woman at that; it was odd seeing himself. Maybe it'd be even stranger if he saw a mirror. But even if it was different, Issachar still felt like this was himself. Maybe it had to do with how he had transformed this time. Transforming from anger or despair would turn him into an undead, which would be a lot more horrifying. Perhaps if this had been when he'd struggled with keeping silent on feelings that scared him, maybe that would have changed him into something else yet. It wouldn't feel as fitting, he was pretty sure of that.

He heard footsteps coming and looked up to see Flynn coming over from another path. It was painful seeing him now. In his sight, he could see what he normally saw, and then something on another layer in the same place. Flynn was holding himself together on sheer willpower, scars like cracks through the light threatening to break him apart. The light seemed like something beautiful, but then the cracks were horrific and heart-rending. By some intuition, Issachar could faintly feel that pain and get a possible idea of its cause. But this was many causes, many pains.

Trying to not get distracted, Issachar smiled at him. "I hope you didn't have much trouble getting here," he said.

"The paths tried to confuse me at first, but then it straightened out," he said. "Come on, we have much deeper to go."

That didn't seem right. "Hang on, won't you relax a little?" Issachar asked. "You're all tense and worried right now; I think you'd do better if you calmed down."

"We can't waste time when the transformations have started," Flynn said, shaking his head. There was an almost inhuman feeling of responsibility that would take blame for any minute failure. Yet Flynn had a human heart that couldn't take that kind of weight.

"But you can't make mistakes at this vital move either," he argued. "Just a minute to get your focus in the right place, please?"

"All right, just a minute," he said, coming over to sit by him. Before long, his eyes were half-closed and he was trying to calm himself.

Meanwhile, Issachar thought of quiet afternoons they'd been here, times when the wilderness of this forest blocked out all of the problems they had outside this place. The dream place began to feel like that, somewhere separate from everywhere else. Before long, he ended up singing something. He wasn't sure what, but it felt right. Something to set aside what was wrong and focus on making things right. They could deal with past things in time, when they'd made the present actually peaceful rather than seeming peaceful. If he could just let go of the inhuman perfection he was seeking, much of his stress would lighten.

Then he noticed that Flynn was looking at him rather than focusing inward. His innermost light was brighter and clearer. "You seem more like I thought angels would be, before I met them."

"It's what I want to be for you," Issachar said, then reached over and patted his hand. "That's better. We'll be fine now, I know it."

He smiled briefly. "Right. Then let's go."

They left their spot and headed deeper into the woods of Issachar's dreams. Out among the trees, he kept spotting glimpses of familiar people or things, hearing words he remembered (even if he didn't want to remember them). But they weren't things to pay attention to now. One could get very lost here if focus was lost.

Eventually, they came upon a much fainter part of the woods. It was unnervingly like a dream he'd had recently. There was a gate here, a stone arch that was unlike anything else around. In front of that archway, there was a familiar figure, the crying image of himself that the White used. With his new sight, Issachar could tell this being had no soul of its own.

"What are you trying to accomplish?" the White asked them, looking and sounding mournful. "Even if this time moves forward, they'll find another way to control humanity. If none have found a true means of escape in a multiplicity of worlds and histories, then none will be found. The history of humanity is merely one cosmic tragedy after another."

"If we just accept that, it'll keep being a tragedy," Issachar said. "Besides, we're doing this to stop others from suffering. That's enough reason to keep trying."

"One person can suffer from many things, you both know that," the White said. "Stopping one source of suffering isn't enough."

"It stops things from getting worse, that's enough reason to go on," he said. "Get out of our way, we don't need you."

"We don't need you to be doing pointless things when the solution of simply accepting a true end is there," they said.

"Issachar, you're going to have to fight this on your own," Flynn said. "I want to help, but we are deep in your mind and I don't want to end up hurting you. But, I know you can defeat the image of your despair in your own mind."

"That does make sense," Issachar said. Maybe the reason he couldn't defeat the White before was because they hadn't really been there outside his mind.

"In this specific case, I will always be here within your soul," the White said, shifting from a echoey presence to a mimicry of himself. "I came in here early because you could not fit into your community. Every aspect of us is different from the rest. Over the years, this became strong enough that you know you run contrary to everything that goes on around you. Even as they may praise you, we know that it is always a sign of that difference, that wickedness."

He couldn't deny those words; they were painful, cutting into him and drawing blood in this dream state. So this would be a fight. With his changed form, his skills had also changed. He now knew Mahama, Media, Me Patra, and Talthum Shot. But, the White was using the words that he'd tormented himself with. Attacking them would only get that damage thrown back at himself.

And, there was what the White was. "I must take that difference and use it to improve myself and the lives of those around me," Issachar said, setting up Me Patra to affect both himself and the White. It was a warm feeling of reassurance, much like the song he'd been singing earlier.

The White reacted like it was agonizing, stumbling back against the stone arch. "H-how do you mean to do that?" they asked, bewildered. "If people saw what you were really like, they'd reject you immediately."

"If they saw him like he is now?" Flynn asked skeptically.

"I have suffered from being different and thinking myself wicked for it," Issachar said, following up with Media. It cleared up all the wounds he'd been given, at least in this battle. "But that makes me want to do what I can to alleviate the suffering of others. I may not be able to stop all suffering that leads rise to something like you White, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't do what I can to make things a little better."

The White was gasping painfully now. "It… It's useless to struggle against us… Aaaah!" They gripped their head right before the white shell of them shattered. What was left was a ghostlier presence, looking the same but far weaker. "I, I…" it stammered, then drifted away from them. "I'll always be here, inside you," it said faintly. "But, I am your despair alone now. Perhaps that may help you, but I will always be here." It then fled into the woods.

"Well as long as it's my despair alone, I can handle it now," Issachar said.

"That was interesting," Flynn said. "And good to know, although making use of that example may have to wait."

"Yeah, but let's go ahead and take care of what we came here for," he said. "Then through here, the control piece should be there?"

"Yes," Flynn said. "This will trigger another battle with what was left to defend it, but as we'll be in the Expanse, I don't have to hold back. That won't take long. Just be aware that the Expanse is currently ruled over by the White. This isn't the proper time to evict them, so we'll just take care of the D-gene and then leave."

"Why can't we just take care of them now? They seem dangerous." And not even obviously dangerous since they were despair, which was a very quiet if not silent danger.

"I'm counting on them to do something, to reveal things to you and our friends that give a better understanding of the situation we're in," he said. "You trust me, but for the others, the experience is important. It's dangerous, but don't forget that they only understand despair." He put a hand on Issachar's shoulder. "They don't understand that what they did to us will end up making us stronger, to where you could already deny them their connection to you."

He smiled at that. "You're right. I feared that they would be right, but they're not."

With that settled, they headed through the arch. They ended up on another forest path, but this one was much different from those of his dreams. These were faint woods, almost entirely drained of color and life. With the stillness, silence, and fog all around them, this was more like a sketch of a place, not an actual place itself.

But there was something very real near them. It was like a twisted chain of crystals, radiating streams of light outward to reach invisible paths out to others affected by this curse of transformation. Before long, one of the chains of lights arced through the air, revealed to be a connection to himself. Another tried to reach Flynn but could not take hold of him.

An even stranger creature was near it, made up of four faces, many wings, and not much else. "What do you mortals do here?" they asked, four voices in unison. "Go back to your dreams; this is not a place for you."

"This is not a place for you," Flynn replied, waving a hand at it. An immense white light erupted right on the strange angel, causing it to shatter to dust before it could realize it was already defeated.

That feeling of power made Issachar's spine shiver. No wonder he'd declined to fight in the dream; the Expanse could take it, but he wasn't so sure about his mind. "Um, Flynn? That was no battle. You just straight up smote him out of existence."

"I did say I wouldn't be holding back," he said, then snapped his fingers. Despite where they were, Trojan appeared immediately to that summoning. "Trojan, carry out the D-gene neutralization plan."

"#GotchaBoss," it replied, then went to hover within the chains of crystals to alter them.

"So what's this going to do?" Issachar asked. All he could see was Trojan flicking its wires around and the crystals flashing in response.

Flynn put his hand on his chin. "Well, if we go with the idea that the genes are a blueprint, what Trojan is doing is altering that blueprint. In those who have already transformed like you, you'll be restored to human form with the option to change to your demon form. That turned out to be the safest way to handle it. For those who weren't transformed, the gene will be rendered permanently inactive. They will be protected from an unwilling transformation, much like the few like me who are immune. Lastly, the gene should pass on immunity to all of our descendants. I have no way to test that, but Stephan thought the immunity should become dominant, in his terms."

"Then I'll wake up a human, but I can go back to this," he said. "That works for me; it'll be nice to be able to switch to this stronger form if I need to."

"Maybe those skills will advance naturally as you gain experience as an angel," Flynn said. "Also, there will be a visible mark left behind as a result of this process. It shouldn't cause problems since the majority of Mikado's citizens will end up marked. I went ahead and left it in as a sign to those responsible that they made a mistake implanting the gene in us."

With a cheery chirp, Trojan flitted back over. "#AllDone."

Flynn nodded. "Good, then we of Mikado have become a free people."

Issachar had a sudden feeling that people were watching them. Perhaps it was because this thing affected all of Mikado? "We'll have to use that freedom responsibly," he said. "We should tell others, to try not to make each other suffer and help each other find happiness instead."

From the way he was glancing aside, Flynn seemed to sense it too. "I hope everyone will take that to heart," he said, then tugged him to head back through the arch into the dream.

Not long after that, they both woke back up in Issachar's dorm. He was no longer seeing souls, which was nice for being able to look at Flynn normally again. But even if he avoided transforming, Issachar felt like he wouldn't be forgetting that sight. "What now?" he asked.

"We'll be called out to account for what just happened," he said. "The angel and demon who were using that to manipulate us are not going to be happy with this turn of events. But I can turn the tide against them and cause them to flee deep into Naraku. Then we'll be asked to go pursue them, and the game will keep building speed from there." But he put his arm over Issachar's side, not going to let him go for the moment.

"This was strange, but it's only the start isn't it?" Issachar asked.

Flynn nodded. "But, we have some time, before they try to confront us. Do you mind if we just stay like this, for a little longer?"

"Of course not," he said, putting his arm around him too. "You can always come to me if you want a calm moment apart from everything else. Even if you want to come back into my dreams, if yours are too restless and dark."

He closed his eyes, not going back to sleep but just trying to hold onto the moment as long as he could. "I might just do that. I don't think I've felt such peace for a long time."

Issachar smiled and just let him rest there in quiet, as long as they could until an alert from their gauntlets on the table called them back out of this peace.

When he got over to his mirror to check on himself, he immediately saw the mark that had been left, on his left cheek. It was a star with in a circle, the lines all black as if it had been made in soot. And strange tiny text that he could not read had been inscribed there all around the circle.

* * *

He just couldn't hurt her.

But Jonathan was running out of ideas now. "Don't look at me," Marie pleaded again, keeping a couple of her hair snakes over her eyes. There seemed to be no way to console her; he wasn't even sure if she was listening to him.

"Marie, I'll protect you," Jonathan said somberly. "I won't let them hurt you. But I don't know what's happened. This can't be an isolated incident, at least, I don't want it to be. We'll find some way to turn you back."

Marie quieted to that; maybe she was listening. Jonathan reached over to take her arm. When he did, he had a strange feeling of calm come over him. And warming loving light, like an angel had descended near them. It gave him hope that something miraculous would happen.

And, it did. Marie got surrounded by that warm light, transforming her back into a human as suddenly as she'd become a demon. Only now, there was some black mark on her left cheek, a star within a circle within a message in a tiny unreadable script. Then something else caught his eye, two people cast in white light.

Two familiar people at that; were they the ones who saved Marie? "We of Mikado have become a free people," Flynn said.

Issachar was there too, an identical mark to Marie's on his cheek. "We'll have to use that freedom responsibly," he said. "We should tell others, to try not to make each other suffer and help each other find happiness instead."

"I hope everyone will take that to heart." Then the vision of them faded.

For a moment, the whole world seemed hushed. "They saved everyone," Marie said quietly, putting her hands to her chest. Her red hair, back to normal, tumbled forward as she bowed her head. "We nearly became a kingdom of demons, but they saved us somehow."

"I'm so glad for that," Jonathan said, then hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry, Marie. I should have been able to do something, but I was at a complete loss." He wasn't going to forget that terror for a long time.

"I, I don't know what happened," she said, hugging him back and crying a little more. "I was worried about things, but it wasn't that bad until… it all just burst out and I felt like my mind was on fire. I'm sorry if I said anything terrible; I wasn't myself."

"It's fine, I'm just grateful you're back to normal," he told her, staying there with her for a long time.

Eventually, something called them to return to the city, to Obelisk Plaza. And while the immediate talk suggested that only a handful had transformed like Marie, nearly everyone they saw that the strange marking on them now. Jonathan, strangely enough, stood out now in not having that mark at all.

He knew he'd have to talk with Flynn and Issachar, ask them if they knew who was responsible for all this trouble that they'd stopped. Once he knew who that responsible party was, Jonathan was going to make them pay for what they had done.


	33. Confrontation in Obelisk Plaza

**Chapter 33: Confrontation in Obelisk Plaza**

Krishna knew that Lucifer would not be easy to locate. The demon lord could make his presence subtle and forgettable, not being noticed unless he was directly in front of you and speaking to you. However, even Lucifer would need to leave some way to find him available for his allies. Through some deduction and dowsing, Krishna was led to Ginza as the place to run into him quickest.

The Ring of Gaea was having a fighting tournament in one of the districts of this area; Lucifer seemed to be there, watching rather than being a participant. As Krishna wasn't interested in such competitions himself, he made a quick stop in the bar of the underground area, then headed up to the central crossroads of Ginza. There was an immense black boulder there, what currently remained of the city's guardian deity.

"I hope you don't mind me here," Krishna said to the boulder as he sat by it. "This is simply a convenient spot for me to prepare."

A spirit stirred within the boulder as he opened the bottle of beer he'd bought. "What are you doing free?" Masakado asked, his words barely a breeze.

"Sorry, I know you went to a lot of effort to imprison me," he said. "But that left me as a presence in the world. I've been watching the world go on, even after it nearly died." He leaned back and sighed, looking up. "I lost all I had, you know. Imprisoned in a foreign land because of a gamble I made against our oppressor, unable to move or even cry out when all of my people died. It makes me want to make even bigger gambles, since I had nothing to lose."

Masakado was watching him suspiciously. Of course he would be. If the places had been changed, their roles reversed, Krishna knew he would be deeply suspicious of him.

"You're a lucky one," Krishna said, then took a drink. "Or maybe not. You still have people to protect. You can still fulfill your role. But then, what that's driven you to do has been making them suffer. I understand, though. It's the best that could be done for them."

"What do you want?" Masakado asked gruffly.

Krishna shrugged, idly swinging the bottle in his fingers. "I don't know, maybe just someone to listen to me whine. I had wanted to do something even riskier, raising my stakes to their limits because why not? If it ended up with me erased from existence, I was fine with that. Better that then continuing on purposeless like this. But, I had a vision; there is someone who now believes in me. He also thinks I'm dangerous and he needs to take caution around me. But it's better than nothing."

"You are dangerous," he said.

"Well put yourself in my shoes," he retorted, genuinely irritated at that. But no… he couldn't get carried away. "If you had been the one to lose your homeland and all the people you were meant to protect, and you'd been stuck in a foreign place unable to do anything about it… how long would it take for you to go mad?"

He didn't respond to that, but Krishna felt like he'd understood that.

After taking another drink, Krishna gestured to the dark city around them. "My sole believer, he wants to protect this city below, and the land above. This isn't my home, although I've had believers living here before. But with one person here that technically, if you fudge the meaning of things in a loose way, gives my original purpose back to me… well now I need to fulfill his prayers and do what I can to help this place too."

"You're going to protect Tokyo and Mikado?" Masakado asked, not completely skeptical.

Krishna laughed at himself. "I know, I'm desperate. We really are chained to our roles, even cast down and mostly forgotten. Even I, whom people would call adaptable because I can be talked into things easier than other gods, yes, even I end up chained to what my identity is. So yes, I'm trying to protect the people here and above now even if most of them have no clue about who I am. So could I ask a favor of you, the one with a guardian's eye over the city?"

"What?" Masakado asked.

He asked him a question.

Masakado gave him the answer, although it took him a moment out of being surprised at it. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Well if you don't mind, I need to appear out of my mind drunk by the time that tournament over there ends," Krishna told him, then explained more about the situation.

* * *

"As if things couldn't get any worse…" although she quickly realized that was entirely the wrong thing to let slip out loud.

Lilith didn't know what was going on anymore. She knew that Gabriel kept Mikado on a very rigid course. As it had been, the people should either continue on mindlessly in their strict lives or attempt to change direction in specific violent ways. They had done so for nearly fifteen centuries now. While this time would be (or rather, should be) violent and revolutionary, it would either be claimed by Chaos finally or just go back to the same old rut under Law again. However, anything seemed possible now.

They had left the humans alone for most of a year, and they'd nearly managed to achieve a bloodless pacifist revolution that wasn't fully in line with Law or Chaos. If they'd been gone for a full year, perhaps Mikado would have completed such a bizarre accomplishment. They'd found their own wisdom and knowledge, which was good for Lilith. But they'd found it on their own and now wanted little that demons could offer them, which was bad for Lilith. Even the Chaos hero was like that!

While that just left Lilith perplexed and with little idea of how to move forward, Gabriel had responded by activating the D-gene and somehow making a mess of that too. Maybe it was a result of the mad angel trying to do that on her own instead of waiting on the release of her peers. At any rate, one moment Lilith had been chatting with a group of Casualry Literature lovers trying to find a means of tempting them, and the next moment, three of them had spontaneously turned into demons without any triggering from her.

And they were transformations that Lilith wasn't expecting at all. There had been no rage from the three of them. One had gotten abruptly upset over something and had thus turned into a banshee. But for the other two… both of them had seemed suddenly happy, but it must have been over different things since one of them turned into a pixie and another had turned into a unicorn. The others in the group had been startled, especially by the banshee. Then they simply seemed confused with little fear to them, perhaps because the banshee was merely sobbing instead of putting out a full on wail.

Lilith managed to pull the banshee aside, then tried to call demons transformed from rage, lust, or despair to her. She could guide those people, that was certain. But only a few had reached her by the time all those transformed suddenly transformed back into humans. Should that even be possible? Lilith hadn't thought so, but she'd seen it happen right before her eyes. There had been no anarchy, seemingly no death either.

Who could do this?

The answer seemed to come in a vision, one that nearly everyone across Mikado became witness to. It had been two of the young samurai: Issachar and Flynn. In a cheeky move, the latter even claimed that the people of Mikado were free. Then, it had to be one of the two of them who was the Messiah of this generation.

By an allowance from the seraphs, the Messiah should be naturally immune to something like the D-gene. That person wouldn't transform. But in the vision, Issachar had obtained a mark that Lilith saw echoed on the transformed ones. A number who had not transformed also had the mark, but theirs was missing the celestial text surrounding it. Flynn did not have any mark, thus he had to be naturally immune. Thus, he had to be the Messiah.

It was kind of ridiculous given what they'd witnessed with the dreams. But now, Lilith couldn't laugh at it. This move of his… it shouldn't even be possible. There was no way a mere human could know enough about a curse like the D-gene to utterly undo it within minutes of it becoming active. And in an entire country's population, no less! This Messiah would be trouble unless she could guarantee him for Chaos.

Perhaps she could convince the transformed humans that it was a sign that they should side with demons? But Lilith had barely started talking with them when Gabriel suddenly called out to the humans, telling them to gather in Obelisk Plaza immediately if they could. She sounded angry.

This might be better to keep out of. Or, it might be immensely entertaining for Lilith. This wasn't a good position to be in, but at least she'd get to see Gabriel lose her cool for once.

* * *

Issachar had not been in Hope's office before, but Flynn was there frequently. Interestingly, the commander also had a star marking on his face. So had all the older samurai they'd come across. "What happened just now?" Hope asked.

"A lot of it is complicated, but we just stopped a plague of people turning into demons," Flynn said. "I expect that those responsible will show themselves and want an explanation of why their plans were stopped."

Even though that was a vague explanation that others might find unbelievable, Hope nodded to it. "I see. Are those who turned into demons going to be trouble?"

"Possibly on an individual basis since they can turn from human to demon at will now," he said. "Issachar's one of those. On a general basis, no."

"That's good to know," Hope said. "Will this mark remain on them so we can distinguish them from actual demons?"

"It should, but there hasn't been time to test that," he said.

"I'm not quite sure how it would work," Issachar said. There had to be something to trigger becoming one or another.

"Me neither," Flynn said.

"Then what would be coming next?" Hope asked. "I can imagine those responsible for this will be a problem. Who are they?"

"They're some very powerful demons who've been hiding in Mikado for generations," he explained. "If they don't fight us outright, they'll most likely head to the depths of Naraku. One of them might go to Shene Duque, but Naraku is more likely. Whatever the case is, we'll want to be going to the underground past Naraku."

"To the land of the Unclean ones?" he asked, surprised.

Flynn narrowed his eyes at the term, but only a brief time. "Yes. Not doing so is only delaying the inevitable. But we will need plenty of samurai to stay behind and protect Mikado. When we do descend, stronger demons than we're used to will ascend and try to invade."

Issachar finally thought about the mark on his cheek. It was a key to something in his mind and if he thought about it, he could shift over to being an angel. "All right, I got it. It's simple as long as you can visualize the mark."

After glancing at him, Hope nodded. "Good, your mark is still visible. I'll make sure to get word of that out quickly."

With that confirmed, Issachar repeated the shift just as easily. Then a voice interrupted them, one that seemed to come from every direction at once. "You have made a bold claim to be free, but you all shall soon see the truth of your situation. All of you who can, meet in the Obelisk Plaza immediately. I want to see the samurai Issachar and Flynn there in particular."

"Whoever that is, you've made her angry already," Hope said.

"I was prepared for that," Flynn said.

"We'll be fine," Issachar said.

They headed out to the Plaza, Hope hurrying ahead to organize the other samurai to keep the crowd peaceful. There were already a number of people gathered. However, they were keeping clear of the area right near the Obelisk. There, a single woman in a nun's white and blue attire was waiting on them. People recognized them from their glimpse into the Expanse, and thus respectfully moved aside to let them into the center with her.

While Issachar didn't recognize her, Flynn knew who she was. "Hello Sister Gabby," he said.

She maintained a calm expression but her eyes glared at them sternly when he greeted her. "You two. We'll speak in a few moments."

"Very well," Flynn said, then turned to him. "Don't let the crowd and her get to you," he said quietly. "Do what you think is right in this; I should be able to work with it."

"All right," he replied, deciding to take these few moments to brace himself for this confrontation.

Before long, he spotted Walter and Isabeau coming to the front of the crowd; neither of them were marked. Naverre emerged soon after, bringing along his younger brother to see this. While Naverre had a simpler star like Hope did, his brother Gaston strangely did not. Seeing the four of them made him feel better. Jonathan and Marie managed to get to the front of the crowd as well to support them; he wasn't marked, but she had the one with writing. She had transformed and it didn't take special sight to notice that Jonathan was quietly furious over that.

It felt like as soon as the latter two arrived in sight, Sister Gabby said, "Quiet," and the whole plaza complied in interest. "I am Sister Gabby, a member of the monastery, and I have called you here to bestow upon you some revelations I have had recently while on a solitary communion with God. This past year has seen many changes come over our nation, but I tell you that these changes are the delusional results of a festering corruption within the souls of our people. This has caused demons to become bolder and hide among us to further push us to our ruin. Indeed, the events of today were a punishment set upon us by God, to reveal the hidden demons and the worst souls among us."

"So you're saying that anyone who transformed today was either a demon or a very corrupt soul," Flynn said, causing murmurs among the crowd. Issachar bit his lip. There was something about Gabby that made her calm words feel like a condemnation.

"Yes, that is so," she said. The murmurs became grumbles as the crowd did not like it. "But you stopped God's retribution short."

"We discovered the means to do so through a desperate gamble," Flynn said. "That seems like an inconvenient hole for the all-powerful God to leave within His work."

"Are you questioning God's power in front of everyone?" she said. If the flicker of her eyes was any indication, she barely kept from losing her cool just at that.

Issachar decided to try answering that one. "No, it's more like if we could stop such retribution on accident, it doesn't seem like something God did. And it seems strange that He didn't give a better warning of what was to come, like He does in the old stories."

"Right, we're just wondering if God actually did that," Flynn said. "And why would He allow His chosen people to turn into demons? It seems more like something a demon would try to pull on us; we only have your word that it was God's retribution, not some demon's elaborate curse."

"Why would you question me, one who has been in God's presence?" Gabby asked them.

"Because you're human and just as likely to be mistaken as we are," Flynn replied.

That got to her. "I am not mistaken," she said sharply. The very air around her wavered, quieting their audience back down. "But if you will doubt my words, then know this: I am not human. I am an angel, a humble servant of God. I have been placed here to guide you all to a state where you may enter Paradise. But the arrival of that Literature you all have been enamored of has led you so far astray that God has become displeased with you. You should suffer the consequences of your sins, not find ways to circumvent the punishment."

She was an angel? That could account for the presence she emitted, like a bright light cast upon them. It definitely had an effect on most everyone there.

Most everyone. Flynn was unflinching before her. "You don't seem like an angel, looking like a human instead."

"I called you all here!" she declared, her body going tense. "I'm sure every single one of you now knows the light I bear; you can't question that."

"I can and I will," Flynn challenged her. "This could all be a trick; you could be a demon. That would make sense of…"

"I am not a demon!" The air vibrated again and Gabby's body vanished into a haze of light. When that cleared up, a strange being that stood nearly twice as tall as them was there in her place. She had a porcelain mask that resembled her human guise, but that was the sole thing that remained of it. The rest of her body was like a gathering of thorny brambles tied up in the vague shape of a human. "I am an angel and you should not be questioning me!"

Strangely enough, a second similar being emerged from the crowd at the same time. Her brambles were black and her body much thinner, but she had a strangely similar white porcelain mask for a face. As people drew away from her, she sighed and came forward. "Ugh, did you have to force me out too?"

Gabby pointed to her. "That is a demon; I am an angel, the seraph Gabriel. The difference between us is as clear as night and day."

"No it's not," Flynn said, getting agreement from the crowd. "You both look the same, just like demons. So then, you two are responsible for nearly turning everyone here that now bears a star into a demon."

"Hey, don't bring me into this," the black demon said. "I was going to use the plague that's been in Mikado's population for generations…"

"You be quiet!" Gabriel commanded.

But she wasn't about to listen to her either. "…as well as the Literature to increase your wisdom and knowledge to set you all free of them. But then you stopped the plague she triggered, so…"

"So she's lying by saying that it was God who triggered the transformations," Flynn interrupted her quickly. Issachar noticed a shine of sweat to his face; Flynn was more uncomfortable with doing this in front of a crowd than he was.

"Well yes," the black demon said.

"It doesn't matter because I am following God's will in all I do," Gabriel insisted. Some ends of her brambles snapped in getting whipped in agitation. "Lilith here is only trying to corrupt you, drive you further away from God and into suffering. I have kept Mikado stable and at peace for all of this time! Why do you humans keep insisting on going against my guidance?"

"Because you're a demon and Mikado under your guidance has led many people to live unhappy lives full of ignorance," Flynn said. The crowd called out their support of that defiance. "And you too, Lilith, you said you freed us but it was our studying, discussing, and thinking that led us to realize that things needed to change. You're trying to control us as much as she is, that is, if you two aren't working together."

"I wouldn't work with her by choice," Lilith said, indignant at the suggestion.

"Never," Gabriel agreed. "But you are still mistaken in thinking that I am a demon. I am an angel, one who has existed for much longer than your foolish species has existed as a whole. Are you so willfully blind that you cannot tell the difference between us?"

She insisted on being an angel, but there was an easy counter to that. Issachar put his hand to his chest and transformed himself into an angel. "We have a hard time believing you to be an angel when I got changed into one today," he said. Many people were gasping and staring at him. Although, he was paying more attention to how she looked now.

"Wh-what?!" Gabriel sputtered, seemingly staring at him.

"Oh my, that's unexpected," Lilith said, almost amused at it. But there was something fearful to her attitude.

"How, how dare you impersonate us, you wicked human!" Gabriel shouted, clenching her brambles around and seeming like she might attack him.

Flynn nearly got ready to attack her back, but Issachar put a hand on his arm to get him to hold off for a moment. "I do see you differently, though," he said, causing a hush of anticipation around them. It was a different light than around a human, much easier to read.

"Really?" she asked, skeptical of it. But she did relax her power.

Nodding, Issachar answered, "You are suffering immensely from being alone and lost, but you're too wrapped up in your own pain. It's made you blind to how you make others suffer. Still, I hesitate to acknowledge you as an angel because there is so little love in your soul. You may think you're guiding us to Paradise, but you don't love us at all. So even if you are an angel, we don't need or want that kind of guidance."

"What, so you'd rather go with a delusional delusion like her?" Gabriel asked, reflexively trying to escape what must be a painful truth.

"Um," Issachar looked over at the black demon. "No. She makes us suffer as well, but she knows it and enjoys doing so. She'll only help us if it amuses her, or benefits her more than us. So, I agree with Flynn, that you're both trying to control us without actually caring about us."

"I am not a delusion," the black demon said, trying to ignore what he said. "Well thanks for nothing, Gabriel, I knew I shouldn't have counted on you. But I will find a way to bring true freedom and wisdom to any of you who wishes for it. Just ask for me, and I will be there." She laughed and changed into a bird that flew off.

"These are all lies and delusions," Gabriel insisted. "You know nothing of what you are saying; you know nothing about the universe! Fine, if you're going to question even me, then I will prove my power as an angel to…" she stopped. Issachar noticed that she'd been trying to do something, but the markings that most of the crowd bore now blocked it immediately. And those like Flynn who had no marking simply weren't affected at all.

"I will admit that as we were both born Casualry, we would have little knowledge of angels," Flynn said, slipping around the fact that he knew far more than he should. "But I do know of someone who has studied angels and would be able to offer their learning to this discussion. Right Jonathan?"

"Err," Gabriel suddenly seemed frightened of something, but Issachar wasn't sure if anyone else could tell that given how strange her form was.

Jonathan stepped into the opening. There was… something to his soul, Issachar noticed. A purity of light that wasn't the same as others, although the meaning of that sign escaped him. It didn't take Issachar long to realize that Walter had a very similar light to him, yet different. Like… maybe like fragments of pottery from the same jar, but in different shapes and hues.

"That is true," Jonathan said while Issachar was trying to figure this strange sign from them out.

"So do you believe her to be the seraph Gabriel?" Flynn asked.

As Jonathan looked up at her, there was a strong flicker of anger in him. Marie just behind him had the marking of one who had been transformed; that explained his anger, especially as Gabriel had all but stated that she was responsible for triggering the demon transformation. However, Jonathan managed to set aside his anger for the moment and examined just her. The crowd was silent, waiting to see what his answer would be.

"Some angels are recorded to have strange and nearly incomprehensible forms to us," Jonathan said. "But not the seraphs, who are described as having a very human-like appearance with large feathered wings. In particular, Gabriel is said to be a beautiful man or woman, depending on the situation. This is an appearance unlike any angel I am familiar with, and in fact most resembles the structures we have seen within demon domains. Issachar, on the other hand, is very clearly an angel right now; that is unquestionable and anyone could see that. Thus, whatever power you may have, whether your name is actually Gabriel or not, I would sooner believe you to be a demon rather than the blessed seraph Gabriel."

After a stunned moment of silence, Gabriel shrieked with more agony than anger. She fled off in the same direction that the other demon had gone. And, that was in the direction of Naraku. The gathered people booed her off, or cheered them for their efforts in awe. Flynn closed his eyes, collecting his thoughts to speak to them.

"Whoever those demons really were," Jonathan said, raising his voice and getting some nearby to quiet and listen, "we should track them down and hold them responsible for what has occurred today. This could have been tragic if you both hadn't found a way to undo their curse so quickly."

"I hope this leaves no lasting problems," Flynn said to him while the crowd was still noisy.

"Yes, I feel the same," Jonathan said more quietly.

"Hoy!" someone in the crowd called out, someone that didn't seem familiar. "If those two were hiding out among us as humans, are there other demons like that around?"

That question caused the crowd to quiet as they realized that problem too. "It is a possibility, but we should not be overeager to flush them out," Flynn said, addressing the crowd now. "Such problems should be taken in a calm and fair manner so as not to wrongfully accuse the innocent."

Meanwhile, Hope had made his way though the crowd to them. "That would be a wise course to take in this," he said, projecting his voice well to make sure people were listening. "The markings many of us bear now are important and will be visible on transfigured humans; such persons should be treated fairly and justly."

"But what if there are other demons?" another person asked.

"As samurai, it is our responsibility to keep such demons under control," Hope said. Flynn relaxed since the commander had taken over addressing the crowd. "It is unfortunate what happened today, yet very fortunate in that we could regain control of the situation so quickly. Be at ease, citizens, as we will be assessing what allowed those two to slip under our watch and what we can do to restore security to our kingdom. It may take time for, as we have said, we do not wish to be hasty and make unfair judgments."

"But we will do what we can to right the wrongs that these demons have inflicted on us, right commander?" Flynn asked.

"Indeed, we will do our best to accomplish that," Hope said.

* * *

Today… today had brought Abbot Hugo so many problems. He'd gotten a headache that made his thoughts seem to burn, but that had gone away almost as abruptly as it had come on; nothing more had come of that although it had him worried. Then he learned that about two dozen people in the monastery had changed into demons without warning, only to all change back at once around five or ten minutes later. In some files he was allowed to read because he was the abbot, he had learned of the possibility of demonic transformation in sinful people. It came and went like a plague, but he didn't recall past plagues being so brief.

He thought it'd be a good chance to kick some people out of power, those that he didn't like but had no good way to get rid of them. Actually, he'd gotten a message that King Akazuya had been one of those who had transformed. Hugo had butted heads with him on several occasions, especially lately on the Casualry issues. This could have been a golden opportunity, if he could explain away his own marking as some mistake. But alas, the transformation plague was so short, and then Hope and some other samurai had started talking about treating transfigured people fairly and justly.

But being 'fair and just' didn't work! That kind of attitude let people think they could get away with things as long as they could find some excuse to push the blame off themselves. And taking time in the name being careful when it came to demons was ridiculous as well. One had to deal with demons swiftly and firmly, so they did not gain any ground whatsoever. Give an inch and they'd take a mile, and such things as that.

Worst of all, though, was having Sister Gabby revealed as a demon. Her, a demon! Hugo didn't believe it. It had to be some impostor, especially with how she'd lost her cool so easily. This morning, she had seemed to be in a bad mood. That was understandable, given the deplorable situation she had to return to with the servants quitting and all the nonsense about Literature going on. But even on the worst days, Gabby didn't lost her temper. She couldn't be a demon; it had to be an impostor.

What did he do now as the leader of the monastery? He would like to know where the real Gabby was, but she had said nothing about where she was going. He wanted to stick to his principles, but the loss of dedicated servants was getting tiring. And what of this talk of the samurai going down to the country of the unclean ones down in the depths of Naraku? It was something that was strongly advised against in the old writings.

But then again, Naraku was the source of mystic artifacts. All mystic artifacts were handed over to the monastery since they were the ones who studied them. It gave them power and knowledge that the ordinary citizens didn't have. If the monastery approved of the samurai's mission, they'd end up with more mystic relics, potentially more power. That could be advantageous thing coming out of this crazy day. When that came up, Hugo would be fine with approving of the mission. He'd issue it himself if he could.

But what of everything else? He wished that he did have a direct connection to God, to get some divine advice on this. But God didn't answer questions, openly at least. Figuring out what God's will was often took long periods of prayer to get that quiet insight… or trusting one's instincts and figuring out which thoughts were suggestions from God.

He would have to spend some time in meditative prayer on all of this mess.


	34. The Opening Blows of War

**Chapter 34: The Opening Blows of War**

The Gaea tournament ended up with a sixty percent mortality rate among the humans. So about what Hikaru expected. Thankfully, she hadn't missed much despite getting whisked away to dreamland on fate's call. One of the winners probably wouldn't survive his wounds, but that death would be honored by the Ring. But now that it was over, she should probably head over to Shinjuku. The game plan had been delayed, but it should stay in the same basic form. Their visitors would have a limited path before them.

There was no point to sticking around, so Hikaru headed off to reach the Ginza terminal. But in the crossroads, she spotted something interesting. Or rather, someone, a man in a green suit that had the air of a lost god. This one wasn't a guy to rely on, since he could be unpredictable. But he was powerful in his own way, enough that he should be sealed up when he wasn't needed.

In fact, he should be sealed since the last Hikaru had heard of Krishna, the Japanese pantheon had captured him since he'd tried to instigate trouble against the Hebrew God. But here he was, with several empty bottles near him. Masakado was watching him, but he was stuck as a boulder and unable to do anything about them.

Hikaru went over to Krishna, considering what she might be able to do with him. "Hey, what are you doing out and about?" she asked, smiling in anticipation.

"S'none of your business," Krishna said, not looking up at her.

"Come now, you must have done something clever to get out of your prison," she said. "They locked you up pretty good behind a lot of layers."

"I dunno, don't care," he said.

"I don't know how he got out either," Masakado's ghostly voice said.

"So what's he doing here?" Hikaru asked.

"Whining and being drunk," Masakado said.

"What else I'm I supposed to do?" Krishna mumbled. "Would rather still be in the seal, cause I could knock myself out."

He was desperate, probably driven mad being sealed when his homeland was destroyed. In that state, he could be easy to convince into helping out her plots. "Hmm, that does sound tough," she said. "Hey, Masakado, do you mind if I take off with your cute friend?"

"I don't like either of you," Masakado said gruffly. "If it gets rid of both of you, go right ahead."

"Nice!" Then a chiptune ring interrupted her with a text alert. "Oh, hang on," she said, getting her phone out of her bag.

It was from Samyaza: 'You might want to come over here to Kinshicho. Lilith just rushed down and said Gabriel was in a rage coming after her.'

"Hmm, that could be fun," she said out loud.

Inwardly, she wondered what was going on. Gabriel wouldn't come all the way down to Tokyo for nothing, especially after she'd come down on a mistaken premise. Hikaru didn't want her gaining ground down here. But if she was in a rage, she might just be easier to capture. Hikaru sent a text back saying that she'd think about it for a moment.

And there was the matter of Krishna too. Hikaru tucked her phone away, then leaned down. "Hey, Krishna? You were out to fight YHVH, weren't you?"

"What about it?" he mumbled, finally looking up at her.

"Why don't you prove your willingness to do so?" she asked.

If nothing else, even if he lost, a battle between an enraged Gabriel and a drunken Krishna might just be hilarious.

* * *

It had taken some time for him to locate Hallelujah, during which he had dropped his human guise to ward off the weaker demons in the streets. In doing so, Samyaza couldn't enter Kinshicho. But without the need to maintain the Abe disguise, he could get a glimpse of what was around Hallelujah from outside.

Unfortunately, the boy was asleep now. He had located Nanashi, though, as they were sharing a men's bedroom. Nanashi was definitely someone special, although Samyaza wasn't sure how he was special. He simply had an unusual soul. And if the angels meant to come down and cause trouble, a soul like Nanashi would be drawn in as a potentially powerful piece to this cosmic game. Then it was good that they were aware of him now.

While Samyaza was considering what he should scold Hallelujah about (though it was pleasantly surprising that he managed to get here with just Chiron's help), one of his lilims squealed and burst into black flames. He glanced around to find who could have done such a thing, but then she transformed and became Lilith. "Phew, barely out of there."

"Hey there, babe," Samyaza said, smiling at her. "It's been a while."

"Hey Samyaza," she said, sounding tired. "Sorry, I need to talk to Hikaru."

Not wanting her to slip off, he summoned out his phone; he didn't have a convenient pocket in his normal form. "No problem, I can text her. What's the deal?"

"Things have gone really awry, and now Gabriel is pissed off," Lilith said. "I barely got away from her in Naraku and she's going to chase me down here."

"That's rotten," Samyaza said, quickly tapping out the text and sending it. "What's gone wrong? I saw her earlier down here, trying to mess with somebody I'm watching."

"We got the wrong names for the heroes somehow," she explained. "So we ended up coming down here for a few hours, leading to us missing most of a year up above. That year was enough for a social revolution in Mikado."

"Well that explains why she'd be pissed, but it should be good to us," he said. Maybe he should go up there, since social revolutions tended to loosen social restraints. It could be fun to make sure they didn't hold back from their changes and went all out.

"Actually, it's going to be a tough sell," she said. "They managed a bloodless pacifist revolution and don't want to rely on demons. I got them access to books and knowledge, but since I left them to their own devices, they think they can handle things all on their own."

"Well don't be giving up early," Samyaza said. "We have lots of time to deal with things and they don't. They'll have to rely on us."

"That's true, but things are starting and the human players will be coming down here," Lilith said. "We might need your help to get things back in place."

"You know I'm always happy to work with you," he said, smiling at her.

She gave him a smirk and waggled a finger at him. "Now now, I know you have a one-track mind. You can get things done, but you'll get us both distracted."

"You're going to end up waiting on those heroes anyhow, so why not?" Samyaza asked. "Heh, but I will discuss how to change plans. I have connections to the Ashura-kai and you had nothing for me to do aside from watching Kagome."

"So why aren't you at Kagome?" Lilith asked.

"Had an argument with Asmodeus," he said. "Again. I needed some time away, and had to do some things for Tayama to keep in good standing."

"Alright, I'll take that excuse," she said. "But you'll want to inform Asmodeus that Gabriel is going to be down here."

"Sure, I'll do that," Samyaza said, already sending a text to Asmodeus. He doubted Asmodeus would look at it, but he could say that it had been done.

He chatted with her for a while, having some fun with it to get her in a good mood. Then Hikaru showed up with a drunken god, but not one of the usual suspects. "Hi guys!" she said, giving them a wave.

"Hey there," he said, waving back. "Who's your date?"

"What date?" the guy said, confused.

"This is Krishna," Hikadu said. "I picked him up in Ginza. So what's up with Gabriel?"

Lilith explained again, this time with some more detail. "I suspect she'll be here soon."

At that point, Samyaza caught sight of something moving in the darkness overhead, moving rapidly towards them. "Very soon, it seems."

Gabriel was soon there, screeching at them and lashing out even though they were probably not the source of her frustration. It was strange, though, to see her using this almost demonic form rather than her pretty usual self. But, looks weren't a concern at the moment as she seemed ready and willing to kill them straight away.

And there were a lot of things that didn't matter after a few moments when Gabriel annihilated his physical form.

* * *

"What did you do to them?!" Gabriel shouted, pummeling Lilith without a thought to grace. "None of them are right! It's all wrong, what did you do?!"

Lilith had shifted back to her black echo of Gabriel's current form; she was fighting back just as recklessly, kicking Gabriel's mask trying to break it. "What did I do? Don't accuse me of things that you're responsible for! You wrecked the stage we'd set up."

Away from the fight, Hikaru was finding this a lot more interesting than the tournament fights. So those two had been working together, staging something. Staging the opening to this war? Lilith had been giving her a lot of odd ideas and plans that she seemed completely confidant she could pull off. Hikaru had thought it was her usual pride. But if she'd been working behind Hikaru's back with Gabriel, that could explain things. It didn't answer what was going so wrong that the two of them were forgoing any pretense at subterfuge.

"Those pitiful seraphs have duped so many demons," Hikaru said. "One would think they'd learn better. But I doubt this is staged; Gabriel's really coming apart at the seams." She chuckled.

"What's this fighting for?" Krishna asked, looking at the brown empty bottle in his hand and shaking it.

"Our entertainment at the moment, perhaps a very early victory," Hikaru said, then tapped his bottle. "Here, have some more, why not?"

"Thanks, I don't want to be sober," he said, taking a swig of it.

"You any good at drunk fighting?" she asked. He'd probably die against Gabriel just like Samyaza a bit ago, but anything to anger the seraph more and get her to make some critical mistakes would be great.

"Ahm a lover, not a fighter," Krishna said, waving the combatants off. "I ain't going in there."

"Not really what I need at the moment," Hikaru said, tapping her foot. That usually got people worried.

"What's they fighting over?" he asked again.

"A bizarre circumstance surrounding the Messiah and the heroes," she said. "Weren't you listening earlier?"

"Nope," he answered without a trace of shame.

"That's a pity. See, our Chaos hero has evidently turned religious for some damnable reason; he is getting married sometime, but is doing so to support his woman's dreams and is patiently following civil proceedings up in Mikado. So he's not very chaotic from what I've heard."

"Nuh-uh." He looked over at Gabriel and Lilith wrestling with each other, but still didn't seem inclined to intervene.

As she needed to think this over, Hikaru crossed her arms over her chest. "The Law hero is already married, but his was a marriage of passion that crossed class lines. Recently, he's been supporting the lower class of Mikado in their push for better treatment. So he's not very lawful. But they were picked out as the heroes of the respective sides, so it's not like we can swap them around. Neither side can use their heroes well.

"And then, the Messiah himself sounds like quite a character so far. He has a male lover, which should be utterly unthinkable up in Mikado but it happened anyhow. She didn't get to explain it much before we got disrupted, but something about him has Lilith concerned, like he could be a legitimate problem despite what should be a clear sign that he's Chaos leaning already. You got it now?"

"Hmmm…" he took another drink. "Nope."

Hikaru sighed, shaking her head. "It means that the human players are not going to be easy to control for any side. It could be great fun to con the Law hero into working for us, but at some point his nature should snap him right back into place." She could also take advantage of Walter's religious searching if she could determine what exactly he was searching for, causing him to worship demons instead.

"What's it matter anyhow?" Krishna said darkly. Apparently his mind was drifting back to his despair despite how drunk he was. That was not good to anyone; Hikaru knew that the White were watching for any opportunity to advance their nihilistic agenda. She would rather have Gabriel win again than to have the White gain control over humanity.

"Well you're no fun," she said. "Won't fight, won't plot, geez. I bet you have no artistry at all."

"Hey, hey, I have plenty of artistry," he insisted. "I play the flute and I know how to dress well. Much better than that lavender-skinned weirdo that was here before."

"I'll give you that," Hikaru said. "He's probably been talking to Adremmalech if he was wearing that. You're still a wimp for not wanting to fight and help end this sooner."

"Not a wimp, just not stupid," Krishna said, shifting his hat. "But if you want this to end sooner, I got the deal for that." He put his hand in front of his face, covering up some mumbling.

A flash of fire that seemed to come straight from the sun erupted around him; the force of it knocked her several feet away onto the ground. Scowling, Hikaru picked herself up in time to see a fiery tail lash out at both Gabriel and Lilith. Screaming again, Gabriel made a bright light flash in the park, briefly blinding them all with holy power. It also powerfully sealed their magic, not letting them heal at all.

Feeling like she should get involved now, Hikaru focused herself to get ready. The snake Shesha had reduced itself by the time she could see half-decently, hovering around Krishna who had collapsed onto his knees after summoning the great snake. Well he wasn't going to get hurt any time soon, but he also wasn't going to be of any more help here. When Hikaru could fully see again, Gabriel had defeated Lilith as well. She was still shaking with rage, perhaps in being damaged too.

Hikaru wasn't at her full strength right now. Even discounting the brand, she couldn't fight as well as she was capable of. But in this situation, she should be able to emerge victorious still. "Wow, you are in a murderous mood tonight," she taunted Gabriel. "I would've thought you a demon if I didn't know better."

"I am doing God's will!" she insisted, quick to lash out at her. Hikaru jumped out of the way, although her shoulder bag's strap got snapped. "I am doing God's will, you all are to be terminated!"

Throwing her bag back to keep what she had from getting disintegrated, she approached her foe while trying to sidestep all of her angry strikes. Hikaru would have liked to retort to Gabriel's maddened chant, but their attacks were being exchanged so swiftly that she couldn't take the moment for that. When she finally got close enough, she called dark flames to her fists in order to punch Gabriel's mask and break it. But that wasn't enough.

And she was taking a lot of blows too, and her uniform was being torn up! Whatever, Hikaru could care later. In this form, Gabriel did not have standard biology and thus any usual targets were not where one would expect them to be. But she did have areas where her soul had more power: a heart, mind, or lung equivalent, or something of that nature. Hikaru tried attack those areas, trying to find the one with the soft spot to really hurt Gabriel… but she knew her own human form would have easier to find weaknesses.

And… she punched Gabriel in the left shoulder and found one of those soft spots. It was enough to knock her on her back, breaking the rage that the seraph had been fighting under. That let the reality of her weakened state sink in, making it harder for her to recover from the fall. Hikaru grinned eagerly; this was it, a quick easy victory.

She tackled her again and put her weight against Gabriel's shoulders, hoping that kept her down until Hikaru to get someone (other than Krishna) to help out. "My, how the mighty have fallen," she chided. "Letting yourself get ruled by anger so. Just wait until the others know how deplorable you've become. Oh wait, they can't care and soon neither will you."

"You will never win!" Gabriel growled defiantly, lashing her leg tentacles around Hikaru's chest and threatening to choke her that way. "Never, never, that's not in the plans!" And then she threw Hikaru into a nearby light pole and fled the park.

All of a sudden, a string of flute sounds (it couldn't be called music because it was done so sloppily) filled the air, sending a wave of healing power over Hikaru. It even cut through the brand, lifting it as well. "That's, that's it, right," Krishna mumbled.

He could remove an angel's brand? Now that was interesting, potentially a game-changing power. And Shesha was an incredible beast, one under Krishna's control. Perhaps the lost god could actually be of use. Getting back to her feet and flexing out some of her joints, she went back over to retrieve her bag and talk to him. "Well now, I don't think anybody's going to doubt her insanity at this point," she said.

"Could we not do with the fighting?" Krishna asked, unsteadily trying to get back to his feet. He nearly slipped, but Shesha caught and supported him. "S'not, um…" he rubbed his head. "What're we doin' here, Shesha?"

"We were going to go out to talk privately, but then got interrupted by that nonsense," Hikaru said, snapping her fingers. That repaired her uniform and bag.

Shesha looked right at her and hissed, suspicious. Its fiery hood flared open.

"Were we?" Krishna asked, puzzled.

"Of course," Hikaru said, looking back at the snake. Carefully, she reached a hand up to its snout. "So, could you call your bodyguard here off? It could get in the way."

"Mmm, we could give her a chance," Krishna said to Shesha.

The snake hissed again, glancing back in worry.

"Come on, don't you trust me?" he asked. "I've just been drinking a bit, entirely reasonable." After a moment, he sighed. "Mm, sorry, I don't think Shesha's gonna leave me alone now. Vishnu mighta sent Shesha along with word to watch over me. Is that so? Yeah, can't get ridda Shesha now."

"Well I can deal with your snake guard if it can deal with me," Hikaru said. "I don't mean to hurt him, Shesha, I just want to talk with him."

For a moment, Shesha stared at her. Then it bumped her hand, reluctantly going along with this. But the snake stayed right by Krishna's side, maybe in part to keep him on his feet.

"So, how about we nip on over to Shinjuku to relax for a bit?" HIkaru asked with a sweet smile.

* * *

Gabriel flew as fast as she could, straining her body to do so. She kept going until she simply couldn't anymore, leading her to crash in front of one of the old Shinto shrines scattered around the city. What now? If she ran into another demon, she didn't have the energy to fight anymore. Was she going to get captured like the others? Was… was she abandoned to this miserable fate of being alone to her very end?

"No, I trust God," she mumbled, feeling like she might turn delirious. "I've always been faithful; I've always served Him. I trust myself to You, God. P-please help, please help your poor servant even though I have failed on so many levels and I don't know why."

She nearly broke into tears again, but movement nearby caught her attention. It was… humans, a small group of men and women who had been in prayer around the shrine. The Unclean ones, the filth that had been declared unfit for the kingdom of God, they still lived down here. However, it was clear that these ones were not doing well. Their frail bodies were gaunt and pale; their souls were desperate in hunger. They were unworthy.

But, she remembered times when she'd helped humans, those who'd nearly fallen astray and were being punished for losing faith right before they were given an important sign. They were given a second chance. But, they had needed some help or else they'd starve while they were finding their way.

Maybe… she had a little power. And she remembered that magic, the miracle of producing manna from nothing. There was an empty basket nearby that she could fill. "There… some food for your prayers, by God's mercy."

The people gasped, immediately grateful for the food. "Th-thank you, Great One," one of the women said.

Gabriel laughed, feeling bitter in it. "I am not great. God is the one who is truly Great. I am, a mere servant. Gabriel."

"Is there something we can do for you?" the woman asked, crouching down by her. "We are from Tennozu, just over there. We've been praying for some assistance… any assistance, from anyone."

"Direct your prayers to God, the only true power that is," she said. "As for me, I need a place to recover for now. I should be able to set this place apart, this shrine and your home. Just over there?"

Once she got confirmation of where the Tennozu shelter was, Gabriel gathered what little energy remained to her and summoned a powerful shield around the area. That should keep demons out. Then she entered the pagan shrine. It wasn't suitable, but there wasn't a suitable place anywhere nearby that she could reach. And thankfully, the humans left her alone so she could collapse into sleep.

She had faith in God, He would deliver her… somehow…

* * *

'To Fujiwara and the Association:

Just a brief time ago, a battle between a powerful angel and several demons took place in Kinshicho Park. All the residents and Hunters that were in the area were still underground due to the lockdown earlier today, so there were no injuries among us. Cameras were able to capture most of the battle but little of the sound; we can send you a recording if you want. While I know it is the responsibility of a reporting Hunter like me to further describe what occurred, I'm afraid that words fail me in trying to make a report about this battle that does not sound like a bad porn story. Thus I will report what I witnessed as is and ask your pardon in how ridiculous this reads.

I was on guard at the gate into the park proper during the lockdown caused by the power system instability. During that time, several unusual demons came and went, meeting with each other to discuss something. I was unable to ascertain what it was they spoke about due to distance, but I have made a separate report detailing who my demon summoning program could identify of them. At one point, the main demons I was keeping an eye on were Samyaza (who is normally witnessed around Kagome Tower), several lilims, and a succubus.

Then what seemed to be two humans appeared suddenly on the other side of the gate, one a teenage girl wearing a high school uniform and the other a man who appeared very drunk. They ignored me and proceeded over to where Samyaza was. It was then that I noticed that he was suddenly accompanied by a nude woman with a snake, who also turned out to be a demon. Unfortunately, my smartphone was unable to determine one demon's identity (the schoolgirl), but I was able to identify the others as Krishna (the drunk) and Lilith (the nude woman).

While three of the four (the schoolgirl, Samyaza, and Lilith) started talking, an angel identified as the Herald Gabriel flew down and started lashing out tentacles at the assembled demons. Lilith twisted her body around and grew her own tentacles to strike back, while Samyaza attacked back by using dancing to call on magic. Samyaza, the lilims, and the succubus were soon pierced by Gabriel's power and fell quickly to her. Lilith and Gabriel then fell upon each other, screaming and tumbling about.

Meanwhile, the schoolgirl had pulled Krishna aside and kept very close in whispering to him. As Gabriel got the upper hand in her struggle with Lilith, Krishna called out a giant red snake which struck all three of the female demons remaining, taking down Lilith. The snake, identified as Shesha, then knocked over the schoolgirl and pulled Krishna away from them.

Gabriel wasn't content to leave off the battle and then attacked the schoolgirl, Krishna, and Shesha. Krishna stumbled to the ground, presumably because he was drunk, and Shesha wrapped around him protectively. That left the schoolgirl to begin wrestling with Gabriel. Her uniform got shredded in the fight, but she managed to knock Gabriel down to the ground. Gabriel quickly wrapped a tentacle around her to throw her off, then fled before she could be fully defeated. The schoolgirl then went over to pet Shesha, convincing it to let her take Krishna somewhere out of my sight.

As I said before, there's video evidence of this that proves that this was a battle and I am simply reporting what happened.'

It was a ridiculous report, Fujiwara agreed, but it had really happened. They were getting into another war between the angels and demons, just as Nanashi had warned. And while Gabriel had lost that fight, she hadn't been defeated and thus would be a danger lurking around. She also had some allies down here that she would most certainly try to rescue. That was something to remember to mention in just a few moments.

Usually Tayama insisted on meetings at Roppongi where he was based. This time, the Ashura-kai leader came right to him at Cafe Florida. "Well this is a surprise, seeing you here," Fujiwara said, smiling at him.

"Cut the crap, Fujiwara," Tayama said, glowering at him. "What just happened with the JDSDF systems?"

Fujiwara raised an eyebrow at that. "What happened with that?" he asked back.

"I know you were in the system," Tayama challenged him, putting his hand heavily on the table. "And all accounts of us in the Ashura-kai were suddenly deleted, kicking us out. Why did you do that?"

"I didn't do anything of that nature," he said. "I was investigating an anonymous report that someone was trying to launch missiles from Kasumagaseki. And that was true, but it managed to sort itself out."

"Can you prove that?" he said, keeping his hands on the table.

Exactly as he expected. Fujiwara nodded and turned his laptop's screen so that Tayama could see it. "Yes, this is my log for today. I got a message from a partner in northeastern Tokyo about the missile launch and logged in right away. I did an active account check: there was my partner, two accounts of your group including yourself, and someone using Akira's account. Akira's account used its administrative allowances to end the missile launch and ban your accounts. As you can see here, whoever logged in as Akira was on network 3, northeastern Tokyo with Kinshicho, Ueno, and Akihabara."

Tayama leaned over and read the log over twice, probably searching for something to argue with him over. Fujiwara had checked it carefully himself even though he had nothing to hide. After a bit, Tayama rubbed his chin. "So it was probably the rebels up there."

It had been a boy who might be trying to imitate the rebels. Then again, there were some unusual things to Nanashi just in having Akira's demonica. "Most likely," he agreed. "You'll also note that my log does not include stopping nor starting the missile launch. Instead, it was one of your men who tried to fire missiles at Akihabara."

"What about that?" Tayama said, looking down at him. He had to be getting a clue that he was becoming cornered.

"Both accounts were accessed from within Kasumigaseki," Fujiwara explained, acting relaxed in his seat. "So what were you doing there?"

"It's not something you need to be concerned with," he said.

He shook his head. "No, it is of great concern, possibly to everyone in Tokyo. Things that happen in one area can affect the whole city with the Firmament over our heads. Just look at what occurred in Minami Sunamachi. We're not sure what happened there, but now we have poisonous swamps across the whole city. If those missiles had struck Akihabara, everyone would have heard it. Everyone might be affected, but mostly the people in northeastern Tokyo who are already having trouble with the Ginza bridge out. They could have been cut off from the rest of us entirely."

Tayama's eyes narrowed; he didn't care about that section of Tokyo since other than guarding Sky Tower, the Ashura-kai had little they were doing out there. But since they claimed to rule over Tokyo, he couldn't express those feelings. While Fujiwara felt Tayama was a very poor leader, he was the leader they had. The laws of the past were used as convenient to the Ashura-kai; there was no justice system to challenge Tayama through. He had to be handled with caution.

"I understand if it was a mistake," Fujiwara said. "It is very difficult to believe, but it might just happen."

At the table with them, Skins had been keeping quiet. But he couldn't resist adding, "If it wasn't a mistake, that is a very serious offense against everyone in Tokyo."

"Of course, we need to consider the safety of everyone in Tokyo," Tayama said. "We also need to consider the stability of the city, not allowing disturbances to give the demons an advantage over us. It may be best to explain this all as a mistake and not raise a fuss about it." He wanted it to be covered up.

Fujiwara did not; he turned the screen to look for a message. "That could be difficult. Many people asked me if I knew anything about what occurred with the instability that got reported to everyone. I sent my associates the Kasumigaseki log as the best explanation I had. As a result, they want an explanation from you about what occurred there." He turned the screen again to show a message from the Association leader in Ueno; that town had been compliant with the Ashura-kai's rules, but this was angering the people there.

"I was just saying that disturbances are unwanted," Tayama scolded him.

"Of course," Fujiwara said. "And things that are left with no explanation can disturb communities greatly. They wished to know and I informed them the best I could. Now it's on you to explain what you were doing there since that started this whole trouble."

Tayama tried a few other ways to worm out of saying anything, but he eventually said that he'd give some message to the people. But he would not admit to launching the missiles, taking the excuse that it was a mistake. It was a weak excuse; Fujiwara expected that few people would accept it. He didn't want to become a leader that people saw. But if Tayama couldn't stabilize things after this foolish misstep, Fujiwara might have to openly step up to the role at last.


	35. Descent Into Naraku

**Chapter 35: Descent Into Naraku**

A couple of days after the mass transformations, all samurai were called to a meeting in Aquila Plaza. There had been an ice storm the night before, leaving the paving stones slick and the surrounding structures dripping with icicles. As their group save one had shared breakfast in the dorms again, they met up with Jonathan to watch. And he had something strange to say. "Do you think this might be about descending into Naraku?"

"That would make sense," Issachar said, knowing it would be since he and Flynn had talked with Hope about it. "The masters have been discussing with the castle and the monastery about doing so."

"Hmm." Jonathan crossed his arms over his chest. "Our Code said says that we mustn't do so. But perhaps it is time."

"What makes you say so?" Isabeau asked, curious.

"Well I had an odd dream last night," he said. "A voice told me that the underground is a dangerous land, but if we wished to find the truth, and find justice through that truth, we would have to go into the underground."

"Really?" Walter asked, shocked at that. "It's odd, but I heard the same kind of thing in my dream last night. But it was more like 'to have the truth illuminated, you must come to the underground.'"

"Huh, then it should mean something," Jonathan said. "It had me worried since it is against the Code, but maybe it is time."

"I had a similar dream," Flynn then said. "And I heard both things."

"So if we're to find the truth of matters, the dreams say we should break the Code," Issachar said. "I am curious to know what's going on, and it would make sense to go down there since both of the demons ran off there."

"We shouldn't break the Code," Naverre said. "But then again, if we're not willing to go further in Naraku, we can't bring those two to justice. It's quite a conundrum; I've been thinking about it."

Isabeau smiled at them. "You both sound more curious to see what's going on down there."

"Well who wouldn't be?" Issachar said, smiling at it.

Naverre grinned. "Sure, it's one of those grand adventures that inspired my desire to be a samurai, so I am looking forward to it even if it may be a challenge."

"Yeah," Walter said, equally eager. "We'd be going deeper into Naraku than any since perhaps Aquila himself."

"It is a serious business," Isabeau reminded them. "Though I must admit to being curious about what is in the depths of Naraku as well."

"It would be interesting," Flynn said.

Then Hope called for their attention. "We have been in discussion with the king, the castle cabinet, and the monastery about what to do with the two demons that were the cause of the transformations earlier this week. Both demons were seen to flee into Naraku, but our surveys of the dungeon have only come up with a dead bird that is likely the black demon. Still, we cannot actually count her as dead yet.

"Based on that, it seems that both have gone deeper into Naraku, perhaps even as far as the country of the Unclean Ones. We have long been told not to go deep into Naraku as God's chosen people. But the demons may have caused us great harm if their acts had not been negated so quickly. We would like to ensure that our country is safe and this won't happen again. As a result, we have decided to issue a mission to explore deeper in Naraku, to the country of the Unclean Ones, in search of the two demons who tried to harm us.

"This will be a dangerous mission, as it is well known that the demons tend to get more dangerous the deeper one goes. Along with that, the magic of the Unclean Ones is said to be extraordinary, beyond what we know. It is your choice whether you accept it or not; the mission will be put in K's Tavern as usual, with a limited acceptance to make sure we don't leave our defense here thin. If you decide to take it, the monastery has given us what information they have on what lies ahead of you, including an old map of what the Underground country used to look like. All those who decide against the mission should be aware that we will remain on heightened alert as we believe anyone going past the fifth level of Naraku will lead to a change in the dungeon.

"To those who decide to take this mission, our prayers will be with you as we don't know what you will face. To those who remain, we're relying on you to help keep Mikado safe. May God's blessing be with us all. You're now dismissed to make your decision."

As others began to chatter around them, Flynn turned to the rest of them. "Since we've already decided that we'd like to take this mission, do any of you have something to get done before we leave? We don't know how long this will take us out of Mikado."

"I should speak with Marie," Jonathan said. "We should be able to send messages back with our gauntlets; I'll ask my father if he minds being a relay for us."

"That's a good idea," Flynn said.

"If we have some time, I'd like to go inform my family that we'll be gone," Naverre said.

"Walter and I had some things scheduled, so we need to speak with the monastery and the city church," Isabeau said. "My parents as well."

"And the city official," Walter said. "I'll go speak with him and the church's priest; you go on ahead to the monastery."

"Okay, thank you," she said with a smile.

"I should go tell Hope we mean to go," Flynn said. "But that won't take long; we can meet up at K's Tavern when you all are done with your business."

"I don't have any business to take care of, so I'll stick with you," Issachar said. "Is there anything you guys want us to pick up at the stores here?"

"Oh yes, everyone should make sure they have a good stock of medicines, especially detox solutions," Isabeau said.

After getting a list of what the others felt like they'd need for supplies, Issachar went to the apothecary while Flynn went to speak with Hope. A lot of people had seen fit to stock up on such things after the existence of demons got exposed to everyone in the capitol. As a result, the apothecary was low on supplies. But on hearing they meant to go after the two demons, she agreed to sell them a portion of her stock that was being kept off the shelves in case of emergencies. She also said it was possible to transfer stored items between gauntlets, so their contact staying in Mikado could buy supplies for them if needed.

He met up with Flynn at the entrance of K's Tavern. There were more samurai in the tavern than usual for this time of morning, all discussing the mission to go against the Code. Since they had made their decision, they went right up to the blackboard so Flynn could accept the mission for all of them. "K, we need the extra information for the Naraku mission."

"Sure, is it going to be your whole group?" K asked, getting an odd box from under the counter.

"Yes," Flynn said.

"Got it," K said, opening up the box and using a keyboard inside. "We got this all from the monastery, but the abbot's been in a sour mood apparently. Folks are challenging him and so he didn't want to be out giving the mission to us even though he was a strong supporter of it."

"Seems lazy then to skip out on the meeting," Issachar said.

K shrugged at that. "It was probably better without him. Anyhow, like the commander said, this has a map of the country of the Unclean Ones. They used to call it Tokyo; no idea of if it's still called that. Or if you'll find anybody down there, since it's been nearly fifteen centuries since anybody's seen what's below the fifth level of Naraku."

Issachar nearly brought up the time differences, but then remembered that it had been Flynn who'd told him that. No one else in Mikado could know about that. "Right, that's a long time to be stuck underground," he said instead.

"Master, the mission log has been updated with information on four new quests," Burroughs said.

"Four quests?" Issachar asked.

K nodded. "Right. If you take a look at the map you got, you'll see that Tokyo is a huge place. The entire land of Mikado lies above it, after all. It's a lot of territory to be searching for two specific demons, so we decided to add a couple extra quests in order to give you some directions. So you have the two quests to defeat or capture the two demons, the Gabriel impostor and the black crow demon Lilith. You also have two quests to help you explore Tokyo. One is to find a specific place: the Counter Demon Force base."

"Are they like samurai in fighting demons?" he asked.

"Yes, they're actually a predecessor of the samurai," K said. "The Counter-Demon Force gets mentioned in the earliest records, like the first Guisse volume and Aquilla's writings. If there are any remnants of this force, they could be valuable allies to you. You've been given a copy of some of Aquilla's writings that mention where the base should be located. Hopefully they'll make more sense when you're there."

"Hopefully," Flynn said, although he'd surely know where the place was. "And the fourth mission?"

"It's to find locations with mystic relics known as terminals," K explained, making his mechanical hand click its fingers. "If you go next door, there's an ancient building that holds a terminal that is recorded as inactive. Aquilla writes that if a samurai registers their gauntlet with another terminal, the one here will activate and allow instant transport between terminals. It's some kind of sorcery, but it'll be useful. The quest itself is to find as many terminals as you can, since Aquilla suggests that there are a number of terminals in Tokyo. If you find a bunch of them, that should help you get around fast."

"Yeah, that sounds like really advanced sorcery," Issachar said. While Flynn surely knew it, he added, "Can we get into the terminal room next door to see what it's like?"

K nodded. "Sure, nobody uses it for anything."

"We can wait until the others get here," Flynn said.

It took a while as the others got their business taken care of. Those in the tavern were exchanging tales they'd heard of samurai who had gone down to the fifth level. While it was well known that the legendary demon down there was called Minotaur, the stories seemed to vary wildly in what Minotaur was like. He had the sickly hues and sunken face of an Undead, but others insisted that he couldn't be undead. He breathed fire from his nostrils, or poison, or poisonous flames, or icy cold steam. But no matter what these stories claimed, they all agreed that Minotaur utterly crushed those who did not heed his warning to retreat and keep to the Code. It might be that K had lost his hand to Minotaur, but the barkeeper only smiled at that and wouldn't confirm it.

Once the others got back, Flynn took them out to the inactive terminal to explain the extra missions. Isabeau asked one of the obvious questions. "What is this terminal doing here, especially if it's the sorcery of the Unclean Ones? I thought it was all banished."

"We have lamps and the gauntlets," Issachar said. "So not all the mechanical sorcery was banished from Mikado."

"Mikado's laws were made under God's guidance, so He must have seen them as fine," Walter said. "And it's useful without being harmful, so I don't see why they'd want to get rid of these things."

"Then what about the Counter Demon Force base?" Jonathan asked.

"We have what Aquilla wrote, which also mentions Minotaur," Flynn said, using his gauntlet. "Burroughs, would you read that aloud?"

"Yes, of course," she said, then started reading.

'The angels will retreat from the world now that they've ensured that Mikado's surface is free of demons. The demons remain below the Firmament, much stronger demons than have been up here. The angels are adamant that we of Mikado should not meet back up with those they now call the Unclean Ones. In an optimal situation, my generation won't need to. But if demons become a major problem again, it may be needed to go down to Tokyo.

'That could be a long time from now and as the city is very dangerous, we need to ensure that anyone who dares go down there is capable of surviving in that environment. To that end, I will be assigning one of my most loyal demons to guard the gate that shuts off Mikado from Tokyo. Minotaur is a strong selfless fighter who isn't defeated easily. Anyone who is capable of subduing him is capable of fighting most of the demons in Tokyo. And just to be sure, I am allowing him to seal off parts of the cavern so that no more than two humans can battle him at a time. Teamwork is good to have, but overwhelming one demon with numbers won't cut it in Tokyo. Down there, the demons can more easily overwhelm us with numbers.

'While there is much more I would like to pass on to those who find the need to go down to Tokyo, I'll have to write it down at another time. I'm finding myself disrupted from putting this down more than I like with the day to day business that needs to be taken care of with a new nation. But those of you who do go should be able to find some help at the Counter Demon Force base. At the exit of the Naraku passage, it isn't far to a place called Ueno. Cross the river and head south until you find a metal gate with the insignia I'll copy here. The entrance to the base is across the street from that gate.

'And good luck to you who goes there. Underground Tokyo is a place removed from the blessings of God. Those living there will be different than what you know. Please, be considerate of them.'

"Those sound like simple instructions as long as we know what that insignia looks like," Jonathan said.

"That was copied along with this journal entry, so it is available as a reference," Burroughs said.

"Do we have any other writings from him, since he said he had other things to tell us?" Issachar asked.

"Sorry, but that's all that came with the mission files," the AI said.

"I've read a few of Aquila's writings as part of standard study, but I don't recall anything else referencing the Underground," Isabeau said. "Just that it was a dangerous place, hence the restriction in the Code."

"We can worry about finding the base once we're down in Tokyo," Flynn said. "We have to get there first, and that means getting past Minotaur. This says that only two people can challenge him at one time, so we should decide who goes ahead and does that."

"That would be prudent," Jonathan said.

Flynn nodded. "So what do we know of this demon? He's strong and has crippled or killed many capable samurai, so we should expect there to be injuries on our part. As a result, Isabeau, I'd rather you keep out of that challenge as our trained medic."

She nodded. "That's fine, having immediate care should help prevent permanent disability."

"Nearly all of the stories we were hearing just now mentioned that Minotaur is associated with fire and poison," Issachar said. "It seems like if a demon is strongly related to an element, then it doesn't take much damage from that element. So we can guess that Minotaur won't take much damage from fire or poison."

"He's also supposed to be tremendously powerful, so whoever challenges him needs to be able to take a knocking around," Walter said.

"Right," Flynn said.

"But surely he'd be weak to some other element," Issachar said. "Maybe ice? But we can't know until we get down to face him."

"I only learned agi and some physical skills," Walter said.

"Well I've learned needle shot and a few support skills," Issachar said. "No elements, and I prefer keeping a distance from a demon I'm fighting."

"If he is weak to another element, I could figure that out," Jonathan said. "I've learned bufu, zio, and garu, but not agi since I wanted some healing and support skills of my own."

"I've only learned support skills, so I'd have to stick back as usual," Naverre said. "Do you have any skills or spells, Flynn? I've never seen you use any."

"I have some spells," Flynn admitted. "But it's hard for me to use them without remembering some things. Nightmares, and Alice's whisper asked me to kill everyone around me for an undead paradise."

"Oh, well I can understand that," Naverre said quickly. He probably remembered something of Alarune in that.

But Flynn would be remembering a lot more things, and worse. Issachar tried to help him by saying, "Yeah, I saw him use something against David, and that didn't turn out well. Do you have any that don't make you think like that? You should try to overcome that."

"I'm trying," he said. "But it seems like any time I start getting used to it, something like that fight with David happens and all my thoughts around the spells turn dark again. I should try using them around you guys, see if that helps."

Isabeau nodded sympathetically. "Yes, be careful with that as you overcome it. We'll be here to help you." The others quickly agreed to that.

"All right, thanks guys," Flynn said, smiling briefly. Then he turned his thoughts back to their mission, serious again. "I think… Naverre, you are a good supporter, but you don't know any healing spells."

"That's true," he admitted.

"If you had something like Media, I'd feel you and Jonathan were best to take on Minotaur," Flynn said. "As you don't, Jonathan and Walter might be better since Jonathan can take care of the elements and healing, and Walter's strong and tough enough to probably be the best of us at close combat against Minotaur. What kinds of buffs and debuffs do you guys have access to either yourselves or your demons?"

"I've got a guy with War Cry that's been a huge help lately," Walter said.

"I have a demon with Rakukaja and another with Fog Breath," Jonathan said.

"Those should help you guys out fine," Flynn said. "Then you both will challenge Minotaur for us."

"Good, you can count on us," Walter said with a grin, while Jonathan nodded.

* * *

If it had been any other guy saying those things, that he was reluctant to use demon skills because of nightmares, Walter would have given him a hard time. That wasn't something to be afraid of, especially as they were samurai! They were supposed to be tough and take whatever the demons threw at them. Because of that, he often felt disgruntled at the supposed master samurai that avoided tough battles, only taking the easy requests or challenges. He'd even tease Naverre about it even though he had good reason to be wary because of Alarune.

But, it was Flynn. At first, it had just been Walter's own dreams that warned him that something wasn't quite right with Flynn. He wasn't bad, but those dreams hinted that he'd been through something that had been hell for him. And then Walter started seeing signs of that outside of dreams. There had been the incident with David which had left Flynn shaken badly, and their talk on the dorm tower. Long before that, there was also that night out at South Ooida. He'd spoken of becoming disillusioned with what everyone else spoke about with God. Whatever caused that, he was still taking his time in recovering from it. So it seemed like something that could still hurt him if he was made fun of for it.

They had all been down on the fourth level on occasion. It was an interesting place, a large cavern with the path on going down natural stone cliffs and old wooden bridges. Water spilled down the cliffs and walls from somewhere, falling down to a lake down on the fifth level. In this area, one had to be careful. The stronger demons made it a good training area once you made sure you were on good ground.

Even though they had to watch their steps, they had gone ahead of the others and shouldn't be overheard. "Hoy, Jonathan," he said. "What do you think is up with Flynn? I keep having dreams that he's in trouble, but then sometimes he seems fine and other times he's like this where we need to keep an eye on him."

"I'm not sure what, but I don't think it's going to be dealt with easily," Jonathan said. "I too have continued having such dreams. But more than that, I've spoken with Issachar on several occasions and learned that Flynn was his main support during a rough time of his life. If he is disillusioned, it may be because of that time. And if his trouble is something that's been there a long time, it probably will take a long time to solve."

"That would make sense," Walter said. "But I get the feeling that he's been through something else on his own, something with demons or someone that he's lost. Or maybe both. He's lost some feeling of certainty, so I've been thinking of some way to help him. I've tried talking to him, but he doesn't speak directly of what his problem is." He shrugged. "I dunno, something tells me that it's really important to help him because he's important to me. He is our leader, so I should support him. But he seems more important than that."

Jonathan glanced over at him. "Hmm. It sounds odd, but I have to admit that I feel the same way. Like he's a brother of mine even though I have no brothers, and I need to save him before he destroys himself. He usually doesn't seem that bad off, but it's a feeling that comes over me at times when I'm talking to him, like just now during our mission briefing."

"I wonder if someone is trying to warn us about him," Walter said. "Maybe we can find an answer in these dreams? Because they're obvious to me when they happen. There's a dragon in those dreams; maybe it knows something."

"I know of a caged angel in mine, so I can try asking her," he said. "She's the one I speak to most often, but I've seen two others there, Flynn and a boy I've only seen once. I'm not sure if asking the dream Flynn will help, but we could try."

"Right, we should do all we can to figure this out," Walter said. In that time, they had come to the cavern in the wall where the passage closed in and turned downward. A sign on the wall reminded them of the part of their Code that forbid them to go this way. "I never cared much about things forbidden without a given reason, but they really didn't want us going deep into Naraku."

"This is a severe breech of the Code, but I don't care about that now," Jonathan said, showing some anger. Then he sighed softly, trying to calm down.

Walter chuckled at him. "Those two are going to regret provoking you when we find them, aren't they?"

He nodded. "They may be powerful, but I will find a way to put an end to them."

After winding around, the descending hallway opened up into a tall chamber. A pool of water surrounded a pillar larger than them both. While the stone looked natural, the path ran a ring above the pool and around the pillar, leading to a open area of flattened ground, suitable for a battle. A massive pair of iron doors, somehow not rusted from all their time down here, blocked off any further passage.

Such a grand entrance deserved a grand guardian, as was the case with the giant beast standing there. He looked like he should be a physically powerful man by his bronzed torso and muscular arms. However, he had the hooves and the horns of a bull, as well as what seemed to be a shrunken bull attached to his skeletal head. Smoke trailed from his nostrils that was similar to the poisonous air on level three.

Minotaur shifted an ear towards them, then snorted. "Whoever you may be, go no further. This way is forbidden to the people of Mikado and I will kill any who try to go past this door."

"We must go on," Jonathan said, "or else a terrible pair of demons will escape justice."

"Right, have you see a pair of demons like gnarled wood pass by here?" Walter added. "We're after them."

"It doesn't matter to me what demons come and go," Minotaur replied. "But you are not to mingle with the Unclean Ones. Challenge me and you will perish."

Walter moved ahead of Jonathan and signaled his demons to come out. "We're ready for you, so we won't perish."

After snorting again, Minotaur bellowed at them with a war cry. Walter had time to ready his axe to block right before the giant rushed to punch him. It made the axe quiver. Then Minotaur got hit with way cry and fog breath from the other demons in the fight, although Walter suspected that put them on equal footing for the moment. Whenever one of the others got in a bufu attack and made Minotaur flinch, it helped immensely as that gave Walter an opening for a stronger attack without leaving himself too open. He exchanged blows, axe to fists, for what felt like quite some time.

Then something of Minotaur grew more intense, like he was focusing all of his power for a new attack. "Your body is strong and tough, young one, but you seem to lack in cunning. You will never match up to what my master Aquilla was capable of. What makes you think that you can survive what lies below?"

Walter gave him a mocking smile at that. "My fellows have more than enough cunning to cover for my lacking, so I lend them my strength and toughness. They can certainly accomplish what we're setting out to do, so I'm around to take out any stubborn obstacles like you."

While he snorted, there was something like respect in Minotaur's voice as he replied, "If what you say is true, I would believe you. I formed my pact with Aquilla fifteen centuries ago to protect you children. But perhaps you've grown enough…" something glinted near his fist, leading Walter to immediately brace himself.

Then one of those behind him disrupted their talk with another bufu, stopping whatever attack Minotaur had been charging. Walter quickly swung his axe again; it was a little sloppy, but it was enough to crack Minotaur's body. "We have," he retorted.

"I hope so, for that means I have fulfilled my duty," Minotaur said, bravely keeping any pain out of his voice before he shattered into nothing.

"Good job, especially in stalling him in conversation," Jonathan said, recalling two of his demons. "That last attack could have been nasty."

"Yeah, he was getting ready for it," Walter said.

"That was good work from both of you," Flynn said, coming in with the others from behind the pillar. "You guys all right?"

"Sure, just fine," Walter said.

"Let's head on then," Flynn said.

While Walter was strong, he had to have Flynn and Issachar take one of the doors so they could pull them both open. Past it, there was a short hall leading to a single ladder. It was a letdown after such a grand doorway. It was still a ladder down to the unknown, which might be what he'd been waiting for.

* * *

The sixth level of Naraku had some odd resemblance to the dorm hallways, with straight branching paths that held small rooms to the sides. Many of them had broken down furniture. Tables, old lamps, even beds; it was like people had camped out down here. But as it wasn't that far from the surface, Issachar wasn't sure why they would have camped here. There were a few signs around that mentioned a group called 'Sky Tower Excavation Group'. What kind of place was a sky tower, and why would you have to excavate it?

Two of the rooms had doors on them. The first one had a room in better shape than the others. And it was full of all kinds of interesting things: a machine in the corner identified as a generator, a desk with one of the electronic boxes like K had, a bookshelf full of old manuals and books, and a box that had a few small machines that he had seen pictures of. "Hoy, look at these," Issachar called to Jonathan and Naverre who were checking over the room with him.

"What kind of relic is that?" Jonathan asked. "I saw those, but wasn't sure if they were anything."

Issachar picked one up. "They're called guns, something I've seen a diagram of. They're a long distance weapons like a bow, but simpler to use and potentially more damaging."

"Those things can be more damaging?" Naverre asked skeptically. "They don't look like much."

"It's what another book said," Issachar said, recalling the diagram. He pointed it at a stone part of the wall and pulled the trigger. It made a loud bang and knocked his hand back since he wasn't ready for either the noise or recoil. However, it had put a deep hole in the wall. "Yeah, I don't think you could put an arrow that deep into the wall."

"Wow, that is impressive," Naverre said, coming over and trying to see how deep the hole was.

"They could be handy," Jonathan agreed.

"Well there's only four of them here," Issachar said. "They do have a kick-back."

"What was that?" Flynn asked, coming into the doorway.

Issachar turned around and spotted Walter with Flynn. "I found a different kind of weapon, a few guns. They could be helpful since the demons are supposed to be tougher."

"Hmm, is that what they are?" Flynn said, then brought out another one that looked like the one in Issachar's hand. "I found two others in another room."

"That's really convenient since there's only four in this box," Issachar said, then wondered if he'd really found them there. He might have kept two extras from other times knowing that there were only four in this room. "They'll take some getting used to. There seems to be a lot of interesting things in here, but I don't know if much more will help our mission."

"If those demons were down here, we'd see a sign of them, I'm sure," Flynn said.

"I think I found the terminal, in the other closed room," Isabeau said. "The room lit up, but the screen asked for a name for the terminal up in Aquilla Plaza. I wasn't sure what to name it."

"We could name it Aquilla Plaza since that's where it leads," Flynn said.

"That would make sense," Issachar said. "What was the name of the terminal on this level?"

"Well for some reason, it was named Sky Tower," Isabeau said.

"What, like all of the signs around here?" Jonathan asked, shocked.

"Maybe it's a company name?" Issachar wondered aloud. "Because you see that in Literature sometimes, where shops and work groups would have individual names instead of simply being called the tailor's shop or the Casualry bakery."

The answer would come sooner than they expected, and not what any of them (aside from Flynn) expected at all.


	36. First Sight of Tokyo

**Chapter 36: First Sight of Tokyo**

If he wanted to, Flynn could tell the others exactly what they were going to find. He could warn them of a lot of dangers that lay ahead, from demons that were much higher level than they'd seen to humans who were more than they seemed. But it was important for them to experience things for themselves. That was a better teacher than simply telling them what was to come.

And seeing their blind wonder at things he'd long ago grown used to was almost as good as feeling that wonder at a strange new world himself. Especially now that he'd let himself care more about what was around him rather than keeping himself detached in playing the games of gods. "Whoa, how did the stars get below us?" Walter asked in shock as they all got draw to the large windows around the observational platform. "Or wait, are those stars?"

"We couldn't have gone clear through the Earth since we didn't go as far down as the cliffs around Mikado," Jonathan said. "They do seem like stars."

"No, I think they look like buildings down there, all lit up in this darkness," Naverre said, still impressed at it.

"Well the ones who live down there are said to be sorcerers and such," Issachar said, leaning on the railing to be close to the window. "And science and machinery are considered sorcery, so lights wouldn't be a big deal to them."

"It's a beautiful sight, whatever it is," Isabeau said.

While they were all interested in what was below, Flynn looked at the Firmament sitting just above them. Flickers of something tried to be found in his mind: this place all lit up looking over the bustling city below, people chatting with family or a date as they visited without knowing the crisis to come… they had protected Tokyo from total obliteration like the rest of the world but had no idea what that protection would lead to. Could he have done that life any better? But that time was beyond his reach now, set in stone as history.

He needed to make this life go much better…

A tug at his sleeve drew his attention out of the past. Issachar was there, bright and eager like he was a kid again. "I'm glad I got to see this," he said quietly. "But there's better things to come."

The others were over at the elevator now, figuring that mundane device out. Since they weren't paying attention to the two of them, Flynn smiled at him. "Of course. But do you think you could fuse a demon with a garu spell and good magic?"

"Sure, I'm sure I could do that real quick," Issachar said, activating his gauntlet and opening the fusion app.

"Hang onto it for the rest of this place, as it'll come in handy," Flynn advised him. He could defeat the two guardians of Sky Tower easily, but wanted the others to do so. Letting Issachar know he might want wind magic available was good insurance should the other one catch him unaware.

"Hoy, we found some kind of lift that heads down," Walter called to them. "Burroughs calls it an elevator; want to take it down?"

"Might as well," Flynn said, knowing that there were no stairs down from this level. The Observational Platform had gotten stuck in the Firmament when the earthen shield appeared, but the rest of its tower had to be rebuilt for Akira and his companions to dig upwards to what would become Mikado.

But more important to their mission… he could easily lead the others in a manner to let them build power and skills rapidly once they were down in Tokyo. Flynn just had to figure a way to handle their shock at realizing the time differences, especially with Jonathan. Issachar should be able to help with that since he was good friends with him too. As their leader, however, it was Flynn's responsibility to see to their well-being.

* * *

A demon that knew garu and was good with magic… the elevator gave a shifting feeling like the lifts in South Ooida did, but more gently. Issachar was able to focus on this fusion while the others talked about this place. After some searches, he figured out that he could actually fuse one that knew garula instead: Tobyou, some kind of vase with a number of snakes hiding in it. It was strange, but it fit what Flynn suggested.

Fusion made him think, didn't he have some request about fusion? He checked his quest log, but didn't see any that mentioned fusion. But, there was that strange message from David still recorded as a request. 'Struck by an electric quill, the serpentine warrior falls for a dancing maiden of starry waters.' It was some kind of riddle. Maybe about fusion? Because he could figure out that 'electric quill' meant a chagrin and 'serpentine warrior' was probably naga. But 'dancing maiden of starry waters', what demon was that?

The elevator made a bing noise as it stopped. It let them out into another strange and incredible place: a cave shaft (maybe?) like a tower, with vine-covered even walls heading a long ways down. In the center, there was a pillar that seemed like many trees twisted together into one structure. Around the edges where they came out, there was a wide metal pathway that coiled all the way down the four walls of the shaft.

"This is a very strange place," Naverre said. "It made some sense up above when it was all caves, but this looks like it's half a demon domain."

"We don't seem to be in a domain," Jonathan said, checking something on his gauntlet. "Right, the map would inform us of that."

"The vines might have grown out of a domain since it was like that when we went in one before," Isabeau said, starting to head down. Walter was quick to go with her.

While the others descended, Issachar held back a moment to consider the riddle. Dancing maiden… only a few demons he'd seen could specifically be called a maiden, so all he had to do was check his compendium to figure out who. Unless it was one that he hadn't seen before. Flynn probably had and might even be able to identify it. Issachar wanted to try himself first.

It wasn't long before he found a likely answer: Apsaras, a demon he'd fused back in fall just because she had been a new demon to fuse from who he had at the time. So chagrin, naga, and apsaras. But normal fusion only worked with two demons. Fusing three demons required special fusion, a function he'd checked into but had been unable to make use of so far. The AI of the fusion app, Mido, would only accept specific combinations for special fusions. He suggested a few but kept them in shadows since they were either too powerful or were missing component demons.

There was a query button in the special fusion menu. "Mido, can I fuse chagrin, naga, and apsaras together?"

"Calculating formula," Mido said, his odd spherical image moving so that his beard shifted. "Wooooow, you can fuse Fiend David from this combination!"

"Uh, really?" Issachar said, startled at that. "I heard that fiends were really independent, so I didn't think a person could summon them."

"This is something I don't see every day," Mido agreed. "But you have his permission to call upon him, and your experience as a summoner means he shouldn't be completely out of your control. Perhaps not entirely in your control, but he will serve you and won't seek to harm you while you have a contract. Do you want to go ahead with this fusion? There will be a cost to resummon the necessary demons."

This could be interesting. Or very dangerous since there was a higher chance that David could ignore his commands. After a moment's hesitation, he felt like he was more curious to know than not. "Sure, go ahead," Issachar said.

After the usual animations, the screen showed that he had successfully called on David. A shade like Walter's Wu Kong or the real fiend? "I was wondering if you'd do this," David's text read on the screen. "Hmm hmm, let us play the sweet strains of death together."

That was not his intention, but every demon summoning was like this. "It's surprising that I could," Issachar said.

Unusually, David responded to that from within the gauntlet. "You shouldn't be surprised. I'd like to keep an eye on you, see if you are worthy of cheating death as you have. And while this manifestation isn't my full power, I certainly won't be a dead weight to you."

"I don't doubt that," Issachar said. "But I didn't cheat death knowingly."

"Whether you knew or not doesn't matter; I'm still keeping an eye on you. And it benefits you to keep me around in many ways. After all, you will draw the attention of the other Fiends just the same as you drew mine. Should one of them assault you on the same grounds I did, call on me and I'll dissuade them from challenging you unless you feel ready. I don't believe the others are fooling around with restrictions on like I was."

He had to admit that it was a very sound reason to keep David around. "Um, that's good. I appreciate that."

The text box showed that David chuckled before letting his portrait disappear. Issachar hurried down to catch up to the others, accidentally letting a group of demons give him a surprise attack in doing so. Thankfully, Tobyou proved its worth right away in defeating them easily.

In looking over the signs posted along the way, Issachar wondered more about what had gone on here. There were warnings to be careful when working at great heights, to take care of the tools, and to remember the sun. Had they been trying to find a way to live above the mountain around them? He couldn't blame them, since it would always be dark down here. How did they get food without the sun?

They made good progress down the platforms. One or two of them would handle the demons that tried to get in their way. If they could slip past, the others would to secure the way ahead. These demons were stronger than those higher in Naraku, but because they all fused demons often, the ones here were similar to what they were using. Issachar even saw a couple of tobyous on the way down.

There was another elevator at the bottom, along with a passage covered up by a concrete slab. At the bottom of that elevator, the tower was looking even more like a demon domain. The red woody vines were everywhere, completely covering any available surface. The Mapper app still didn't detect an active domain. But for being a fairly small circular hall, there were a lot of demons around. There were also a number of weird statues, humans poised like they were afraid of something.

"These statues are unsettling," Isabeau said when they got a break in fighting.

"Right, that's just what I was thinking," Issachar said, looking around. They'd gotten separated from the others. There was a stairway heading down in a hall nearby. "That should be the way on."

"Hold on, when did you folks come in?" a woman asked. She came through one of the inner walls despite it looking solid. The lighting wasn't great here, so the best he could see was a woman who was a giant snake at her waist, and with something that looked like swaying chains attached to her head. Wasn't that like what Marie had turned into? A demon called a gorgon; he recalled the compendium saying that they could turn people to stone.

"A few minutes ago," Issachar said. "You're a gorgon, right?"

She hissed and slammed her tail on the ground. "Don't you dare call me by such an ugly name! I am the beautiful Medusa, and don't forget it. Although whatever nonsense you say won't matter much in the end. You're a beautiful pair and will be better off as part of my collection." She reared back up and quickly fired shots at both of them.

Issachar fired back, but it didn't seem to do much. But tobyou's garula knocked her back. As Isabeau had garu herself and on one of her demons, Issachar moved ahead to attack with his sword. Medusa may have claimed to be beautiful, but she looked atrocious up close. The chains were actually skeletal snakes and her skin and scales were all kinds of unnatural colors. Since he was close, the snakes tried to snap at him too.

As he had to focus on fighting her up close like this, he missed one of the others coming around the other side until another garu caught Medusa from behind. She snarled, then fired out a number of needles. The sharp pricks made parts of Issachar's body feel numb. But Isabeau was with him; she could do something about it. Issachar tightened his grip on the sword and took a more defensive stance.

"Hey, do we really need to be fighting?" Medusa asked, drawing back nervously. "I don't want to hurt you, honest. Come on, look into my eyes and you'll see that it is the truth."

No, the compendium had mentioned that gorgons turned people to stone through eye contact. Issachar kept his gaze low. "I don't believe you," he said.

Medusa growled in frustration and swiped at him, knocking him to the ground since his numbness kept him from defending properly. "You arrogant little brat! I'm a seeker of beauty; I can make you in an eternal work of art. Show me your agony and humiliation, show me a burst of emotion worthy of my collection."

He was in a bad position, but Issachar didn't want to give in. "No, that sounds terrible."

"What?! How could you not want my gifts?" Medusa was shaking with rage, but Issachar still didn't look up at her while he tried to get back to his feet. "Are you one of Tayama's dogs sent to betray me? Then I should turn you and smash your body to pieces!"

"Not a chance, snake," Walter said, rushing up from behind her and slaying her immediately with his axe. He then offered a hand to him. "You alright?"

Issachar took the help. "I got paralyzed, but I'll be fine. Thanks."

They checked over the level in case there was another strong demon around, but it was just the normal demons they'd been seeing. There were only two halls off the ring, the one heading up and the one heading down. In the latter, there was yet another elevator that took them on a much shorter ride. That led them to a room in much better shape than the ones above. The floor tiles were clean and whole, as were the panels of the almost fully glass wall looking onto what must be the entrance. There were even bright lights illuminating this room.

Two men were sitting on a couch in the room, staring at them as they came out of the elevator. "Hey, when the hell did you kids get up there?" one of them asked. Issachar was used to the city people speaking differently then villagers, and this man spoke different in yet another way. "We've been on watch here six hours and nobody can get past Medusa."

"We just beat her, actually," Walter said.

"We've always been up there," Jonathan said. "This is the first time in over a thousand years any of our people have been down this far."

"Quit joking, how did you get in and what are you doing here?" he demanded, getting to his feet. Meanwhile, his partner pulled out some strange small device to check. "Sky Tower is off limits to those outside the Ashura-kai."

"We came from much higher up, just like he said," Issachar said. "What's the Ashura-kai?"

"Come on, you can't be that ignorant," the man said.

Then his partner got up. "Hang on, there's something you wouldn't know…"

"What?" he snapped, glaring at him. The one who'd been talking to them was a strong-looking man, much like Walter. The other was noticeably older than him.

"They could be from above," the other man said. "Are you guys angels?"

"Not all of us, just him," Walter said, pointing to Issachar. He hoped he wasn't going to be asked to prove that.

"Hell, the angels are invading!" the larger man said. "I'm outta here!" He then bolted out of one of the doors in the wall of glass.

"He-hey, hang on!" the older man said, although he ran out just as fast.

"Uh, what was their deal?" Walter asked.

"Maybe they're intimidated because we beat Minotaur and Medusa?" Isabeau asked. "I found them a little hard to understand."

"Well people speak differently between the villages and the city," Issachar said. "So it makes sense that they'd speak differently down here too. I don't know why'd they'd be scared of angels, though."

"Some angels are powerful warriors, though I don't understand it beyond that either," Jonathan said.

"Those are the Unclean Ones?" Naverre asked, surprised. "I heard they were monstrous sorcerers. The one did have a strange thing, but they seemed like normal people to me."

"They might be more like us than we thought," Flynn said; he had flinched again at these people being called Unclean Ones. "Aquilla did ask us to be fair to these people."

"That would be good," Jonathan said. "If they were posted as guards, they should live nearby. We could try explaining things to them there."

"If they let us in where they live," Flynn said. "It'd be good if they did, but we might need to find other people. We'll see what comes."

There were push bars on the doors, possibly to keep people from touching the glass and messing it up. These led out into a plaza lit by tall lights, with stairs that led down into a dark city. Back in the capitol of Mikado, the towers, especially around the castle and monastery, were the tallest structures around, far higher than Issachar had thought things could be built. The buildings that lay in neat rows in front to them were as tall as those towers, or even taller. The tower they'd just stepped out of was the tallest of all, stretching dizzily up into the darkness overhead. Only a few buildings seemed to be of a size he was used to.

"Did people build all these?" Issachar asked after they'd all been quiet for a minute looking over this strange land. "That's incredible. How could they?"

"It's knowledge lost to us," Jonathan said. "There's so many buildings, so many places that those two could be hiding."

Isabeau nodded. "We can only see a small part of Tokyo from here too. I had thought it was beautiful up above, but it's different down here. Foreboding, I guess."

"Yeah, like these are rows of monumental tombstones," Walter said, disturbed at the thought of it. "It's a mystery how they were built, and why, but all those doors and windows make it seem like people once used these places. They're dark and dead now."

"Huh, I wonder where all those people went," Naverre said. "For them to use all these buildings, for residences, shops, or churches, there had to be so many of them. But I don't see anybody by the lights scattered all round, not even those two goofs just now."

"At least we have the lights to show where people most likely travel," Flynn said. "Let's start searching."

Even though there would be a lot to get done now, Issachar hoped that he could find someone down here who could answer all the questions he had.

* * *

The television in the bar shifted from pre-war shows to a live announcement. "The lockdown for northeastern Tokyo has been lifted. Residents are still advised to remain cautious while the current situation is reviewed; any available hunters in the area are requested to scout out the streets around residences and be alert to any changes that may have occurred. Once enough reports have been reviewed, advisories and travel permissions may return to normal."

Hearing that, Toma sighed. "Of course, that announcement comes after most everyone here decided to rest," he said. Still, he was the local leader for the Hunter's Association here. He started writing up requests for the local scouting.

The bar was quiet. At the other end of the bar, the old man who had been running this place since well before the war was instructing the new bartender about his duties. The only other hunter in here was Nikkari. "Sorry, I should be heading off to sleep myself," he said. "Have to go lead a small group of students now across the river."

Toma nodded, knowing that it would be a potentially rough trek. If he could be with them, he'd go in a heartbeat. But would he end up more or less concerned about Asahi and Nanashi in doing so? It didn't matter, though, since he was no longer capable of going out into the streets to battle demons. He could still fight if he needed to, but a leg injury kept him from running.

"Then what do you think of stopping by Akihabara to check on their smartphone availability?" Nikkari asked.

No, he wanted to say no. Sure, Asahi was fifteen and Nanashi was presumably of similar age, and they were desperate enough for able-bodied persons to recruit new Hunters as low as fifteen. There were a few that Toma had seen or heard of who might be younger than that even. But, it was a dangerous career. Toma wasn't that old himself, forced to retire to an administrative position already. He didn't like sending his children out against the legions of demons in the streets of Tokyo. Nanashi would probably be okay; he had realistic expectations of what was out there, more than a kid like himself should know. But Asahi treated it all like some harmless club that she could always come back home from to be out of.

But all it took was a small bit of negligence for demons to break into one of these makeshift shelters and slaughter everyone there if that was what they wanted. On top of that, many Hunters never got to return home. Asahi's mother had been one of those. And then the Ashura-kai got very pushy about sending children to their school at Roppongi; Toma and a number of other parents would rather keep their children here in Kinshicho, especially since the children who went to that school weren't heard from again. Would they forcefully recruit teenagers out trying to be Hunters?

But Nikkari made some good points. There wasn't a lot more she could do in Hunter training without a smartphone with the demon summoning program. And a Hunter without demon allies needed a lot of personal fighting ability to survive. On top of that, if Toma kept forbidding her to have a phone, she might find a way to get one on her own. She wanted to prove herself without realizing the dangers, so it arguably was safer to let her have a phone while Nikkari was watching over her.

"I don't like it, but I suppose it is for the best," Toma said. "Just be careful about potential mark-ups in price."

"They could go high or low, but I'm sure I can barter if it's the former," Nikkari said. "Asahi does need to learn some caution, but it'll be easier to help her with that once she has a couple good demons as backup. I'll make sure she's capable."

"That's good," he said. "What do you think of the two newcomers, though? You've mostly been trying to convince me of this."

Nikkari smiled at that. "You're a tough one to convince."

"Kids seem to grow up so fast, especially in these days," Toma said.

He nodded. "They don't have a choice. But about Toki and Hallelujah, I don't think they'll hold us back. Asahi and Nanashi are happy to have other friends their age, and the other two seem to feel the same way. Toki was definitely trained by the Ring of Gaea."

"Is she going to be trouble?" he asked. The Ring was raising a lot of ruckus lately, trying to win over communities to overthrow the Ashura-kai. However, the Ring didn't have a good record of taking care of communities they allied with. They'd recently claimed Ikebukuro as theirs and now it was listed as a dangerous locale.

"It depends, but some good influences now should help," Nikkari said. "She hasn't said much so I'm not sure what help. Still, this is a good time that she's come to us. It could be the same with Hallelujah. He looks healthier than the other teens. From that and his clothes, I believe his family is a part of the Ashura-kai. He's friendly but doesn't seem too confidant. Given how competitive the Ashura-kai can be, some time away from them with good support is good for him."

"I see." This was reminding him of when Nikkari had first shown up here, giving his assessment of the teenagers living here as potential Hunters. "You're good with these teenagers, taking them in like one of your own immediately."

"My kids grew up some time ago, so I know how to deal with them and their parents." He chuckled.

"Oh, are we worse than the kids?" Toma asked, smiling at that.

"Sometimes," Nikkari said. "You should get to bed soon too; I know you've been working here since we left."

"Probably not working as hard as you," Toma said.

"I don't know, wrangling a bunch of hot-headed Hunters can be more of a headache than hunting food demons," he said.

"Of course there's that," he said. "I don't want to hold you up from wrangling teenagers tomorrow, so you'd better head on back."

"All right, I'll take good care of those kids."

Even with Nikkari's assurance and experience, even with it being easier than a trek down south, Toma knew that he'd still worry about how they would do on a trip to Kasumagaseki.

* * *

The streets were quiet, which Isabeau was learning was a reason to be wary. There were demons everywhere here: hiding in buildings, jumping out of the nooks and crannies, even descending from the darkness overhead. And like with the lower part of Naraku, there were even more demons they had never encountered before. They ran into no people, though. The streets went on and on, side streets leading to dark places, lit places, gates to demon domains. Wherever the people were, they were hiding for good reason. Would they let strangers in?

Various members of their group knew healing magic of some kind by now, but some things she knew better how to heal. Walter had gotten a deep cut on his upper arm that was closed up by such magic. But it could still get infected, leave a scar, or both if further measures weren't taken. Of course, the infection treatment she knew wasn't guaranteed to stop one. But the salve would shrink the potential scarring and ease any pain.

Then a bandage wrapping to make sure nothing got stuck in the salve or scar… "There, that should do for now," she said. "Let me know if it swells or you start feeling ill."

"Sure thing," he said, careful in putting his coat back on. He tugged at the edge of the cut in the sleeve. "I'll have to patch that later."

"You can patch that yourself?" Isabeau asked, smiling. That was a handy thing that most men (and a number of noblewomen) declined to learn.

"Sure, it's usually quicker to make small patch-ups myself," Walter said. "You doing all right?"

"Yes, although I hope we can find somewhere safe to take a break soon," she said. "Or anybody else down here, as we won't know where to go until we find that Ueno place. It's inevitable that we'd end up lost in a place like this; there's so many potential paths even if we only stick to those that are lit. What about you?"

Walter smiled at that. "Well I find the challenge of encountering new demons refreshing. I suspect that once we make our first reports, the old masters will have another reason to be glad this was a limited mission."

"I just hope they're keeping things safe," Isabeau said. A few like Mark and Hope definitely would be, but there were so many of the old masters that she ended up disappointed in, like the other women chosen to be a samurai.

"And I'm not worried about being lost, since they wouldn't light streets they don't use," Walter said. "I've been looking at signs if they would tell us, but they talk about all kinds of things. Stores, workshops, but mostly things I can't make sense of. Like the food and drinks in those tall boxes. Wouldn't they go bad just being in boxes?"

"It might be sorcery, but I don't think we can check them since they ask for some kind of coin," she said. Maybe Issachar or Jonathan could figure them out.

After looking up at one of the buildings, Walter said, "This city is oddly familiar to me. I think I've seen it in my dreams, except it's on fire there."

These stony massive buildings on fire? "That would be frightening. Are you having premonitions in your dreams?"

"Might be," he said. "I'm not sure what it all means, other than I need to be helping Flynn and Jonathan with something. Big things will happen down here, maybe even more than we came for."

"Well the six of us will stick together, right?" Isabeau asked. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Right, we've all got something to help each other with," Walter said.

* * *

Minotaur had returned to Akira's demonica, deceased. A lot of demons wouldn't have noticed this, but Mastema was different. For one thing, noticing such things required tuning one's senses into an electronic device and keeping oneself from dreaming when within the program. It was good to have a summoner as one would always have energy. A good summoner would even take care of their demons, recovering their injuries and reviving them quickly. But being within the program relaxed a demon to the point where it was easy to lower one's guard.

At least that wasn't as bad as the red pills…

A peculiar sensation got Mastema's notice. It was a fragrance of despair in white, a pallor of hopelessness and desperation. Them. The White had been a group that he'd been keeping a wary eye on. They were pure nihilists who were willing to destroy all of creation for their selfish sorrow. What were they doing in Kinshicho?

Were they a threat to Nanashi?

Nanashi hadn't really proven himself as a summoner; he was as new as new could be. True, Mastema had a good feeling about him. A rare few humans showed signs of real potential; Nanashi could be a hero, someone more interesting to follow than Tayama. If the White got a hold of someone like him, they might succeed and Mastema knew of no one who wanted them to succeed.

Since Nanashi hadn't proven himself, Mastema had no hesitation in leaving the demonica in spirit form to track down the White spirit. He found them in a security office, looking over a video. However, the White noticed him then and vanished. "Cowardly," Mastema muttered. But what had they been trying to watch?

He rewound the video a few minutes, finding that it was one of the park cameras. There were a number of unique demons gathering, unfortunately out of hearing: Samyaza (what was he doing outside of Kagome?), Lilith, Krishna, some demon in human guise. After a brief time, a fifth demon descended on them and attacked savagely. Demons fighting demons wasn't something to be concerned about… no, wait, that fifth one wasn't a demon.

"Gabriel?" Mastema wondered aloud. "Hmph, have you finally gone completely mad? This is a graceless start for you."

She did end up winning even against all the gathered demons. The disguised one gave an incredible effort on her part; she was probably someone high ranked in the hellish hierarchy. However, Gabriel fled before she could be defeated, heading south. That was curious, much like her coming down. Was she still here in Tokyo?

As a seraph, her presence would leave signs obvious to those who knew what to look for. Mastema logged onto an Ashura-kai account to get some information from around the city. Very few of the city's electronic systems were capable of directly detecting an angel. But a number were keyed towards demons and things could be interpreted…

Or he could spot a barrier around the Tennozu shelter with distinct heavenly influence. "There you are," Mastema said. "You must be quite desperate to pen yourself in like that. This might be my chance to finally capture you, if I can keep you from escaping to the outer world. Still, this summoner of mine won't be capable of helping with that."

That was an easy decision. Gabriel and her fellows believed they followed God's will. But in truth, they were incredibly far from what He wanted and hadn't heard from Him in a very long time. It was better for them, for the world, and also for himself for the four of them to be taken out of consideration. While they couldn't be permanently killed off due to how well-known they were among humanity, there was a way to hold them captive, unable to cause more trouble.

As Nanashi was asleep, Mastema had to manipulate the demonica in order to get himself released from the program's contract. There were failsafes to keep this from happening; there was nothing he could do to stop a scar from appearing on himself for doing this, but he considered it a minor drawback. Now that he was released from this burden, he logged out and escaped Kinshicho before he was noticed.

Trapping an highly-ranked angel took good planning, which Mastema began thinking over. He listened for the whispers of God as he considered what he could do. After all, God would not lead him astray.


	37. The Terminal Guardian

**Chapter 37: The Terminal Guardian**

As they were searching for signs to Ueno, or some place they could find out where they were going, Flynn had them split up to check signs on each side of the road they were following. He was over with Walter and Isabeau on the south side of the road. Issachar was with Jonathan and Naverre on the north side. "Well it's a coin and you guys were saying that those machines needed coins."

Issachar took the coin and looked it over. "It has the right numbers for some of the machines. We could try it here, hmm." He put the coin into the slot. Then the red letters wanted a selection. Which one… the coin didn't allow him to pick any option, only the small ones. There was a glass door showing the colorful packages inside. But a lot of them were things he didn't fully recognize. Some baked rice snacks were the closest to what he knew.

"I9," a small voice said; an equally small hand pointed to the item box behind the glass.

"Wh-where did you come from?" Naverre asked, startled at the girl suddenly with them. She still had Issachar's cape around her shoulders. All she did was glance at him for asking that.

As he was sure the girl was some good spirit, Issachar went ahead put in the number she suggested. Meanwhile, Jonathan tried asking, "Where are you from? These streets are dangerous for someone like you to be out alone."

"Here," she said.

The metal rings holding things turned around, but one of the little boxes in the I9 slot had gotten stuck before. As a result, two boxes fell down. "That seems lucky," Issachar said, trying the panel at the bottom. That was a door to a bin where he could pick up the boxes. He offered one to the girl. "Here, we can split them."

Smiling, she accepted it and took out small white stick that she put partly in her mouth. The side of the box said that they were candy cigarettes. "I don't see anyone else, aside from our friends up ahead," Jonathan said.

Issachar glanced around himself, not even seeing demons other than their own. "She's special," Issachar said. "But you don't have to worry about her. Hey, we're lost since this is our first time here. How could we get to Ueno from here?"

Taking the candy out of her mouth, she pointed with it in the direction they'd been heading. "Follow this road until it ends, then go left. You'll be there when you find a big staircase going down that's fenced off and lit up bright; that's where some people live, down there."

"I see, thank you," he said.

She nodded and in a blink, she wasn't there anymore. "Huh, was she a ghost?" Jonathan asked, his eyes wide. Naverre was stunned into silence.

Issachar shrugged. "I don't know what she is. Did you notice that you couldn't really see her face? Still, she was nice to me before, and the person looking after her was a great help. I'm not sure where he is; they come and go when they like, not like most people."

"There was something oddly familiar about her," Jonathan said, now over the surprise of her suddenly appearing and disappearing. "I can't put my finger on it, though; it feels like I've only seen her in my dreams."

"At least now we know we're going in the right direction," Issachar said, although he was sure that Flynn was leading them this way purposefully.

"I'm not sure about following a ghost's directions," Naverre said, putting on what he thought was a brave face. "But, wasn't that the cape you got for the ball on her?"

He smiled. "Oh yeah, she looked cold then and it was the first time I saw her. So I gave her my cape to warm up. I never felt scared of her, just surprised at how she vanished before my eyes."

Naverre did relax on hearing that, smiling back. "Well if she's a friend of yours, ghost or not, I'll take your word that she's good."

"Right, and we should hurry ahead to catch up and tell the others," Jonathan said. Though it was more of a careful jog so they didn't get delayed again.

Thankfully, the road ended before long. The next road south was narrower, so they didn't have to split up. It was still several minutes before they found the staircase they'd been directed to. Over the entrance, it claimed to be a train station. That interested Issachar since he'd read about trains. Were these trains running?

There were a few men gathered at the entrance of the staircase. They were prepared for fighting demons too: various kinds of armor, spears, guns, and swords were at ready on their sides. However, they didn't have gauntlets. Some of them did have some small devices strapped to their arms, which might be the same kind of thing. "Hey, have you guys already completed a survey of the area?" one asked on noticing them. He waved his hand in greeting.

"But the request only came out a little while ago," one of the others said.

"It's been an hour."

Flynn went ahead and stepped up to talking for them. "No, we're new to this area and didn't have any survey requests."

"You should've gotten them if you're registered with the Hunter Association and are up here," the one who greeted them said. "How's the demon levels?"

"We don't know what's normal for here, but we did run into a number of them who were looking for a fight," Flynn said.

"Well where are ya from?"

He pointed upwards. "Way up there; we came down through the place you seem to call Sky Tower."

The man laughed at that. "Aw come on, don't joke about that."

But a third one had been looking over them seriously; he came up to Flynn. "Hang on, what're those you guys have on your arms?"

"The gauntlets?" Flynn asked, holding up his left arm so he could see it better. "They're mystic relics that were given to us because we were chosen to be samurai; they let us summon demons."

"That much should be obvious," Naverre said.

"Gauntlets?" the man looking at Flynn's asked. "We call them demonicas, although they're really just the COMP units."

"You guys have demonicas?" the other man said, coming over to see for himself. "What the hell? We lost them all years ago."

"Years?" Jonathan asked, puzzled at that. "These have been passed down from generation to generation for nearly fifteen centuries."

"That makes no sense," he said.

The one who recognized them shook his head. "No, it makes sense when you know about the Sky Tower project. These guys really came from above the Firmament. But what are you doing here? Did the angels tell you to wipe us out finally?"

"Whaaat?!" Naverre asked in shock. "No way! We serve to protect people, not harm them."

"Right," Issachar agreed. "We were sent down here in search of two demons who tried to ruin our kingdom."

"We could tell you what demons we ran into on the way here," Flynn said, then glanced back at them. "Would you all send me your recent battle records?" Once they agreed to, he asked the local man, "Is there some way we can figure out where our targets would be hiding?"

"It'd be tough to search the whole city for just two demons." All of them relaxed on hearing they weren't going to attack the people. Were they really that worried about angels? Why? The man took a small piece of paper out of his pocket. "Here, let me make a note on this card. Take it down to the Hunter's Association bar down below and show it to the bartender. He can help you set up a request to all Hunters in Tokyo to keep an eye out for them."

"Thank you," Flynn said, accepting the card. "Do you use the same demon summoning program? I can send you our collected records for today."

"Of course, there shouldn't be a difference," the man said, taking a rectangular device from his small gauntlet.

"But why would you have the demonicas for generations?" the other man nearby asked. "We lost them just twenty years ago."

"But my father got his over twenty-five years ago, so that doesn't make sense," Jonathan said.

"That's what happens," the man exchanging information with Flynn said. "Ever since the Firmament went up over Tokyo, time inside here has gone far slower than the outside. It's something like an hour down here is somewhere around two months outside. Maybe just a month and a half, I'm not sure right off."

"Two months?" Jonathan asked in shock.

"That could be a problem," Flynn said. "There, that's the information we have. If you'll excuse us."

"Sure, be careful when you're on the streets," the man said. He and his fellows headed out through the gate on their own work.

"You think he could be right about time being slower here?" Walter asked, worried. But he seemed more worried for Jonathan, who had a hand on his forehead.

"It's only half past noon now, or it should be," Naverre said. "To think that weeks could have gone by, how could that be?

"I'm sending a message to Hope to see if that's true," Flynn said, still working on his gauntlet. "Hopefully, there's a terminal here so we can get right back to Mikado if need be. For now…" his gauntlet beeped immediately after he sent it. He checked it. Although he already knew, he nodded grimly. "Hope says about four months have gone by since they heard from us; they just did another Gauntlet Rite."

"We had no idea how long we'd be gone, but this long?" Jonathan said.

"It's not something we could help," Flynn said to him. "We'll continue by searching this place, then figure out what to do. Actually, if any of us find a terminal, we'll message you so you can check up on things in Mikado."

"Thanks, that would help," Jonathan said, taking a moment to calm down.

Flynn nodded. "Those fellows were helpful, so we should treat the people here respectfully. We should be mindful that our questions may seem like something obvious to them, and what's obvious to us might not be to them."

"Those are good ideas," Isabeau said.

As they split up to start checking Ueno, Flynn got his attention. "Would you keep with Jonathan?" he asked quietly. "He should be able to keep his head together, but just in case, it's better for someone to be with him. I knew exactly where the terminal is, but I have to deal with its guardian before any of the rest of you encounter them."

"Sure thing," Issachar said. As Jonathan was headed down, he added, "I was thinking that already. See you later."

"Right," Flynn said.

Issachar took a few quick steps to catch up to Jonathan. "Hoy, you worried about Marie?" he asked.

"Yes," he said, not getting flustered like he used to. "I thought if we'd end up gone for months, there'd be time to send her messages through my father's gauntlet. Why would time be so different down here?"

"There's lots of questions, but we should be able to figure things out along the way," he said. "Well Marie might be upset, but I'm sure she won't be lonely. She has two families now, her father and your parents and siblings. And it's not our fault that this weird time thing happened. I hope she can understand."

"You're right, there was nothing to warn us of this," Jonathan said. "I should send a message to my father to pass on to the others, if Hope hasn't informed him already."

"Sure, that makes sense," Issachar said. "But I wonder why they hadn't tried to contact us."

"Right, at least to make sure we were alive," he said. Perhaps something had interfered?

* * *

Most days, being the terminal guardian didn't mean much. People knew that the terminal network belonged to the Ashura-kai and hadn't tried to use them for years. Then again, a relatively cushy job was enviable these days. The artificial domains actually kept demons away from them and the guardian had allowances to use the demon summoning program to its fullest. If demons or humans caused problems, he had plenty of firepower to combat them. And he had the freedom to do his job however he wanted.

Today was different. Someone had used the network without his knowledge. And when he tried to figure it out, the computers gave him strange answers. The package had come from an inactive terminal. But how did you transfer anything when a terminal was inactive? For that matter, where was this inactive terminal? There were little used terminals like Toyusu and Tennozu, but they were still active. It now had a name, Aquila Plaza, but that didn't sound like anywhere he knew about.

"Ugh, I'm going in circles at this point," he mumbled to himself. "Is Tayama going to notice, though? It was only a weird box."

An alert came up that someone had entered Ueno's terminal room without the right card. Because they didn't have the card, they would get moved into the artificial domain. Shifting his headset, he activated the hologram in the Ueno. The screens gave him a view of the domain, showing him a young man in an interesting blue coat and what seemed to be a demonica comp. Was he a cosplayer too? It was definitely a heroic look.

"Hey, you ain't allowed in here," the guardian said, immediately getting into this character. "This here is private property of the Ashura-kai, and I'm…"

"You're an illusion created by a man named Michi," the young man said. "Are you listening, Michi?"

"H-how did you find out?" Michi asked, startled at being called out. He'd worked on this for years, to make a fun mystery for the people of Tokyo to talk about. Maybe he should kill him off? He had permission to do so for unauthorized persons getting into the terminals.

"I know a lot of things," he said. "You're married to a woman named Jun; you have three children all under the age of ten. As you're an Ashura-kai employee, your children were exempt from the Roppongi Hills Project. But they have decided to withdraw that exemption from certain employees and you are one of those who lose the benefit."

Roppongi Hills Project… that put a chill in his blood. "Hey now, that's not possible! I was guaranteed full benefits from the start."

"If you allow me to connect my demonica to your network, I can get you access to the employee reports from the innermost circle," he said.

He shouldn't; this person was clearly not a part of the Ashura-kai. But then, most of the Ashura-kai weren't aware of his name, or his wife's name. If his children were really in danger, he had to know. And if they weren't, it was clear reason to eliminate this person. "Fine, I think you're wrong but I'll give this a read." They exchanged information so that he could get the link sent.

It was the proper address for what it was claimed to be. After referencing current security codes, he found that those were authentic too. And it was exactly as he had said. The management of Roppongi Hills was concerned about a loss of numbers and had failed in a recent recruitment tour. Tayama and his closest flunkies had decided to bring in children of the Ashura-kai they didn't consider indispensable. While Michi was the only one assigned to the terminal network, they'd decided to take his children in a couple of months.

"It was a guarantee that they wouldn't be involved," Michi said in disbelief. "Signed papers and everything."

"They'll say such standards don't count anymore if it suits their purpose," he said.

Of course, that was how things worked. "But who are you, and how did you get this information?"

"My name is Flynn and I'm working to unravel a horrible fate," he said, completely serious about it. "You're a small piece that I could simply defeat, but I could also make a better fate for you and your family as well. On your own, it would be difficult for you to get your family out of the Ashura-kai's grasp. But as I have uncovered these orders, I can uncover a path of escape for you. You need to act on this quickly; I'm sure once I give you the right instructions and passcodes, you can pull this off with your computer knowledge."

From anyone else, this would be a bizarre act that was better not to believe in. But he was sure Flynn was being honest and sincere in this. As a part of the information exchange, he'd learned that Flynn was the one responsible for the strange box to Nanashi. "What do you want in exchange for that?" Michi asked, knowing there had to be a cost on top of what the Ashura-kai might do to him.

"I want to take the authority over the terminal network from the Ashura-kai," Flynn said. "I'll leave you in your position as I know you are the best person for that job. We'll leave some permissions to the Ashura-kai for using the network, supply distribution for their stores and the like. However, we can also exclude them from a few places and open up most of the network to everyone in the city. I would like for you to keep quiet on certain things I'll be doing, including how I have access to knowledge that I shouldn't know. Since I'm fighting fate, I can't be entirely open."

"I see." A smile got on his face. His family was important to him; so was the terminal network. It let him live and work how he wanted. "Well since the Ashura-kai are breaking their promises to me, I have no hesitation in helping you. Very well, Flynn, I'll pass authority over the network to you. But could it wait until I get my family to safety? It will be risky…"

"That's fine," Flynn said, not even waiting on his explanation. "But please open up this terminal in Ueno immediately, as if I had defeated your illusion. I need to have passage between the terminals of Ueno, Sky Tower, and Aquila Plaza now so my work isn't stalled."

"Sure, that's simple," Michi said. "And thanks, kid, this means a lot to me."

"I'm glad," Flynn said, then gave him instructions and all the keys to this plot that Michi would need.

His family had been considered good enough to live in the actual Roppongi Hills building, in a comfortable apartment with amenities that most people in Tokyo now could only dream of. They'd have to get used to rougher circumstances, Michi reflected. But for the sake of keeping his children safe, it was worth it. There was a multi-layered security system in the building. Today, he felt like he agreed with those who said it felt like the residents were being contained as much as they were being protected. He had to disrupt the cameras, infrared sensors, and ID card stations without alerting security, and that was just to get back into his apartment unnoticed.

Jun came in to the kitchen, dressed in house clothes with her short hair damp from a shower. "Oh, did you finish up that extra work early?" she asked, smiling and coming over to kiss him.

"Not entirely, but I was getting stuck," he said, taking her arm. "I've got some bad news. The Ashura-kai is going back on their promises for us, so we have to get out, immediately."

"Are they?" she asked in concern. When he nodded, she asked, "But how would we get out? They'd surely notice us leaving."

"I have some help and a plan," Michi said. "But we do have to leave now, within three hours, four at most. Could you get the kids started? I'll get our things together; I've got digital inventory storage, but it's easier if the things are gathered."

"All right, though you might end up helping me get them organized," Jun said.

Their oldest child came in then. "Hi!" she said cheerily, then stopped. "Daaaad, why are you dressed as a girl again?"

"Now now, there's no gain in shame," Michi joked, patting her on the head as he went by. She used to think nothing of his hobbies, but her friends thought he and Jun were weird. "Cooperate with Mom, okay? We have to hurry today."

"What for?"

"Sorry dear, but we're moving in just a few hours," Jun said.

Their kids weren't happy with that, but they didn't realize what fate they were escaping.

* * *

'Jonathan: I've found the terminal in Ueno. You can take what time you need to visit Mikado. Would you speak to Hope for me? Flynn'

From the map update Flynn had passed along with his message, the terminal had actually been in the first hallway. It was one he could have checked, but then he'd seen Flynn go in while he'd been talking with Issachar. 'Flynn: Sure, thanks -Jonathan' "Flynn found the terminal already," he said to Issachar. "Excuse me, but I'm going right back."

"Sure, though it shouldn't be long until we see you again," Issachar said.

He nodded and glanced around the hall. The area seemed clean, but it was a dismal place to make a town out of. One of the lights here flickered, not working properly. There were piles of boxes in one of the corners. People were living in single rooms with family and friends, without windows anywhere since they were underground. However, it was difficult to tell just how many people were living here. There were a number walking around, but several doors had signs stating that people were sleeping inside. Not even the Casualry lived in such crowded conditions.

Flynn came out of the terminal room. "Is there anything in particular you want me to tell Hope?" Jonathan asked, since that was his responsibility as the one returning at this time.

"Just what we've seen and that we're doing fine outside of a lack of information," he said. "If he has any ideas of how to make reports now that we know about the time difference, I'd like to know."

"All right, I'll be…" he stopped, thinking that if he took a day, it was hard to say how little time would pass down here. "I'll message you when I come back."

"Thanks, we'll stay around here," Flynn said.

Jonathan headed on ahead to the terminal room. It was a strange room, built as a sphere with walls full of lights. Actually, it looked like what he'd expected from the tales of the sorcerers of old. The strange and immense city of Tokyo was beyond what he'd thought possible. He closed his eyes as the terminal sent him off to Mikado.

Leaving the terminal room, he found it to be mid-morning, about the time they had left. But while they had left in February, it was clearly June now. The trees were green with leaves and flower boxes were full of summer blooms. People were out walking around in leisure. It had been normal to him, but now seemed incredibly lucky. What was normal was a true blessing, but was it also unfair to those living in darkness?

As much as he wanted to go check with Marie right away, his duty came first. He headed to the part of the castle where Hope's office was. There were a few master samurai in with Hope, but the commander was quick to send them away. "How have you six been doing?" he asked.

"The demons are much tougher and bolder in Tokyo, but we're doing fine," Jonathan said. "Flynn sent just me to report in since we thought it was still noon of the day we left."

"That's understandable," Hope said. "It does make it tricky for us to exchange reports since you might not have enough things reportable in an hour for you."

"That would still be several weeks for you," Jonathan said. "What if we went ahead with hourly reports if only to let you know that we're doing fine?"

"That would ease the minds of a lot of people here," Hope said. "I can send a report to Flynn on what's gone on here when he makes such reports. One thing I was going to mention to him is that a barrier has appeared in the fifth level of Naraku, which prevents us from following you."

A barrier? "Can't you use the terminals? The Sky Tower terminal is right on the sixth level of Naraku."

However, Hope shook his head. "No, it seems to require three terminal locations registered for someone to use them. A few people went down to investigate the fifth and sixth levels more thoroughly, but they're having difficulty going further down than that. Then this barrier showed up and now none of us can follow you down Naraku."

"That's strange. But we're committed to this mission. We'll see it through even with these difficulties."

"Even you?" he asked.

That was something that troubled him. "I'm still considering that, actually," Jonathan said. "I'll go speak with Marie and see how she feels about this. While I would like to continue on for her sake, and the others who got transformed, I don't want to leave her alone either."

"Go ahead and make the decision that's best for the two of you," Hope said. "We've had some stronger demons showing up in Naraku lately. A few have even appeared outside the dungeon, like a dragon in Lake Mikado. But worse than that, we've had to deal with angels making sporadic attacks outside the dungeon."

"Angels are attacking us?" Jonathan asked, finding that as shocking as learning of the time difference. "Why?"

Hope shook his head. "We're not certain, but it's either they thought that demon was Gabriel or they blame us for getting rid of the real Gabriel. The point is, they're looking for her and are willing to take over Mikado in doing so."

"This is unreal," he said. "The people of Tokyo seem to be afraid of angels invading them and wanted to make sure that we weren't angels or working with them. How are you doing with them?"

"We got five more prentices this year, but we're still short-handed," he said. "We've had to train a number of civilians in fighting without demons in order to have enough protection all over Mikado. But thanks to the two classes coming together last year, we've had a strong sense of unity against this invasion."

"Did the Casualry get their requests fulfilled?" he asked, curious about it. The others would surely want to know too.

Hope nodded. "We did have some violence, but it was the elite of the monastery and their supporters who tried to win by force. They ended up abandoning the capitol and setting up what they call a community committed to God. As a result, I'm expecting any day now to hear that they allied with the angels attacking us. But since they left the capitol, the king was able to make new laws to support equality across classes."

"Have these angels made any offers to get people to help them?"

"Yes, but very unreasonable ones." He took a paper out of a folder and handed it over. "Here, take this to Flynn. They posted this all over the kingdom, but as far as I know, no one wanted to take them up on it."

It was a little surprising that Hope wanted to give Flynn this information, with a great tone of respect in his voice. Jonathan looked it over. 'Chosen children of God, the demons have started a war against heaven and the world by taking a number of our own hostage. We will be recruiting an army to assault their wicked lands and rescue our peers. Commit your lives to our cause to keep your peaceful comfortable lives. If you do not join our forces for this effort, you will be considered an ally of the demons that must be eliminated to take out their corruption for good. This is the will of God."

"This is wholly unreasonable," Jonathan said.

"Everyone agrees with that," Hope said.

After some more discussion, Jonathan headed out to his family manor. On the way, he saw some signs of their war with angels. A few buildings were damaged, some windows were boarded up for repairs, and many doors had wards painted on them for protection. It was chilling that the threat this time was from angels. In his studies, he learned that angels were protectors and teachers of humanity, not conquerers. Perhaps they were false angels just like the one who claimed to be Gabriel.

Back home, one of the servants directed him to the piano room where his mother was teaching Marie to play it. It was a sight that warmed his heart. "Hello, I'm back for a little while," he said as he came in.

"Oh, Jonathan!" Marie called, leaving the bench as quickly as she could. It wasn't easy because she was noticeably pregnant now. Still, she hugged him as soon as she could. "You're safe! Thank God, I didn't know what to think when they didn't hear anything from you."

"We had no idea we were gone that long," he said, hugging her back. "It's only been a few hours for me."

"Is that the sorcery of the Unclean Ones?" Beatrice asked, coming over but leaving them be.

"We don't know, but we're going to check in more often now knowing this," he said.

Hope must have informed his father since Mark came home early to join them. It was a pleasant afternoon, even if a little surreal to Jonathan. After dinner, he went with Marie to their quarters to discuss what he should do. "They'll let you stay up here?" Marie asked.

"If that's what you want, I will," he said now that it was just the two of them. He rubbed his head. "I'll feel nervous either way. I don't want to leave you alone, especially not for so long without much word from me or when our child is born. But I'd feel terrible for abandoning the mission I agreed to go on. I agreed to go partly for your sake."

For a moment, his mind felt hazy. Someone murmured to him, "It's not like you to abandon duty."

He didn't feel like he was in his bedroom. "My duty as a samurai or my duty as a husband?" he asked.

"That…" the voice hesitated, then spoke anxiously, "that's right. Both oaths matter. How do you choose between two duties? Mankind cannot serve two masters, but is this the same?"

Then Marie tugged at his arm. "Jonathan?"

Then he was back, but he felt like whoever had been speaking to him was still watching. "Sorry about that," he said, clasping her hand. "This may seem strange, but it's about my dreams of an angel in a desert. Sometimes, she speaks to me when I'm awake. That's been the clearest yet; she's confused by this too."

"It is a tough choice," she said. "I would like for you to stay, but that's selfish of me. You agreed to the mission, so you should stick to it. Don't worry about me; your family has been wonderful to me and I visit my father whenever I can. Now that I know you're safe and why you all were so quiet, I can worry less and wait on your messages." Marie even smiled. "Besides, if you and your friends are together, I can be sure that you'll all come home sooner. I'll just tell our child that you're serving Mikado bravely."

The angel's murmurs came back to him. "She worries, but is gracious. Hmm."

Jonathan smiled. "All right, I'll be sure to tell the others that people are waiting on us to come home."

"Certainly, people are still talking about all of you. And I'm not surprised that you're being watched by an angel. But if she's anything like the ones who've been showing up lately, do you think you could teach her about mercy? The ones people have been encountering here are nothing like what angels should be."

"Mercy…"

Jonathan nodded. "Sure, I'll bring it up when we talk again."

Happy about it Marie said, "Good, so before you go back, you have to help me decide on what to name our baby. I've had a lot of ideas; there's so many good names."

He laughed and put an arm around her. "Yes, what did you have in mind?"


	38. Camera Magic

**Chapter 38: Camera Magic**

Once Jonathan was gone into the terminal, Flynn asked him, "Want to come with me? There's someone I'd like to introduce you to."

"Sure thing," Issachar said, having hoped he could. "Who is it?"

"She's one of the friends I've made down here," he said, leading the way down the hall. "But we need to go to the Hunter bar here first, to put up that request and register ourselves with their Association. They're like samurai down here, but much less formal."

"Are we going to have to take a trial or test for them?" Issachar said. "We had to complete several tests to be fully accepted."

Flynn shook his head. "No. They're desperate for good fighters and our gauntlets are more than enough to get us in."

The next hall was more like a town, livelier with people All along the wall, there were colorful notices and odd paint marks. Someone was selling things on a blanket in front of a door: strange clothes, boxes of odds and ends, some tools. Walter, Naverre, and Isabeau were here, talking with the locals. The people were strangely dressed too: old stained clothes, unnatural colors, and the women were wearing pants and shirts just like the men. This was a strange place, but he needed to be open minded like Flynn wanted.

"Should I keep quiet if I have questions?" he asked Flynn.

"No, ask away," Flynn said. "I've been through this so many times that I can slip up in what I should and shouldn't know. Your questions and reactions will make it more believable that we're not from Tokyo."

"Ah, right, that makes sense," he said.

One of the doors was covered in a wild-looking painting in red and black. Flynn headed right in, bringing them into a room sort of like K's Tavern. It had strange lighting, mostly dark with the tables illuminated in small cones. In contrast, the bar was brightly lit with glowing rods (neon lights, like he'd read about?). Over the bar, there were huge screens with moving pictures, including one that looked like the request board.

Flynn went right to the bar, so Issachar followed him over. People were looking at them like they were strange. But they were strangers, so Issachar told himself not to be bothered. "Hello," the bartender said, then immediately looked to Flynn's gauntlet when he put his hands on the bar. "Hey, are you the guys who sent in the reports just now from those demonicas?"

"The what?" Issachar asked.

"The gauntlets," Flynn reminded him.

"Oh, right," he said, feeling embarrassed. But it was a new word among all the other new things to learn.

"Yes, that was us," Flynn said. "I'm Flynn, and this is Issachar; we're samurai from Mikado, along with four others. We came in search of two demons and were advised to put up a request here."

"By Mikado, do you mean above the Firmament?" the bartender asked.

"Yes, since we came down through a large cave system to get here," Issachar said.

"Well it doesn't matter where you came from as long as you guys can lend a hand," the bartender said, pulling over one of those sorcery boxes. "There's normally a process to becoming a Hunter, but as you guys already have the demon summoning program, we can skip all the fuss. Could you give me the names of your group, and the program IDs of the summoning program?"

"Sure," Flynn said, getting that information from his gauntlet as he was their leader.

"Your request board looks different, but it's the same kind of thing, right?" Issachar asked. "You get the requests by scanning the board and accept the ones you can complete, then come back here when they're done?"

"Right," the bartender said. "I heard talk only one board was taken up there, is that true?"

He nodded. "Yeah, the one in the tavern."

"In that case, you should know to pay attention to the origin of request. Those marked as general are available at any Association bar and can be turned in at any bar; they're generally from the Association itself, another large group, or roaming Hunters. Local requests need to be turned in at the bar they were picked up from, as they're from the town or one of its residents."

"Okay, thanks," Issachar said. "But, uh, you believe us already? The guys outside weren't sure at first."

"Different people know different things," the bartender said. "I happen to know there's no way that six people could have demonicas without being from above. And the Hunters you spoke to let me know that you seemed to have no ill intentions."

"Right," Issachar said with a smile. "We'll be focused on our search, but we can take on a few requests here and there to help people out."

The bartender nodded. "Good, that's all we ask for."

"How would we get information back for our mission here?" Flynn asked.

"You guys plan on moving through the city?" the bartender asked. When Flynn nodded, he explained, "We'll set it as general so it gets seen by everyone. When tips come in, we'll send a message to your demonica as you're the leader, I'm correct on that?"

"Yes," Flynn said.

"Do you have some funds to offer in exchange for good tips?"

"Sure, do I need to distribute that when we verify the information?" Flynn asked. His words had an inflection like a Luxuror now, which Issachar was noticing that he took on when he felt the need to be formal.

"Yes, the makka can be exchanged between programs," the bartender said, then discussed with him about the usual exchange rate. "And what kind of descriptions do you have on the demons?"

"I have what the program caught on our encounter with them," Flynn said, getting that to send over now. "We did not engage them in battle, but were around them long enough to get some data."

"All right," the bartender said, looking at the data as it came in. He gaped on seeing who they were asking about. "Huh, you're looking for Gabriel? One of the seraphs?"

"We think she was an impostor since that name makes no sense for her," Flynn said.

"Right, she turned a number of us into demons," Issachar said.

"That makes sense of why you'd be hunting for these two, but I think most Hunters will be reluctant to get close to Gabriel, even an impostor," the bartender said. "She and her three peers fought against us in the old days; very few people could fight back. This Lilith I don't know, but given that she looks similar to them, people might be wary of her too."

"We would rather take care of them ourselves, so we don't mind if it's just sightings," Flynn said.

Once the arrangements of the request were set up and sent in, Flynn accepted a couple of the requests off the board for the two of them. One was the general request for battle records around settlements so they could check on demon levels. The other asked for delivery of some film. "What is this film?" Issachar asked once they left the bar.

"Ask the shopkeeper," Flynn said. "Though I'm sure we'll get plenty of talk about it from Nozomi. I just know that if we want to catch her here, we need to head out right now."

The shop they stopped at was behind a barred window, which seemed strange. The woman tending to the shop was cheerful and friendly, explaining to them that the customer who requested the film was probably at a shrine somewhere in the area. But when he asked what the film was, she had trouble finding a good explanation. Apparently it was used to make pictures somehow, which seemed strange because it was just a few small black containers. They were only the size of a spool of thread. Maybe it was paint? But it was a very small amount of paint.

While Flynn knew where to go, they went ahead and fought some battles along the way for the survey request. They'd come up in an interesting place, where a large sidewalk rounded a pond with a tower in the middle of it. The streetlights kept most places lit, but there were still shadows scattered around where demons could hide. Once they had a good account, they left through the north exit to follow another street to the shrine they were looking for.

"You're in a rush already," Issachar said as they went up the street.

Flynn nodded, seeming preoccupied. "I want to catch her before she moves on. While it's a small move, it's an important one. We arrived a few hours later than usual, for here. The ones who stayed in Ueno should discover that the bridge to Kasumagaseki is out. However, there is a group of fairy demons called kelpies who can help us across. To get their favor, we need to take care of a different demon, back in the lake area. Did you notice the smell there?"

"Yes, it was like a wet sheep rolled around in dung, over by the pier you told me to stay off," he said.

"That's the demon we need to defeat," he said. "I'm sure Walter, Isabeau, and Naverre can handle it, though I'd worry if Naverre tries to take it on alone. But we should catch them on our way back unless we get to talking too much."

"This must be a pretty interesting woman then," Issachar said.

"She's a good ally," he said, still distracted in thought. "I want to reach Kasumagaseki by a reasonable time for us to head back to Mikado to rest too."

"How far away is that?" he asked, reaching over to take his hand. It might not last, but he wanted to for a little bit.

While Flynn took his hand, he didn't acknowledge it. "The demon levels usually aren't bad at this time on the other side of the river. But the things we need to do here can take up some time and it's about the same distance as it took us to get to Ueno. I would like to let you guys investigate the Counter Demon Force base because there's some good things to learn there. And at some point, another of my allies down here will contact me. Nanashi should be asleep now, so it could be a few hours. But I'm hoping that he decides to keep out of things."

"Is he like Naverre, sometimes a hindrance but often a help?"

"Oh, no, not like that," Flynn said. "He's capable of getting things done and I've seen him grow into a powerful fighter. But he's younger than we are, somewhere around fourteen to sixteen years old."

"And he fights demons like us?" Issachar asked. "I mean, I know we might have tried, but we would have made a lot more mistakes. That's dangerous."

"He does very well in spite of his age," he said, closing his eyes. "But when he decides to fight, that's usually when things go very wrong for me."

Issachar squeezed his hand. "Hey, that's a long time off, right? When you think negatively, especially so far in the future, it's going to make it hard to do what you need to now. So focus on what we should be doing today and tomorrow."

Flynn took a deep breath. "Right. Thanks. I would really like to get to us to Ginza. We could potentially solve the time difference early there; I'm not sure, but I'd like to try. However, the group that rules Ginza is the Ring of Gaea, and they encourage strong demons to gather there to help them get stronger. You guys are not ready for Ginza, not by a long shot."

"Where can we go?"

"We should go to Ikebukuro," he answered. "Which means going to Shinjuku first for something. We usually find Lilith in Ikebukuro, plus there's another demon that would benefit the people of Tokyo if we destroy her. And Shinjuku too, that's another dangerous demon. The people in Tokyo have felt helpless and hopeless for many years. Taking care of these dangers for them will encourage them, which is ultimately very important. But that's the usual path; we could lull the other sides into thinking things are getting back on track, or keep them off balance by going elsewhere."

"Well what demon or dangerous area can we take on reasonably now, or by the time we reach them, and is putting the most people in danger?" Issachar asked.

"Right now, Xi Wangmu in Ikebukuro," Flynn answered quickly. "She's working to make a large part of the city into her personal domain. If we really rush, we could make it to Shinjuku today to start the process of reaching Xi Wangmu. But, there's another complication in a group that I don't want involved in that fight. I don't know when they'd give up."

That had an obvious answer to him. "Well if we need to wait for them to give up on this Xi Wangmu, then we'd better not rush. But we shouldn't dally to take care of her either. Then just a natural pace of travel, investigating and growing stronger on the way."

"That could work," Flynn said. "Since we arrived late, a normal pace might get us there by the time they're looking to take a break from their search. It would be natural to stall for time in Shinjuku as well."

There was a small noise ahead that got Issachar's attention, a click. He looked over and there was a woman standing near an old building; that small wooden structure stood out among the massive concrete and glass buildings he'd seen down here so far. In her hands was a small device; a long gun was slung across her back. Giving a laugh, she came down the steps towards them. "Sorry for taking your picture without warning, but a shutter bug like me can't resist a good shot."

"What?" Issachar asked, not understanding most of that.

She took a paper out of her device and offered it to them. "Well you two make such a cute couple."

"Huh?" Flynn asked, his eyes wide as he realized that they had been holding hands while talking.

"Um, we were trying not to tell anyone," Issachar said, fearful but also confused by how lightly she was taking this.

She even smiled in a friendly way. "Got it, I won't breathe a word about it. But go ahead and take the picture as proof of my word."

"Thanks, um," Issachar took the paper and looked it over. One side was blank, but the other had a surprisingly realistic picture of just a few moments ago. The two of them were walking together, talking quietly and holding hands. "Wow, this is amazing! How did you do it?"

"It's a camera," she said, confused herself since she took it as an obvious thing.

"Are you Nozomi?" Flynn asked, taking out the containers when she nodded. "We were asked to deliver something to you."

Nozomi brightened up at that as she took them. "Great, thanks! I've been waiting on this, actually ran out of film for my favorite camera. It's getting harder to find the right kind."

"But how would you make pictures with these things?" Issachar asked. "Especially something so real."

"Well, that would take a long time to explain fully," Nozomi said. "It's a lot of science, and different types between my film camera and this digital one that gives instant photos."

He smiled at that, feeling hopeful that she didn't mind his questions. "That's okay, I taught myself a lot of science with books in the past year. I even made my own lamp from spare parts when everyone thought it was sorcery."

She did raise an eyebrow at that. "Really? Where are you guys from?"

"Mikado, up above," he said.

"Hang on a moment," Flynn said, smiling briefly. "Sorry about being rude, but this is Issachar, and I'm Flynn. He really did teach himself electronics; we didn't even know how to read a year ago as we grew up in a farming town."

"Wow, that's amazing too," Nozomi said. "If you're that good of a learner, then I could lend you a book on photography if you want. But some cameras are simple enough that you can start using them right away. Wouldn't you have a camera with your demonicas already?"

"Do we?" Issachar asked, checking his gauntlet.

"I think I saw something like that word," Flynn said. "Maybe this icon?"

"They usually look a bit like a camera like this," Nozomi said, holding up her digital camera.

"Oh, that could be it," Issachar said, tapping the camera icon.

"The camera option has been locked on this unit," Burroughs replied. "Would you like to unlock the camera?"

"Yes," he said, as Flynn did.

"Okay, you can now use the camera," Burroughs said, then made a small red light appear near the top of the screen. "It's up here by the light. Activate the camera icon to make the view appear on screen, then press the accept button to take the picture. Keep in mind that you can only save a limited number of pictures."

"Wow, I wonder why they didn't tell us about this," Issachar said. "It'd be useful for all kinds of things."

"It's fun too," Nozomi said. "Hunting demons can be a rough life, you know? You've got a lot of dangerous missions to take out demons that could easily kill you and a lot more of very simple food demon hunting that can get mindless."

"You guys hunt demons for food?" Issachar asked, finding that strange. Didn't most demons vanish completely when you defeated them?

She nodded. "We don't have a lot of choice down here with the lack of sun. It's not all that great, sure, so there's that always holding us back. And then the demons try anything to discourage you, making you think you have no hope unless you rely on them and do what they say. I find that having a hobby like photography to focus on helps a lot. You get the confidence to not be swayed by the demons and it gives you something more to do when things get dull."

"Sounds like Walter could have used something like that," Flynn said.

"Yeah," Issachar said, then wondered if she'd like hearing about what they did. "In Mikado, the demons are only in the caves below the capitol, so we had to go in there every day to keep them from building up enough numbers to break out. But you'd always be fighting the same demons and one of our friends was already getting bored."

"That is dangerous because you need to stay alert with demons," Flynn said.

"Right, even those you've fought many times," she agreed. "You guys doing all right down here, then? As much as we've tried to hold our ground, the demons pretty much control the streets."

"We've been doing fine," Flynn said.

"So what brought you guys down here from being above the Firmament?" Nozomi asked.

"We're looking for two demons, Gabriel and Lilith," Flynn answered.

"Yeah they nearly turned most of Mikado into demons," Issachar said, touching his face where the mark was. "I did get turned, but we found a way to turn back and stop new transformations."

"That would be terrible," Nozomi said, looking troubled at hearing that. "Though most people here would tell you to keep away from Gabriel. She and her three fellows went to war with the whole world, and this is what happened," she gestured to the dark city around them.

"What did they do here?" Issachar asked.

She thought about that a moment. "Well, it's hard to tell entirely; I was born shortly after the Firmament went up, but my father told me about what happened. The angels kidnapped thousands of children all around the world, gathering them up in giant cocoons that they took into the sky. And not long after that, nuclear missiles were fired all over the world. We don't know if everyone was eradicated or not because Tokyo was saved by the Firmament covering us up."

"We only know the people on top of the Firmament, nobody down on the surface," Issachar said. "We were told that the surface was corrupted and dangerous. But that is an awful thing to happen; they don't sound like angels for doing that."

"That's why most people here think that angels are worse than demons," Nozomi said. "Though I think that would mean people would want to help you if it gets Gabriel out of Tokyo. As for Lilith, I've heard about her but nothing about her being here. A very long time ago, her story was used as an excuse for why women needed to be submissive to men. But a few decades before the war, she started being used as a symbol for empowering women. Maybe it doesn't matter, but I wonder if this is the feminist or the chauvinist version of Lilith."

"We're not sure of that," Flynn said, although he looked thoughtful. "Just that they were working together, but the failure of their plan may have broke that partnership."

She nodded. "Good luck in that; I work while traveling around so I'll keep an eye out. And have fun taking pictures… oh right." She took out her summoning device and brought out a large book. "This should do, Issachar. It's a history that describes how photography has evolved over the decades. The scientific explanations aren't too in-depth, but it'll give you a good idea on how photography works. I should give you my contact address too, so you can return it when you're done."

"All right, thanks," Issachar said, storing it away in his gauntlet to keep it safe.

"If the shopkeeper thought she needed a request to get this to me, I probably should check in with a couple friends here," Nozomi said. "But I'm glad it happened, since I got to meet you guys. I hope we do see each other again."

"Yeah, stay safe," Issachar said. When she headed on back to Ueno, Issachar looked to Flynn. "She was really nice; do you mind if I keep the picture?"

"Go ahead, but could I have a better look at it?" he asked.

"Oh, sorry," he said, handing it over. "It was just so amazing that this was possible. I had wondered how some of the pictures in Literature looked so good, but I can tell they're photos now."

Flynn nodded, then smiled. "It is a good picture, not surprising from her even though it's spontaneous. I'm glad you're with me now, for many reasons but right now it's because you're helping me think clearer and your excitement is always encouraging."

"I'm happy to help you however I can because I know you'll make the best possible future," Issachar said.

When he handed back the picture, Flynn took his hand. "There is something that's been weighing on my mind lately. You've seen how much I'm suffering, but I can keep myself together by following my plans. When this is over, I'm not sure what I should do with myself. I don't know if I should do this as a result, but I promise you that I'll make more time just for you then. You can use this photo to remind me of that."

"I understand you have to do this, but thanks," he said. He was thinking enough of him to make this promise, so Issachar wouldn't worry about this.

* * *

Somehow, Flynn had gotten to the bar ahead of them and registered them with the Hunter Association already. It let them take requests at these bars, which acted much like K's Tavern up in Mikado. Walter was glad for that because it was something to do. He didn't mind talking with people. In fact, some he'd already talked with were more interesting than most people up in Mikado. One had even given him an updated map of the local area. Walter just got too easily restless to stick indoors and ask questions.

These people were also suffering from a lot of misfortune. He'd learned that food was rationed like the Casualry supplies were. But in their case, it was due to a low supply of food along with keeping luxuries exclusive to the powerful. And they were stuck down here because of demons, trapped in these underground halls where only those like samurai could leave. That made the requests less like something to spend time with and more like direct help to the people.

Naverre had found something good for them to know: the bridge across the river had been destroyed a couple days ago. There were some demons called kelpies who might ferry them across. However, the kelpies had not been seen in their usual place at the pond for longer than the bridge had been out. Instead, a demon called Pelliadh that the kelpies didn't like was staying in the pond. The leaders of Ueno were worried about Pelliadh stinking up the water and making it unsafe to drink. A few locals also wanted the demon taking out for revenge, so it seemed that was a good request to fulfill.

Given that the local Hunters hadn't taken care of it yet, Walter headed out to where the pond was with Isabeau and Naverre. It had been easy enough to find the demon: just follow the horrid stench out to a dock. The mossy demon was tough to take down, but not as hard-hitting as Minotaur. Oddly enough, he left his head behind, a mask of white pottery with limp strands of seaweed trapped in it.

"This is a rather horrific mask," Naverre said, picking up the mask. He quickly screwed up his face and dropped it immediately. "Urgh, this is dreadful too."

"What, it's just a stinky mask," Walter said, going to pick it up. "It makes for quite the trophy, until we…" he was going to say until they turned it over to the kelpies. But then the horrible stench filled his nose and lungs, worse than rotten fish. It made him feel like he could throw up yesterday's meals.

"Can you get it in storage?" Isabeau asked, wrinkling her nose and not even trying to take it.

Right, that should get rid of the smell. Walter tried, but got an error message. "It won't take it," he said, holding the mask head down to try keeping most of it out of his lungs. "I got a map of the area, and looks like I can avoid going where everyone lives with this. How about you guys go turn the quest in and I'll meet you back over by the entrance?"

"Are you going to be all right on your own up here?" Isabeau asked.

"Yeah, of course," he said, grinning and trying to bear this.

Then someone called over, "Hoy, what're you guys dong?" It was Issachar, with Flynn following along.

"Looks like I won't be alone," Walter said. "Go on."

"Right, excuse us, but we need to turn in this quest for a way across the river," Naverre said.

"We'll meet you by the entrance to Ueno," Isabeau said, heading off with Naverre.

"Sure," Flynn called. Then he asked him, "How does the quest get us across the river?"

"I'd explain, but don't want to breath this too much," he said, tapping the head in his hand.

"That's not too bad of a smell," Issachar said.

"You want to take it?" Walter asked, offering it.

"Sure," he said. He frowned a bit, then asked, "Is there a way to get to the entrance without going through where everyone lives?"

"Yeah, I got a heads up on that," he said, then gestured to a exit from this pond area. "That thing smells awful, worse than rotten fish."

"You ever had to wash sick farm animals?" Issachar asked. "That's what it reminds me of."

"Definitely not something we want to leave in the water," Flynn said.

"You guys are made up of tough stuff," Walter said. "The people here wanted this demon Pelliadh out of the lake, for obvious reasons, and a gang of demons called kelpies wanted him gone because they consider this their lake. So we deliver this head to the kelpies, and they should help us across the river to find that base."

"That would be helpful," Flynn said.

"We found out something interesting about the gauntlets," Issachar said, smiling eagerly.

"What about 'em?" Walter asked, which led to Issachar explaining about how they could magically make pictures in an instant in case they wanted to record some sight and share it with someone later. It was certainly interesting, something that could show people in Mikado what was down here. Flynn showed him how to unlock the feature.

After a couple minutes, the other two came up with Jonathan. "Hello, I've got a lot to report about Mikado," Jonathan said, then looked down at the head in Issachar's hand. "S-sorry, but what's that atrocious smell?"

"A demon's head that'll get us across the river," Issachar said. "So we have to endure it on a short walk south. Hopefully short."

"That's odd, but if you say so," Jonathan said, not looking comfortable with it but agreeing to it all the same.

"You can tell us what's going on on the walk over," Flynn said.

"Sure," Jonathan said, and so they headed off down the street. Walter headed to take the front since he had the corrected map for this area, while Issachar took the back since he had the stinking head. "Well the Casualry won their protests, leading to a lot of legal and social changes. It was mostly possible because the conservative heads in the monastery and among the nobles decided to leave the capitol altogether and form their own community."

"How's that going to turn out, I wonder," Isabeau said. "Because I doubt many of the Casualry would go with them, so they'd have to take care of everything themselves."

"That could turn out poorly," Issachar said.

"I didn't check in on them further," Jonathan said. "The other big news from Mikado is that angels have been appearing all over the kingdom and attacking people."

"What?" Walter asked, glancing back at him.

"Already?" Flynn seemed to mutter, although Walter wasn't sure if he'd heard that right.

"Are they actual angels or other impostors?" Issachar asked.

"No one is sure, but they're reported to be merciless," Jonathan said. "They seem to think that the Gabriel impostor is the real Gabriel. The remaining samurai have been able to fight them off, and Hope has had people in the outer villages trained in fighting so they can handle things until they get backup."

Were they real angels or false? It felt strange to be thinking that. The Book of Foundations started off by saying that the people of Mikado were the chosen children of God. It made sense then that they should be following the lead of angels. But then, if the angels were attacking the people on misplaced provocation, there was something suspicious about it.

For a moment, he thought he heard someone other than the rest. "Angels will always tell you what to do with no margin of error. No requests, always orders. So it's better they're fighting back."

He glanced around again, but there didn't seem to be anyone other than his five peers. Being near him, Flynn noticed. "Something up?" he asked.

"Oh, no, it's nothing," Walter said, checking the map again. "The bridge should be in sight now, if it was still there."

The kelpies, which oddly looked like the front half of a horse and nothing more, were delighted to take the head to tear apart and eat. They then offered rides across the river in exchange for the favor. While it was an odd experience, Walter found himself listening to see if the voice said anything else.

But it didn't.

* * *

As Krishna wasn't entirely used to this city, he had been following Hikaru through the streets to Shinjuku. But she'd stopped all of a sudden in front of another underground entrance, staring off into nothing. Shesha had changed to a more normal form for a snake, curling around his shoulders and arms. " _We should go_ ," he said with words that only Vishnu and his avatars would understand.

He put a hand up to his mouth to whisper, "Sorry I didn't explain things, but don't worry. I've had to change plans and I know exactly what I'm doing now."

" _Consorting with Lucifer while acting drunk?_ " Shesha asked, still worried.

"It'll be fun, trust me," Krishna whispered.

Then Hikaru giggled for no apparent reason. "Whatever."

"What'ver what?" Krishna asked.

"I'm supposed to be watching some human, for some reason," she said, sounding different from before. "Dunno why I should care, I'd rather be free to do whatever. It's real easy to fall off the angels' path of Law because they insist on it being a straight and narrow path, with the sides being slippery slopes. But humans fall away from that real easy because of, ah, slippery slope nonsense. So I just gotta talk to him in person, maybe a few times. Or maybe not."

"Why're you caring about some human when we're on a date?" Krishna asked. He was curious about what she said, but he didn't want to break his act yet.

She looked to him and raised an eyebrow. "We're on a date?"

"Aren't we?" he asked, acting confused. "You invited me here."

Hikaru smiled. "Well, why not? But you better not be boring!"

"I could never be boring," he said. "So what do you want to do?"

Shrugging, she answered, "Whatever, let's paint the town red! Or no wait, let's paint it all the colors! I pretty sure I remember where an art shop was around here. We can grab some paint, and glitter, and stickers, and glue, and turn the whole town into a life-sized artwork!"

"That's surprising of you," Krishna said, not able to hold that reaction back. "At least it seems like that."

"Is it?" she asked, tilting her head. "But why care when we could be having fun? Let's go!"

This was odd, but oddities were better investigated. "All right, where's this shop?" he asked.


	39. Counter Demon Force Base

**Chapter 39: Counter Demon Force Base**

The security cameras in Roppongi Hills were now stopped, unable to make any new recordings. It wasn't a major bug; the officials here should be able to reboot the system given fifteen minutes or so. Still, it was a window of opportunity they had to move quickly through.

There were still the human security officers. Michi spoke to his family in the elevator. "I need to distract the guys in the office room. When I signal you, get to the terminal room and hide there. I shouldn't take long after that."

"But why are we leaving here?" their oldest child asked. Her younger siblings didn't look happy either, though the youngest might simply be grumpy from it being too close to bedtime for this activity.

"They broke a promise they made us, but they're going to get us in trouble for it," Michi explained. He didn't want to tell them the full truth; they were too young to hear of that kind of horror. "I'm sorry about this, but we have to leave now."

"They're going to keep your daddy away from us more than he already is," Jun said, which was also kind of true but not fully. "We want to stay together."

"But Mommy, you can beat up anybody who does that, right?" their middle child asked. "So don't let them."

Jun chuckled at that. "You can't solve all your problems through winning fights, dear. Oftentimes it's better to get out of danger." The elevator dinged in arriving, so she nodded. "Keep quiet now, since we need to hide."

Michi left the elevator first, heading right for the window to the security office. "Hey there, has the terminal here been acting up?" he asked.

"Not that we've noticed," the officer there said. Meanwhile, his family slipped out of the elevator and went to a blind spot. "Why, is there a problem with the network?"

He nodded. "Yup, I suspect some hacker is trying to mess me up. I'm getting ghost transmissions, probably covering up someone moving through unofficially. A lot of traffic seem to be coming through here, under a familiar handle of yoloclown."

The officer groaned and turned around. "Tatsumi! What the hell are you doing with the terminal network?"

Good, this was going as he hoped. Michi waved to the four of them to hurry over. Jun saw to it that the three kids got inside quickly, then entered herself and shut the door.

"I'm not doing anything, I swear!" the troublemaker called back. He was a slippery one, playing pranks on other members of the Ashura-kai. A lot of people suspected he was shaving extra funds and perks of other accounts. If he got in trouble for this, an investigation into his acts might draw attention away from what Michi was doing, at least for a short while.

"You best be tellin' the truth cause I've got a huge mess to sort out now," Michi called into the office. "And the higher-ups are gonna want an accounting for this."

"I hope it's not too much of a headache," the officer at the window said.

"It already is, but I think I've got it figured out," he said. "Just make sure of what he's doin' so he don't mess it up further."

"It's not me!" Tatsumi called back indignantly.

Another security officer came into the office then. "Boss, there's something up with the cameras! A couple of them don't seem to be recording."

"What is this now?"

He came up and pointed out a screen out of Michi's sight. "See? Yer talkin' with the guardian but she ain't showing up on the feed."

The security manager looked down, then frowned. "Damn, looks like we've got problems too. Maybe the same hacker. Sorry, we've got to sort this out now."

Nodding, Michi said, "Alrighty, we should exchange info later if it is the same clown."

"Not me!"

"Whatever," Michi said, flicking his hair aside. "Later, then."

"Later," the manager said, focusing his attention on fixing the frozen cameras.

Feeling relieved that went smoothly, Michi hurried over to the terminal room. They wouldn't see that as strange. Now he had to hope their sudden arrival wouldn't cause too much trouble. If it worked out right, he could make his family disappear from the records to completely cut off ties with the Ashura-kai. They might not be completely safe yet, but they would stay together.

* * *

After taking a wrong turn down another underground station, they finally located the gate with the emblem. It seemed like it could be a nice place behind the gate, but it was dark. There were trees in the middle of this road too, something that reminded Isabeau of a few places in the capitol of Mikado. Unfortunately, these trees were long dead.

But the large building behind the gate wasn't their destination. The journal from Aquila had pointed them across the street, where a few tiny buildings were located. Directly across from the gate, there was one that was lit well, with a pair of men in suits that were like the pair from Sky Tower. "Hey, whattya kids doing here?" the one in black asked.

"Is this the Counter Demon Force Base?" Flynn asked.

"Yeah, what's it to ya?" the one in light blue replied. "You're not supposed to be around here."

Jonathan spoke up then, "We had guidance from King Aquila's journals to find this place, so we are supposed to be here."

"Right," Flynn agreed. "Are you members of the force?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" the one in light blue asked. "Shouldn't you know already? Most of 'em died out in their foolish Sky Tower climb twenty years ago."

The one in black nodded. "We're with the Ashura-kai and only those approved by us get in here. And you don't look like anybody we know."

"We're from the kingdom of Mikado, above the Firmament," Flynn explained. "And our first king, Aquila, apparently was part of this Counter Demon Force. So we need to get in here for information he may have left us."

Isabeau wondered for a moment if she should say something because Flynn pronounced Aquila in an odd manner. But somehow, that was something the two guards recognized. "Wait, are you talkin' about the traitor Akira? What idiot would make him a king?"

"Why would you speak ill of him?" Isabeau asked, feeling insulted by their attitude. "He was a great man, a legend to us."

"You kids are crazy, go back home," the one in light blue said.

"No, are we going to have to force you to let us in?" Flynnn asked, being oddly aggressive. But then, these men deserved it.

"Fine, we can do this by force," the one in black said, taking out one of those small devices; it was called a smartphone. "Me against one of you, we'll see who's demon defeats the other. How about you, girl?"

"All right," Isabeau said. Meanwhile, Flynn held a hand up to the other guys, who seemed like they might have stepped up to fight in her place.

"Heh, nobody can beat bro's demon," the one in light blue said smugly as the other called out a large spider with a human face.

To keep up with the stronger demons down here, Isabeau had been fusing some new demons. She'd fused Jeane some time ago, as she had encouraged the fusion so that Isabeau could fight without relying on one strong demon. Her current strongest demon was a cute fairy called jack frost. However, Jack very much proved his worth by quickly icing down the tsuchigumo.

Both of the men were shocked at her win. "B-bro…" the one in light blue said.

"Nice job, Isabeau," Flynn said. "It's good to know that our medic can hold her own."

"Of course, I'm no slacker," she said.

"She's your medic?" the one in black said, intimidated at the idea that a support fighter could defeat him. "F-fine, take this. We're outta here." He threw over a small card, then hurried off with his friend.

Since it had fallen at her feet, Isabeau picked up the card. It was hard, being made with a strange material. "What use would this be?"

"It must do something," Issachar said.

The two men had been standing guard at one of the small buildings; a sign noted that it was an elevator with private access. A device on the door had a thin slot that she could run the card through. Doing that unlocked the elevator door. "This is a strange way to make a key, but that's what it is," Isabeau said, handing it over to Flynn to keep safe.

"All right," he said, taking it to put away. "Actually, how about you guys head on in? I have a hunch that there might be a reason they had a guard here, maybe to keep the base safe. I'll stay up here. Let me know what you find down there."

"Are you going to be all right taking guard on your own?" Isabeau asked. While he had been cleared, he had recently taken a leave of absence for mental health.

"I should be fine," Flynn said.

"Be sure to send a message if there's trouble," Issachar said, to which Flynn nodded.

Unlike the Sky Tower elevators, this one had multiple options on where to go. They decided to split up, her and Walter taking basement floor one and Jonathan, Issachar, and Naverre taking basement floor two. Basement one appeared to be a dormitory, with the rooms left to get dusty. On closer look, Isabeau found that the little touches from the last residents had not been cleaned up. Decorative items were left behind, their little meanings lost. Personal papers and books were around as well.

In the second room she glanced around in, she found something strange. It was a picture pinned to a board, of three boys in some kind of uniform. It didn't seem to be in this building since there was sunlight from a window. One thing drew her eye to it: one of the boys was surprisingly like Flynn.

"This is kind of sad with this place being empty," Walter said, coming into the room.

"It's been like that everywhere," Isabeau said, unpinning the picture. "This place is too big for the few people we've met. Here, look at this."

He took the photo, then stared at it. "Huh, is this Flynn? Sure looks like him." He flipped it over and was surprised again. "It, it says 'Kenji, Flynn, Kiyoharu, class of 20'…something, it's faded at the end. This is eerie."

"Maybe it's a coincidence, but there might be something more here," Isabeau said.

* * *

It was time to get up. Asahi stretched a bit, then hopped out of bed. Let's see, what was there to do today? There were her usual chores: washing dishes in the kitchen, cleaning up various places, helping out her dad (when he let her)… and what did Nikkari have for her today?

Oh right! They were going to go to Kasumigaseki to meet up with the leader of the Hunter Association. It was mostly because of what happened with Nanashi yesterday. Still, this was a great opportunity! If they did well, maybe they could become full Hunters instead of trainees. Asahi had been studying everything she needed to and was sure that she was ready.

She got dressed, then noticed that Toki was awake too. "Good morning," Asahi said cheerfully. "Oh, do you have spare clothes? You can borrow some of mine."

"I'm used to my uniform," Toki said, rubbing at the edge of her face. "I lost the mask; it feels strange."

"We could get your uniform washed," she suggested. Although, the black clothes she wore didn't seem much like a uniform. No markings for whatever group she belonged to. "It's fine. What colors do you like?"

"It doesn't matter," she said, watching her shuffle through the clothes.

"It does too matter," Asahi said. "Wearing clothes you like makes you feel more positive about your day, which can make your day turn out to be good. Especially with colors; you have to take what you can get of what's available, but it's nice when colors I like show up in clothes available. Here's some jean shorts, they're pretty comfy. Oh, and how about this shirt?"

Toki raised an eyebrow at the shirt. It was a pretty pink color with sparkly flowers on the front, something good for a day she felt girly. "It's bright."

"I like bright colors," she said.

"Bright colors make you a better target," Toki said.

"Maybe on the streets, yeah, but we're just gonna hang around here until we get word to head over," she said. "So you can try something different for a couple hours while we do laundry. Oh, here, if you don't like bright colors, how about this?" She pulled out a medium blue shirt that had a cartoony mermaid on the front.

"Maybe," Toki said. "That's not as dangerous. But why the mermaid?"

Asahi thought about that. "Well, maybe when there was more options, you picked clothes that showed things that you liked. I think the mermaid's pretty."

"I guess I'll try it, but I'm changing back to my uniform when we leave," she said, taking the mermaid shirt.

"That's fine, I'll get some more laundry gathered," Asahi said. Didn't want to waste water and soap for just a little washing, after all.

* * *

There was a chill to the air that the others might not pay heed to. It was something that Flynn was wary of that they couldn't know about. When he felt that chill, he knew what was going on. He had to get the others out of the area, which was easy enough by claiming that he wanted to do guard duty. In a way, that was the truth.

As they headed in, Flynn put away his basic long sword in exchange for a katana. It wasn't his best weapon, but then that weapon had a special status. It didn't follow him when time reset. However, this one did follow him in case he got in a situation like this. It boosted his magic a good degree and was an excellent weapon in its own right. Then he shifted his demons to a more powerful party. Just to be sure, he reviewed their skills and resistances.

Once he was satisfied, Flynn looked over the street. It was still and quiet, no demons visible. They'd know. "Red Rider, I know you're out here," he called out.

A deep laugh answered him as a cloaked skeleton on a blood-red horse appeared nearby. "You're a bold one, calling me out by name," he said. "I'm not interested in you, though."

Flynn had suspected this would happen ever since the incident with David. "You sensed someone who was fated to die," he said. "And you're after him for cheating death."

"Good guess," Red Rider said. "So I won't deal with you."

Shaking his head, Flynn drew his katana. "I won't let you touch him."

"Really?" he asked skeptically. "I have no reason to fight you."

"You do because I'm the one who changed fate so that he did not die," he said. "I knew you'd be here, and I knew you'd notice him. So I'm challenging you so you leave him alone."

"You think you can make such demands of me through battle?" Red Rider asked. "I make the strongest warriors tremble; I have demolished entire armies. I can utterly destroy you."

"You? You're easy."

That wasn't true. If it was, he wouldn't have prepared like this. But it worked in making Red Rider growl at him, willing to fight him now instead of heading after Issachar. Defeating a fiend usually got their respect no matter how the fight got triggered. But Flynn didn't mind if Red Rider stayed angry at him. He was certain that he could defeat this fiend.

And Red Rider might realize that when he called upon Trumpeter as one of his allies.

* * *

"Good morning!"

"Waah, what are you doing here?!"

"Mmm." Nanashi squeezed his eyes shut tighter, not wanting to wake up yet. If you were in a place you could sleep soundly, you were probably safe.

"I'm doing laundry," Asahi said. "Do you want me to wash your clothes? You can borrow something from Nanashi."

Hallelujah was still bothered. "Well isn't this a room for guys? Why would you just barge in?"

"It's just my dad and Nanashi most of the time. Sorry, but laundry? I don't want to delay us going too long doing that."

"Fine, that would be good," he said. "Can you give me a minute?"

"All right."

If Asahi was doing laundry, then he didn't have to get up right away. Right? Right. Nanashi let his mind drift away again, trying to catch the dream he'd just been having. He was supposed to pay attention…

"They never did get along, only coming together if I was there."

Nanashi found himself sitting in an unfamiliar room, talking with Flynn. He was dressed more like Naashi was used to people looking, like a soldier. "Their plans do seem extreme."

Flynn nodded. "They might solve things, but that will leave us dependent on the ones who gave us those plans. There should be some middle path; we just need more time to figure out what that is."

"This is a big sacrifice for you," Nanashi said, feeling worried. About what? It had a familiar feeling, like being left alone.

"We don't have time; you heard them." The scene flickered. "I'm counting on you, Akira. It'll be tough, but I know you can get things done."

"Sure, I don't want to let you down," he said.

Then he felt himself getting shook. "Nanashi! Come on, get up."

"Nmmnrgh," he grumbled, opening his eyes. "Do I have to?"

"Yes, if you want to get something to eat before we leave," Asahi said. "Everyone else is awake and Nikkari says we'll leave as soon as we can."

"Mm, okay," Nanashi said, although he felt more fuzzy than when he'd nearly woken up earlier. Was he Akira and remembering things of the past? Or was that just a dream based on what he'd been hearing?

"Good morning, if it's morning," Hallelujah said, smiling at him after Asahi left. "I hope you don't mind if I borrowed some of your clothes; Asahi was doing laundry."

"That's fine," Nanashi said. "You're taller than me, though I did have some large clothes."

"Yeah, I found some I could wear. But man, you're a heavy sleeper. I was talking with Asahi, got startled by her, and then the Boss was interviewing me to register me here."

Since Asahi said they were heading right out, Nanashi got out a jumpsuit that he could wear a leather vest with. It wasn't much, but it was some protection. "I like sleeping. Did have some weird dreams tonight."

"Oh yeah?" Hallelujah asked. "I did too. I dreamed of a desert where I was talking with a nice man in a blue coat. And there was some caged angel, it was weird and I remember it so clearly."

The dream Nanashi just had was sticking around too, of extreme plans that left one dependent. "What did they talk to you about?"

"Well, some of that was personal," he said, rubbing his head. "Although, the angel didn't know why she was caged, which was really weird. We were also told we were supposed to solve mysteries, so maybe why this angel is caged? Though given how dangerous they are, that might not be the one to solve."

"We'd have to confirm that this angel is caged before trying to figure out why," Nanashi said.

"Yeah. But maybe not all angels are bad."

"I have one in the demonica I got, so maybe," he said, coming out from behind the changing screen. Hallelujah had a goofy blush on his face. "Have you met one?"

He nodded. "Yeah, she was really beautiful and kind. She told me to come find you, and said that she'd help me."

"Did she?" he asked. "What did she say?"

"Just about you so far," Hallelujah said. "Actually, I was working for the Ashura-kai, but on really mundane things and nobody respected me much. Gabriel said I was important, so I left them to help her. I hope I do get to talk to her again soon."

"Wasn't Gabriel one of the angel commanders that led their efforts in the war?" Nanashi asked, feeling worried about this.

"Well the demons might have spread lies to make them look bad," Hallelujah said.

"That's true," he said, picking up the demonica.

He was going to show Hallelujah that he had Mastema, but then he noticed that Mastema wasn't there.

* * *

There was a lot of information available to them with the massive computers at the counter demon force base. But what would actually be important? Naverre had no idea. They needed to find two demons, but how would one find them with these things? All the demon reports were apparently from twenty-five to fifty years ago. While there seemed to be some more recent reports, they were all locked behind some password.

There were some saved pages available to him, including a guide to fashion. It was very strange fashion that Naverre wasn't used to, including some scandalous but intriguing dresses for women that showed legs, arms, and a bit of chest. But it allowed for so much more variety in looks! Imagine what his family could have done with these standards of fashion.

Just imagine…

* * *

"You have the eyes of a Godslayer."

Once Red Rider was defeated, guard duty was quiet. Demons who had seen the battle were keeping away. That left Flynn with a good amount of time to think. To make sure he didn't get worked up, he kept the silk lotus with him. It was especially good due to what Red Rider had said to him. Of course the manifestation of war would recognize that in him through battle. But he had to keep positive. Red Rider gained respect for him and agreed to leave Issachar alone. He did laugh and warn that the other fiends weren't his responsibility.

That was fine. Flynn would handle them as they came.

There were the suggestions Issachar had for their route ahead. Heading out to take down Xi Wangmu as a priority was a good idea. This was a time to gain a good reputation in Tokyo. To get his friends strong enough to take on Xi Wangmu… it wasn't so much a matter of strength as a matter of knowledge. There had been something he hadn't known for a long time that made Xi Wangmu much harder than she really was. But he had to get there when Kaga and her crew weren't.

Wasn't there someone in the Ring of Gaea he could use to get her away from Ikebukuro? But first he had to make sure the others were strong enough. Heading to Shinjuku seemed like the most efficient way. He would post some requests under pseudonyms to pass along accessories and other items that would benefit them.

"Someone is approaching from the north," Trumpeter told him. "Six humans."

"Of the Ashura-kai?" Flynn asked.

"No, of the Hunter Association."

This could be trouble, or an opportunity. "Thank you, you should return."

"There is something I'd like to tell you first," Trumpeter said. "Now that I'm out here, I can confirm that the commander is in this time, in this city."

"That's good to know," Flynn said. Good to know even if it was trouble because that added yet another side to things. It might help in the last stages, or be a huge obstacle. But, that was late. The main thing that this knowledge would have changed was that he might not have taunted Red Rider as severely. It shouldn't change things too much at present.

After Trumpeter left, it took another minute for the Hunters to arrive. The street was well lit, so he saw a lanky man walking with a large muscular man carrying a massive sheathed sword. Four others were with them, but those two stood out. They were already coming out here? Maybe it had to do something with Akihabara. Whatever the reason, this was a good chance.

"Hello, fellow," Fujiwara said, smiling in a friendly way. "You don't seem like one of the Ashura-kai."

"I'm not," Flynn said. "I'm Flynn, a samurai from Mikado."

As expected, they both recognized the name of the kingdom. "You mean from above the Firmament?"

"Yes," Flynn said. Hoping they might open up earlier, he added, "You're the first to recognize that without being told."

"We know a little about your kingdom," Skins said.

"If you're from Mikado, what are you doing down here?" Fujiwara asked. "And in this place?"

"The short version is that we're searching for two demons who tried to turn our entire kingdom into demons," he said. "We used information from King Aquila's writings to locate this place as somewhere we might find help, but it's abandoned. There were a pair of guards from the Ashura-kai, but they ran off when one of my fellows defeated their demon. I told the other five to search this place while I stood guard just in case. What about you?"

"That's interesting. My name is Fujiwara, and this is Skins and some of our assistants. We founded the Hunter Association; you must be the ones who posted that request for information on Gabriel and Lilith."

He nodded. "That's right. Your people have been helpful so far, even if they weren't sure about believing us."

"That's what we expect out of our Hunters," Skins said, smiling proudly.

"We came here to meet with some others in a few hours," Fujiwara said. "We expected to negotiate with the Ashura-kai guards here. They were supposed to be taking care of this place, but it's recently come to light that they haven't been doing a good job of it. So we meant to inspect this place to see if we need to take control of it."

"I see," Flynn said. "I hope you don't mind us here."

Fujiwara shook his head. "No, it's fine. Besides, you've already signed up with our association, so if your fellows can give us a report on their search, it would help our inspection."

"Sure, I'll let them know," he said, starting to send a message. "Where do you want to meet up with them?"

"I can take guard while this place is unlocked," Skins said. "I remember, if you're Flynn, you were noted to be the leader of your group of samurai. You should be there to hear their reports."

"Right, that would help," he said.

As they went into the elevator, Fujiwara asked, "Do you have the key you used to unlock this elevator? I'd like to make sure of which one you have."

"Sure," he said, calling it out so he could do so. Then to make things seem reasonable, he added, "I don't see how it'd be a secure key since it's just a little card."

Fujiwara was thoughtful enough to show him how the embedded chip was raised slightly from the plastic. "That little chip there stores information that the box out there can read. It was a normal thing before we got trapped down here."

"It seems to work, like so many other strange things down here," Flynn said.

"What kind of technology do you have?" Fujiwara asked. "You're still using the demonicas."

"The gauntlets?" Flynn asked. "They're mystic relics; we don't know how they work, but they do. We thought lamps were sorcery too, one that we were allowed to make use of. But one of my friends found a book that taught him how to make one. He'd understand all this stuff better than me."

"I don't understand it all completely myself, but it does work," he said.

They'd decided to meet up on the second basement level, where the control room and the terminal were. Flynn introduced everyone. "He wants to know the condition of this base, while we need to gather what information we've found."

"A number of these lights aren't working, while the halls and rooms are all dusty and untouched on level one," Walter said.

"We were able to get access to a lot of information in the room back there," Jonathan said, pointing to the door to the control room. "The equipment there seems to be intact, although we wouldn't know for certain. We could use them, and Issachar did find something interesting."

He nodded. "Yeah, you know how there's that weird time difference? I figured out when the two demons probably got down here and searched to see if anything noticeable had changed. And there was a public report from the Ashura-kai that some kind of barrier went up around a place called Tennozu. There's also a recent barrier around a place called Ikebukuro, but that's recent down here and is way before the time they appeared before us."

Tennozu… Flynn was used to encountering Baal and Beelzebub there, but the events that led to that could not have happened yet. Lilith had plenty of places she could use as a base in Tokyo that were better than Tennozu. Gabriel had much fewer places safe to her. If she could provide food for the people there, she could have reason to hunker down in Tennozu until she had a plan. And Flynn was sure that providing food wasn't a problem to her, save for swallowing her pride to work with humans.

"Tennozu is a difficult place to reach," Fujiwara said. "It's in the southeast where a lot of roads collapsed or got blocked. We've not gotten any reports from that area in over a year either, so we don't know what the conditions are like there."

"I've gotten some tips to check Ikebukuro or Ginza already," Flynn said. "But Ikebukuro is labeled dangerous and we were blocked from reaching Ginza at that place north of here. We'll have to figure out where we can go."

Fujiwara put his hand to his chin. "Yes, the Ring of Gaea is based there and they demand that anyone who wants into Ginza must prove their worth. They also claim Ikebukuro even though we've been warning people away; there's a powerful demon with a sprawling domain there. But if you want to get the attention of Gaea, I'd recommend going back to where you came in, through Sky Tower, right?"

"Yes, that's where," Flynn said.

"There's three communities in that area that have recently been cut off from the rest of the city," Fujiwara said. "Ueno, Akihabara, and Kinshicho. And there are three groups that influence all of Tokyo. The Ashura-kai claims to rule over the city, and they do have control of trade, what land we have to grow food, and policing places like this. The Ring of Gaea is a rebellious group that calls the Ashura-kai tyrants, but they pretty much focus on themselves. And then there's us, the Hunter's Association. We're trying not to take political stands with the other two, just keeping the people safe from demons. The northeastern area where Sky Tower is doesn't have a strong foothold for the other groups, but if you do some work over there, their representatives will take notice of you and could give allowances for you to search in their territories."

"That could work out," Flynn said. It'd be a good reason to go check out the one area he'd never seen before as well.

"Why don't you use the terminals to move across the river?" Jonathan asked. "There's one right here, and we found another in Ueno."

"They're under the control of the Ashura-kai currently, so no one else can use them," Fujiwara said.

"No, I was able to use the one in Ueno to go back up to Mikado for a brief visit," Jonathan said.

That puzzled Fujiwara. "Didn't you get troubled by the terminal guardian?"

Jonathan shook his head. "I didn't, but Flynn was the one who found that terminal."

"I ran into no trouble other than figuring out how to activate it," Flynn said, knowing that the guardian was safely out of the Ashura-kai for now. Michi knew how to cover his tracks well.

"That's odd, something I'll have to look into," Fujiwara said. "It could still help to go back. Or if you want, Shinjuku and Shibuya are in the center of the city. Shibuya is close to the headquarters of the Ashura-kai, but Shinjuku could be a good place to check out. You should be able to find ways to other parts of the city from those places. Do you have a map of the city?"

"Yeah, we were able to update what we had from here," Issachar said.

"That's good," Fujiwara said. "If you'll excuse me, I think I'll go check on the terminal myself. Once you've discussed things, you can ask me any other questions you have. I can't promise to be able to answer them, but I'll do what I can."

"Thanks for what you've told us so far," Flynn said. Fujiwara nodded and headed off to the terminal room. "What else have you all found out?"

The things they told him about were things he knew already: about the nuclear war twenty-five years ago, about the kidnapped children who got put into a giant cocoon, about how large portions of the city were covered in a poisonous swamp. Isabeau and Walter had even found a dorm room he'd used in the previous life, with the picture of himself, Kiyoharu, and Kenji pinned to a cork-board, along with various notes referencing other forgotten things. He had to lie about not knowing what it was about, but they'd already learned the general information.

"We were always told that the people down here perverted the natural order of things and were entirely corrupted," Jonathan said. "But from the things they left behind, they don't seem to be that way. These people were trying to protect their nation from demons and angels, and some immensely powerful weapons that may have indeed destroyed the rest of the world centuries ago for us. It was merely a quarter of a century for those still living down here, though."

"And you can see all kinds of signs of who they were in the dorms upstairs," Isabeau said. "There were pictures and documents scattered around, but we found nothing that seems perverse or evil in them."

Walter nodded. "Right, they're just normal things people might keep. Although they seemed to treat things with less care, like the items weren't worth much."

Flynn knew why that was, but could only go, "Hmm," in response.

"That's because they could produce goods in immense volumes back then," Naverre said, surprisingly.

"How do you know that?" Walter asked.

"Well there were a lot more people around, so they'd have to make a lot of food and goods to go around," Issachar said.

"Well," Naverre said, a little sheepishly, "actually I got interested in some information on fashion. They had a vast array of styles and colors of clothing, so many of which were unlike anything I'd ever seen. When I looked into the production numbers, it was simply astounding! They could produce clothes rapidly and would end up with a surplus if people didn't like them. In fact, the way we produce clothes would be considered an artistic endeavor that required dedication."

"Huh, working on fabrics and clothing is all that some people in Mikado do throughout their lives," Issachar said. "So they were different from us in some ways, but there were good things with the bad. The weapons that destroyed the world were made by humans, although I couldn't tell why'd they make such things."

"Maybe someone wrote down something about that somewhere," Flynn said. "I'd like to discuss our options with Hope, so how about we break for the day and head back to Mikado through the terminal? We'll come back here in a few minutes by the view of people down here."

The others agreed to that.


	40. New Paths Opened

**Chapter 40: New Paths Opened**

Since the leader of Kinshicho was asleep when they arrived, Michi and Jun had to deal with someone else to sort out getting a room for their family. Flynn must have done something since they were expecting a new family; it just took some convincing to confirm that it was them arriving. "It's eerie since we moved so suddenly," Jun said quietly; the kids had gone right to sleep on getting settled in.

"We have a good ally," Michi said. "I still have my job, though I'm not sure how my paycheck is going to come through."

"Don't worry, I can pick up more jobs as a Hunter now," Jun said, then smiled. "I won't have to deal with their sexist notions anymore trying to keep me in the apartment."

He smiled back, having to hold back a laugh. "Right, this'll be good for us." He then got a text on his phone and automatically grabbed it. "Already? This had been a long day. Well…" he noticed the name and stared at the phone.

"What is it?" Jun asked.

He tilted his phone so she could see. "It's Fujiwara, he wants to talk to me. I'd better take this; having his help would be even better."

"Okay, just be sure to not stay up too late," she said, patting his arm. "You look tired."

"Yeah, hopefully he'll understand," Michi said, going out in the hall to take the call. He'd seen a nook off to the side which should be good.

Fujiwara was quick to take the connection. "Hello, Michi, what's been going on with the terminal network?"

"I can't reveal everything just yet, but I had to take my family away from the Ashura-kai," he explained. "I still have control over the terminal network, but I'm working for a new benefactor. They want the network open to everyone, so I've disabled the domains for now. I'll dismantle them completely later on; I've had a long day."

"Ah, that could be a boon for the city," Fujiwara said. "But it's a great risk for yourself and your family to leave the Ashura-kai."

He nodded. "It was dangerous enough that we had to get out. We're going to try to keep quiet, although I'll still be maintaining the terminals."

"Well if your new benefactor wants the terminals to be public, I'd be happy to help you out in keeping safe from the Ashura-kai," he said. "Do you have any contact with the Hunter Association?"

"My wife is a Hunter, but they kept her from doing work often," Michi said. "She means to be more active here."

"I can tell where your call is originating from now, and you should have an easy time keeping quiet there," he said. "I'll send a note to our local leader there to see what more we can do for you."

"Thanks," he said, smiling in relief. "I'll do what I can to help more people now, since people have helped us do this without hesitation."

Maybe he could do more than just open up the terminal network to everyone.

* * *

"Marriage is about commitment as well, never wavering on an oath made for life," the priest said, managing to continue his lecture without falter as they walked along the streets of Mikado.

While Walter did his best to pay attention, it was clear he was reciting this from rote. The priest had probably gone through this hundreds of times. But they had a whole series of these lectures to go through before their marriage could be approved. Jonathan had said it was basic information that he'd already known most of it. There was a whole book of scripture on marriage, probably with all this lecture information in it. Couldn't they just read that?

"Pardon me, but we're here," the castle official said, stopping them in front of a two story house built of red brick with yellow trim. "This is the home we've found for you; it's in excellent condition. The family who owned it has only one heir and hasn't had use of it for three generations, so they were happy to pass it along to a young couple."

"That's good," Isabeau said. "We should thank them in person some time."

"Sure," Walter agreed. Though it could be months if they couldn't see them today, which was likely with all the things they had to catch up on. Maybe writing them a note would do for now.

"There's a few servants who've been up-keeping this house, so they'll be working for you now," the official said. "Your things have already been moved here, so you should review how things are arranged."

"Sure, once we finish this talk with the priest," Walter said.

An old woman met them at the door. "Welcome, it's good to finally meet you," she said. "I'm Martha; my husband, myself, and two of our grandchildren live here to take care of the house. We were honored to hear that you samurai would be the new masters of the house."

"It's good to meet you too," Isabeau said. "Actually, our mission will keep us away from Mikado for long periods of time, so it'll be a while before we can truly settle in here."

"That's fine, you're doing good work for our kingdom," Martha said respectfully. "Will you be here for dinner?"

"I'm not sure," Isabeau said, glancing at him. "I wanted to have dinner with my parents since it's been a long time that they've seen me."

"Is it alright if we invite them over here?" Walter asked, not sure if Martha and her family could handle an extra two people for dinner.

"If you want, we can get a good dinner for all of you," Martha said. "It's no trouble."

"Oh, but my family is with the monastery, so it'll need to meet those standards," Isabeau said.

"We can handle that, and I can send my grandson up to invite them," she said.

They ended up spending the afternoon talking with the priest as he tried to ram in a lot of the marriage preparations since they couldn't give him a good notice on when they'd be available. Then the evening was spent with Isabeau's parents. By the time they could talk with each other, Isabeau was looking worn out. Walter felt that way too, since a lot had happened since they left Mikado.

"I'll take one of the guest rooms, so you can sleep in here," Walter said as he was checking his cabinet. He wouldn't have put things together like this, but it was workable.

"All right," Isabeau said, sitting down on the bed with her shoulders sagging down. "Maybe we should tell them not to rush so much next time. There was so much to get through."

"I was thinking that myself," he said. It was surreal, thinking that they were in their bedroom right now but they hadn't really done any of the dates and talks he expected. Well, no time like the present to start. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Hoy, I know it's been a long day, but I have to say, you're a strong and beautiful woman and don't let anybody else tell you otherwise."

She smiled at that, proving that she really was beautiful. "Thanks, I've been glad when you've been by my side."

Walter gave her a kiss, then said, "Sweet dreams, Isabeau; we'll talk more tomorrow, maybe not on this stuffy official stuff too."

Laughing at that, she replied, "Good night, Walter; I hope we don't have to be stuffy."

* * *

When Toki woke up, she was expected to do some exercises before she got a meal. She tried to do some this time, but Asahi had disrupted her with talk of clothes. Then they ended up doing chores around Kinshicho together. Back in the temple, there were always other people who took care of chores. Asahi said that everybody here had to contribute how they could.

She didn't see Nanashi and Hallelujah until they met for breakfast. A man named Toma came with them, but he picked up a bowl of the breakfast rice to take elsewhere. "Sorry, I'd like to talk but we have a new family moved in along with you two that I need to get registered here. Good luck with your trip to Kasumigaseki."

"Thanks, Dad, we'll be fine," Asahi said.

"Don't call me Dad when I'm working," he said like he was weary of saying it.

"You're not working yet," she said.

Once Toma walked off, Toki asked, "Should you respect him as your father?"

Asahi rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but he keeps treating me like a child. I'll start respecting him again when he respects me."

"You won't talk her out of that even if she should respect him," Nanashi said.

"Geez, Nanashi," Asahi said indignantly. "You should be taking my side." Nanashi sighed quietly at that.

"Well he cares enough about you to worry like that," Hallelujah said. "I never met my dad, and I don't know what happened to my mom but I haven't seen her in a couple of years."

"I lost both my parents," Nanashi said. "But I respect Toma a lot because he's a great Hunter even if he can't fight as well anymore."

"He is good, I just wish he trusted me more," Asahi said.

"Your parents don't matter as much as the people who raise you," Toki said. "I have a great deal of respect for the ladies who raised me. It's something they've earned for taking care of me and teaching me. As such, I find it strange that you treat your father so casually."

While Toki had said that trying to fit in, it made Asahi annoyed. "I help Dad out any chance I can, but he needs to let me do more. Geez, I didn't expect you all to be against me."

"We're not against you," Nanashi said. "It's just, if you want to be a Hunter, you need to be acting like one, including calling him Boss while we're in here where he works."

"Hey, can we change the subject already," Asahi said, waving a hand as if she could sweep it away. "Like, do either of you have smartphones with the demon summoning app?"

"I have a smartphone, but I had to take the program off it," Hallelujah said, taking out a phone that was in rather nice shape. Being without any scratches, it might be worth a small fortune if it had the demon program on it. "The one I had was glitchy, and something in this phone's programming doesn't want to download it again."

"What would make the program glitchy?" Toki asked. Was it like herself to be so curious? Usually her training would keep her quiet. "I've heard that it's one of the most stable programs available."

"I don't know," Hallelujah said, momentarily looking away from her. He might be lying.

"Oh, so you can't summon any demons," Asahi said, disappointed.

"Well I can," he said, pulling back the sleeve on his jacket. There was a strange marking on his arm there, like a tattoo of a leaf. "This lets me have a demon familiar, but only one."

"Wow, where'd you get that?" Asahi asked, excited now. Were girls normally this quick to change their attitudes? Toki only knew that she should keep calm and focused at all times.

"It's, um, it's a complicated story, but it was basically an experiment," he said, glancing off. Lying again, perhaps. "I can't really disclose that information, sorry."

Toki thought that was an unusual means of making a contract with a demon. There had to be some reason why behind it. Meanwhile, Asahi leaned over to get a better look at it. "Still, that's cool! You get a demon and a nifty tattoo."

"Is your demon fair with you that way?" Nanashi asked.

Hallelujah nodded. "Yeah, we've been friends for several years now. But I can only have one demon with this method and I can't fully understand him. What about you, Toki?"

"I don't need demons," Toki said. "I'm trained to take them down on my own abilities. If I had a phone, it would slow me down to summon demons."

Strangely, that excited her too. "Wow, that's amazing! You must be a lot stronger than you look."

"One should fight with brains and brawn to be most optimal," Toki said.

"That's the way to do things," Nikkari said, coming up to join their table. "Do you guys have any more preparations to make? We're going to stop by Akihabara on our way, so we should leave soon."

"We all have to change to outfits appropriate to battle first," Toki said.

"What, you don't like being cute like that?" Nanashi said, smiling like it was a joke.

The shorts and t-shirt were odd to wear, but he had called her cute. It made her feel happy, which shouldn't matter. As her usual outfit was designed for intimidation and stealth, nobody had called her cute before. "I'm not used to this," she said, not able to be as bold as usual.

"But it's good to wear something different, right?" Asahi asked. "Although yeah, we should be properly equipped before leaving."

Asahi seemed immature to Toki, without the right attitude to be fighting demons. But this morning had been different in a good way thanks to being with her. Maybe even fun? Maybe doing some more different things would be fun too. But what use was fun? It didn't help to defeat demons.

She wondered about that quietly as she got prepared to head out.

* * *

Flynn had his friends meet him outside the Mikado terminal. It was fall now, raining lightly with a chill of approaching winter. While it kept most Luxurors indoors, he knew that the people down in Tokyo would appreciate a proper rainy day. There were a few approaches to that goal, pieces of which he could set into motion soon.

It was Issachar who waited with him since the others all had family to reassure or business to take care of before heading back. He'd brought out an umbrella to keep them dry. Despite the dreary weather, Issachar was all smiles this morning. "Hoy, it's going to be a great day today," he said, tugging at his sleeve. "I can feel it."

"You're certainly in a good enough mood to make it look that way," Flynn said, smiling at him.

"Why wouldn't I be?" he said, still smiling but blushing some. "I can be this close to you and anybody who sees us will just think that you've forgotten an umbrella. And I really think that today will turn out well."

It could also turn out very bad, if his guesses and estimates weren't right. But Issachar's cheer was infectious; it had always been that way even when he'd been at his most negative. Leaning in closer, Flynn whispered, "You're tempting me to suggest we take another day being up here, just to be with you."

"No, go ahead and let's press on," Issachar said, a warmth in his expression that made it seem like he had his halo without being transformed. "You've been preparing for this for more years that you can count, so you can make this dream come true. I know you can."

There had always been something precious about his friendship with Issachar. But seeing him now so bright and happy, supporting him even as he had to remain somewhat detached, Flynn felt like simply thanking him for that wasn't good enough. Before he could think twice of it, he kissed him lightly instead. His heart was pounding, the raindrops plopped on the umbrella, and it seemed briefly like nothing else mattered.

"I didn't expect you to be so bold," Issachar said, still beaming and beautiful.

"Neither did I," Flynn whispered.

"Well I'll take that for proof that this is a great day already," he said.

"I won't argue that." They ended up waiting quietly in the rain after that, which was a little odd for Issachar. But it made Flynn think more over how Issachar was thriving now; perhaps he could find peace for himself when he got the victory that finally felt fulfilling instead of empty.

Somehow, Jonathan ended up as the first of the others to arrive. He was beaming too, like the dreariness of the rain couldn't touch any of them. "Good morning!" he said cheerfully.

"Good morning!" Issachar said back, equally cheerful. "How's your family doing?"

"Great, simply wonderful," he said. "I got some pictures to show you guys when we're all here." It seemed for a moment that he was trying to hold back, but his joy was too much for him too. "We have a son, and it was such a wonder to be holding him for the first time. Adam and Marie are doing just fine, and he even held onto my thumb and seemed to be looking at me. It was just so amazing, like I didn't fully believe myself to be a father until he was there in my arms."

"That's great!" Issachar said. "I bet he'll be real proud of you when he get to hear what you've been doing."

"I hope so," Jonathan said, some nervousness slipping into his expression. But he pushed himself past it as he looked over them. "Oh, did you tell him Issachar? About how…?" he seemed unsure of what he was asking about; Flynn wasn't sure what it was about either.

"Yeah, although it unfortunately got forced out," Issachar said.

"Because of the incident with David?" Jonathan guessed. "I had my suspicions, but I never found a good point to ask you two."

Wait, did he know? But he didn't seem judgmental about it. "What are you two talking about?" Flynn asked.

After glancing around, Issachar said, "I ended up telling him that I loved you a while back. It was when I bought that lotus I gave you; it was really hard to keep quiet about it."

Jonathan smiled at them. "I thought it might just be because I was so happy today, that I saw my happiness in you, but no, that's your own happiness."

Issachar laughed. "It's a great day, I knew it from the moment I woke up."

"And you're fine with us being together?" Flynn asked, not sure he could believe that. Even with all that he'd guided Jonathan away from the strictness of Law, he didn't think he'd gone far enough to look past this.

"More than that, I'm glad for you both," Jonathan said. "I've had to learn to look at things differently before. When he was talking to me, I just couldn't see a reason his feelings would be false or wrong. I hope nobody gives you trouble for it."

While it was odd, it had to be a good sign. "Thanks, I hope not either," Flynn said. "Whenever I see him happy like this, it feels like the world is as it should be."

"Things will keep getting better," Issachar said, to which Jonathan nodded in agreement.

In a few more minutes, the others arrived as well. "We're heading down to Ueno first," he told them when they had gathered and exchanged greetings. "We'll wait on a few more tips before starting on investigating any of them, and we need to establish a good reputation with the people of Tokyo. So we're going to search for the other communities Fujiwara told us about, Akihabara and Kinshicho, and do some of the requests posted at the Association bars there. Tomorrow, we'll head out to find Shinjuku unless something comes up today."

"The updated maps show where those places are now, so it should be easier to find them than Ueno yesterday," Issachar said. "Actually, it seems like we missed the other two places entirely since they're closer to Sky Tower than Ueno is."

"Are we going to split up to find the two towns or stick together?" Walter asked.

"We should stick together since you have to visit a terminal to get your gauntlet registered to it," Flynn said. "Akihabara is very close to Ueno, so we'll head there first and spend about three hours there. Then we'll head over to Kinshicho and do the same. Is everyone all right with this plan?"

No one had any objections to it, so they headed down through the terminal to arrive in Ueno. It was odd for him as they headed south and didn't run into several recently-made craters. Instead, many large buildings were clustered together, some damage from post-war riots remaining. It was a very colorful area, which was a surprise. Pictures and old advertisements were spread all over the faces of the buildings. While it had been twenty-five years, the people in this area seemed to be up-keeping a lot of the art. Perhaps this place was a draw to artists.

There were guards at the fence blocking off the station people lived in. Once they proved they were registered Hunters, they were let inside. "Be careful, though, we're having some conflicts with the Ashura-kai and the Ring of Gaea," one said.

"What happened?" Flynn asked.

"If you haven't heard the announcement, this town nearly got blown to pieces," the guard explained. "The records suggest that the Ashura-kai were involved in it. Tayama offered a really weak excuse for it and sent some people over to try explaining, but everyone here is angry at them."

"That's understandable," Flynn said.

"Were they trying to destroy this place?" Walter asked, trying to understand this.

"We don't know if they were trying, but it certainly seems so," the other guard said. "Those old missiles would have destroyed everything for several blocks around."

The first guard nodded. "Right, and the Ring of Gaea has come back out to try raising more rebellion. But it was their actions here over the past few weeks that got the ire of the Ashura-kai, so us locals are tired of them too."

"Both of them want control of the shops here, but they don't have any interest in taking care of us or our interests. You'll probably hear a lot more griping from people if you chat with them."

"All right, thanks for letting us know," Flynn said.

As they headed down, Isabeau said, "Fujiwara told us that the Hunter Association is trying not to take sides politically, so I think we should do the same here."

"That sounds good," Flynn said. "On one hand, I'd like to hear some things from them. But if they're fighting, this may not be a good time. We should try to keep out of their conflict."

The station was also colorfully decorated; all kinds of paintings and miniature collections were everywhere, alongside the usual collections of goods and supplies. The Association bar was marked with the usual mural, but the terminal room had caution tape criss-crossing it. From the writing nearby, it was simply a protest against the Ashura-kai controlling the terminals. Flynn went inside to register the terminal and send word to the others of where it was.

While he was in there, he accessed the admin side of the system. He'd left Trojan in charge of keeping the system secure, and keeping the Ashura-kai from retaking control. In the search bar, he wrote, 'How are things?'

A note popped up in response 'Yo boss! Somebody keeps trying to shut off Aquila Plaza terminal. It's Mastema, and his traces are all over the barrier near Sky Tower terminal.'

"Mastema, huh?" Flynn said. He didn't entirely trust Mastema. He'd first met the angel working for the Ashura-kai, protecting their work at Reverse Hills even though it was despicable. And then there was what he'd done to the other angels. While he claimed to be working for God, he didn't act like an angel either. 'Good work; keep it up. I'll try to find Mastema.'

'Thanks boss!'

"Excuse me, but you seem to be the current administrator of the terminal network."

"Hmm?" He looked over and in some twist of fate, Mastema was in the room with him. Or maybe not fate, given what Trojan had just told him. "Yes, what about it?"

The dark-winged angel smiled. "My name is Mastema, and I need the terminal at Aquila Plaza shut back down. Not permanently, I assure you, just long enough to get something done."

"I can't do that," Flynn said. "That terminal is currently our only way back home. There's nothing that would make it worthwhile for us to shut down the terminal."

"No, it could help you as well," Mastema said. "You must be Flynn, the young samurai leader of the group here. Well, I've seen your request for information about the demons Gabriel and Lilith. I don't have any information on the latter, but I can confirm that Gabriel is currently hiding in Tennozu, far to the south of here. I have been searching for her myself for a long time."

"Did you put up the barrier in the Firmament to keep her from returning to Mikado?" he asked, seeing that as the most likely reason.

Mastema nodded. "Yes, because if she escapes back up there, she could go hide out anywhere in the world, or even out of it if she wishes. If we want to capture her and keep her from being a danger to everyone, we can trap her easier in Tokyo. But if the terminal to Aquila Plaza remains open, she'll be able to get back that way. We need it closed to capture Gabriel."

How should he do this? Mastema was strong… but not as strong as Red Rider. "Are you an idiot?" Flynn asked.

"Excuse me?" Mastema asked, acting polite although his fingers started to clench together.

"Although you wouldn't know what happened in Mikado," he said. "She tried to turn all of Mikado into demons along with Lilith, claiming to be the seraph Gabriel working on orders from God. Thanks to some luck, we managed to reverse the transformation for those who had and prevent more for those who hadn't."

"Really?" He was interested in this. "How did you accomplish that?"

"Sorry, I can't explain it," he said. "But it worked. She ordered everyone into Obelisk Plaza to tell us that we had done something terrible and that we should submit to her word. There, we disproved her claims of being an angel because of what she'd done and refused to go along with her. She got furious and fled down here. I've learned since that she got into a messy fight around Kinshicho and is probably injured."

"I can confirm that part of the events," Mastema said.

Flynn nodded. "So she's injured, humiliated, and likely still infuriated. How do you think she is going to react when she learns that you've shut her up in a place she despises? Her desperation may drive her to extreme acts."

"That could true, but I've waited for this chance to capture her for a long time," Mastema said. "Letting her escape would be a mistake."

"But making her think she has an escape route would make her less desperate and less dangerous to everyone in Tokyo," Flynn argued. "I have a guard in the terminal system who is at their best in a system like that. It won't be as easy of an escape as she might think and I will be alerted if that way is taken."

"I still think giving her a chance to escape is a mistake, but you seem to have thought through this," Mastema said. "All right, I will see how your plans go. But I will leave the barrier I put up active."

"That's fine, as long as we can access the terminal in Mikado," Flynn said. He had upped the requirements for using terminals to having three locations recorded, all in order to prevent too many from Mikado making it down to Tokyo. In the usual flow of events, Tayama would take one of the older samurai hostage to force them into working for him. Having Mastema's barrier up helped prevent that from happening.

"Well I'm going to go keep an eye over Tennozu, to see what she does," Mastema said. "I'll be glad to help you out, although you…" he paused, taking another look at him. "Hmm, well you may be able to take on Gabriel. But what of your allies? If you're from Mikado, I can't imagine they'd be strong enough to take her out. It's strange enough that you're as strong as you are."

If he wanted to intimidate Mastema, he could tell him what he was. But Mastema was another angel that was better not taken lightly. "That's difficult to explain," he said.

"And you're more concerned for the people of Tokyo than I would expect out of a citizen of Mikado," he added.

"They're people too, so I'd rather not hurt them either," Flynn said.

"Hmm, you're an idealist in spite of things," Mastema said. "That's fine, it's expected of you samurai. Perhaps we will work together in the future. You know where Gabriel is now, so good luck in locating Lilith." He then vanished, perhaps using the terminal to get over to Tennozu.

"I just hope you don't capture her before we can confront her," Flynn said once Mastema was gone.

* * *

 _This is what you should do._

Gabriel came awake in a start, the words feeling like they'd just been spoken. But it was immediately apparent that no one was in the shrine with her. Someone had been speaking to her; she was sure of that. They had told her of a plan which made perfect sense. When she completed it, a lot of problems would be solved. It was so obvious that she should have thought of it herself.

But it seemed more likely that God had finally spoken to her and told her how to proceed.

"Thank You, my Lord, I will fulfill Your word as soon as I can," she said, feeling some relief.

Some… no, it was only a little. She still didn't feel the presence of God. Why would He speak to her but not be felt with her? The cold ache of loneliness was still with her. Perhaps this was a test of some kind. Yes, an extensive test to see how deep her loyalty was. But that should be unquestionable! She was loyal to God and only God; that was who she was. But things had become so gray… maybe this test wasn't for her sake, but for the sake of others who would see the ideal that everyone should live up to.

"Yes, I will teach the world, whatever the cost to me," Gabriel said. "But it seems I will need the assistance of the Unclean Ones here. It is Your wisdom, God, so I will follow Your plan."

Specifically, it needed some of the dangerous inventions of humanity, things that were wicked in nature. But it was fine to use wicked things against other wickedness. The goal would glorify God and they could work once again towards cleansing mankind of their wickedness. These Unclean Ones should feel honored that they were chosen to assist her.

They were weakened from a long period of hunger, so she would need to provide for a while longer to make sure they could carry out their end of this plan. That was simple. And she could attempt to teach them, even if they were already deemed impossible to save. There might even be some innocents in children to take back to Mikado with her, since children were more easily taught the proper ways.

This was good. She just had to endure a little while longer.

 _A/N: Some of the Anarchy/Bonds decisions in Apocalypse don't entirely make sense to me, like here when Asahi is being disrespectful of her father. One would think that the Bonds answer would be to encourage her not to, especially given Japanese customs of respect. But no, that's the Anarchy choice because you're going against your friend. There's other seemingly sensible dialogue options that put you on Anarchy path as well, although I suppose that's the case for a lot of SMT decisions in whatever alignment system they have going._


	41. Meeting up in Akihabara

**Chapter 41: Meeting Up in Akihabara**

The survey of demons around Kinshicho was going slow, so Manabu offered to stay behind and take care of that. When they got out to the park, Nikkari patted Nanashi's shoulder. "You should try recruiting some demons around here. You have strong demons already, but it will be better overall for you to get some demons more fit for a beginning summoner. I want to talk with the other three for a bit before we head off."

"Okay," Nanashi said. He walked away from the group and checked the demonica. Mastema was still missing; Minotaur was back, but he was listed as dead. To make things safer, he called out Aeshma. "Do you know what happened to Mastema?"

"No, why do you ask?" Aeshma asked.

"He's missing," he said, showing him the roster on the demonica. "Didn't leave any message behind either."

Aeshma frowned at that. "Hmm, he must have broken contract. That's an ignoble act."

"Not much we can do about that right now," Nanashi said. "Nikkari told me I should recruit some demons around here. They're usually fairly weak around here."

"That's a good plan," Aeshma said. "I'm willing to watch over you until things are clear, but you should strike out on your own."

"Right," he said. "But I thought I should have you around until I pick up a couple of demons here."

"Good, I'll help until you have three others."

He got a dwarf and two others after a few minutes. The demons were familiar with him since he was often out with Nikkari, and they were curious about how he would do. Meanwhile, Nikkari had taken Hallelujah and Toki as new students. He had them fight demons like mamedanuki to see how they would do. Asahi had her spear with her, doing some fights with the others.

On their way to Akihabara, Nanashi recruited three more demons. Having a number of demons and fusing them often was something that Toma had advised him on some time ago. It might not matter much if he stuck in the same area, but trying to travel around Tokyo would be difficult if he didn't keep his demons strong. If he decided to help Flynn out, it would likely require traveling.

They got to the station without much trouble. Nikkari stopped them outside the entrance. "Asahi, Toki, we'll go over to see if we can get phones for you two. You two boys head down into the station; stick around inside until we get back. You can check out the bar to see if there's any news we should be aware of."

"We don't need to be sheltered, at least I don't," Toki said.

"I can tell that," Nikkari said with a smile. "But it's safer for the group to stick together, to protect each other."

"I see," she said. "Very well."

"We'll be fine," Nanashi said. "Good luck with the phones."

"Yeah, I hope they've really got them," Asahi said, eager to have one. Toki had a look like it didn't matter.

They parted then, with him and Hallelujah heading into the station. "Is there anything interesting around here to do?" Hallelujah asked. "I've never been here before."

Nanashi smiled at that. "Sure, there's lots of interesting things and people here. Nikkari's taken us over here on several occasions for our training. This community really wants to make sure we don't lose the culture that was here in Tokyo. They love talking about it, so if you haven't heard any of it before, we can easily pass time just listening to them."

"That could be fun," Hallelujah said, glancing around at the collections of stuff that the community displayed. Then he stared further down the hall. "Hey, that guy…"

"Who?" Nanashi asked. But as soon as he looked, he spotted two young men wearing vivid blue overcoats, exactly like what Flynn wore in the video.

"That guy in the blue coat, the one with poofy hair," Hallelujah said.

"They both have poofy hair," Nanashi pointed out.

"Well not the one with the pompadour," Hallelujah said. "It's weird, but I've seen him in my dream last night. I didn't know if he was real, but he's here."

And if he was here, was Flynn also here? "You want to go talk to him?" Nanashi asked. "There was somebody I wanted to find here."

"Sure, I just hope this doesn't come across as too weird," he said, then headed over.

Nanashi then peered around the halls and soon spotted Flynn coming out of the terminal room. He looked annoyed, but this was a good chance. "Hey, Flynn?" Nanashi called as he hurried over, getting his attention. "It's a surprise to run into you here."

"Hello Nanashi," he said, nodding his head. "A good surprise; I was waiting to hear from you. This would be a good time to talk."

"Sure, I've got some time," he said.

* * *

Naverre had managed to turn the conversation to fashion somehow; it was one of his interests. Strangely, Naverre agreed that there was no reason why women couldn't wear pants. As he couldn't think of an adequate response to that, he didn't have interest in the topic further. Perhaps he should go by the bar to see about fulfilling requests. Naverre would be fine on his own.

Jonathan turned to head there when he spotted a boy out of the crowd of people here. Wasn't that the boy from the dream a while ago? And he seemed to have noticed too. "Hey, uh, are you Jonathan?" he asked.

"Yes, are you Hallelujah?" he asked back.

Hallelujah nodded at that. "Yeah; man, this is weird. I came here because I'm supposed to be helping someone. What about you?"

"My friends and I came down from Mikado, above the Firmament as you would say," Jonathan said. "We're searching for two demons who nearly ruined us by turning everyone into demons, Lilith and Gabriel."

"Gabriel?" he asked, shocked at that. "Isn't she supposed to be an angel?"

"It couldn't be the real Gabriel," Jonathan said. "I've studied the angels, and she looked and acted little like a seraph should. We're considering her a powerful demon still, since she could imitate her and curse an entire kingdom."

Hallelujah felt some relief at that. "Yeah, that does sound bad. Um, I think I've met the real Gabriel down here."

"Did you?" Jonathan asked, interested in that. "That's quite an honor."

Smiling, he said, "I know, I was stunned at her appearance; she was really beautiful and had some kind of peaceful light around her. She looked human, but her presence wasn't that of a human."

"That sounds more like Gabriel should be," he said. "If you happen to see her again, would you ask her about her impostor? She may know already, but it'd be good to hear from her about the situation."

"Sure thing," Hallelujah said.

* * *

Walter felt groggy, his head throbbing. "Did I slip?" he grumbled, wondering why he wasn't hearing the tides.

"No, keep still," someone told him. "Thank goodness, you woke up quickly."

"Isabeau?" He opened his eyes and found her kneeling by him. They were in some kind of place full of shelves… a shop? "What happened?"

She took his hand. "The domain was almost too much for us. The demon at the end took so much punishment, and then you got in the way of that last attack and were knocked out cold."

Some of that battle came back to him; the domain was a thrilling challenge, even giving him a strong new demon from a chance conversation. But the lead demon didn't flinch at any of their attacks. Eventually, it came charging at them and would have hit Isabeau hard if he hadn't gotten in the way. But that apparently took him out. "You took it out?" he asked.

"Yes, it went down shortly after you did," she said. "You didn't have to jump in the way of that attack, but thank you. I was getting worried that you weren't waking up."

"I didn't mean to worry you," Walter said.

"You'll have to be careful, but I've done all I can for you," Isabeau said. "We've got the request done, so we should head over to the shopkeeper."

"Yeah, I hope this is what they wanted," he said, sitting up. He felt dizzy for a moment, so they waited until his head cleared to head out. Without the domain around, Isabeau could easily take care of any demons that came by.

Down the street (about a block as they were told), there was a shop that had lights on. It was a phone shop, which was what the people in Tokyo used to summon demons. The shop they had freed from a domain was also an electronic shop that potentially had phones in storage. As the devices were so important, there were several customers inside trying to negotiate purchases.

Walter still didn't feel good, so he sat on a couch in the shop while Isabeau reported the domain demolished. It wasn't long before he realized someone was staring at him. Across the shop, there were a pair of girls looking over bins of oddities. One was; the girl dressed entirely in black was looking at him. Wasn't that the girl who fought with him in that one dream?

After a moment, her friend noticed and spoke to her. She then dragged Toki over. "Hi, who're you?" the other girl asked.

"I'm Walter," he said.

"I knew it," Toki said.

"And you were Toki, right?" he asked. "I was wondering if I'd run into you."

"Is that dragon or weird demon around?" she asked.

Walter shrugged. "I haven't seen them down here yet, but I'm pretty sure they're out there somewhere. And who's your friend here?"

"She's Asahi, we just met yesterday," Toki said.

"Well we could be friends already," Asahi said. However, she was looking at his face. "Hey, did you get hurt recently?"

"Yeah, me and my fiance Isabeau over there just cleared a domain," Walter said. "It was a tough battle, enough to knock me out."

"Hmm, hey would you look at my fingers?" She put two fingers together and moved them through the air.

"Yeah," he said, although it was oddly harder than it should be.

"You should be looked at by a doctor," Asahi said, worried about that. "I know where there's one in town nearby… Nikkari!" She ran over to an older looking man to tell him.

"I thought you were strong," Toki said.

"We fought a strong demon," Walter said. "Guess I got knocked about worse than I thought. But you know, the demon was aiming for Isabeau, so at least it wasn't her that got hit." He smiled at that.

"Walter?" Isabeau came over, holding onto some papers. She didn't look too happy. "We didn't get much of a payment for that, just these vouchers for phones we don't need because we have the gauntlets. But he didn't give me an option."

"That's too bad," he said. "Hey, uh, this is Toki; it's a weird thing, but we seemed to have shared a dream a while ago. And this is Isabeau."

"It was last night when I was asleep," Toki said.

"We live above the Firmament, where there's a difference in time from here," Isabeau said. "That's odd, but it must have been a very important dream."

"Excuse us, but Asahi here was saying that you might need a doctor," the older man said. "I'm Nikkari, their teacher in demon hunting."

"Maybe, though Isabeau checked over me," Walter said.

"I'm not a fully trained healer, just a medic," Isabeau said. "He got knocked unconscious from a domain demon and was out for several minutes."

"Was it a head injury?" he asked.

Isabeau nodded. "Yes."

"More like a full body injury from what I remember," Walter said.

"The domain was the one over that way, was it?" the man asked. "Did you walk over here after clearing it?"

"Yes, although I had to take care of demons we ran across on the way over," Isabeau said.

"We can get the local doctor over here most likely," he said. "Would you girls run over and get him? Toki, you can take care of demons if they get in your way, but try to avoid them."

"All right, come on," Asahi said. Toki nodded and headed out with her.

"Thank you, but how could you tell it was worse than it looked?" Isabeau asked. "I thought you couldn't tell for a few days."

"You folks are from Mikado, right?" Nikkari asked.

"Yeah, you know about it already?" Walter asked, curious about this.

"You have demonicas, for one thing," he said. "I was a part of the Counter Demon Force, so I know about the existence of Mikado. You must have lost a lot of knowledge when our peoples were separated. We lost quite a lot due to the large scale causalities early on, but we have a number of doctors remaining. There's a good one here, he can assess this better."

"I see," Isabeau said "But you were with the Counter Demon Force then? King Aquila's writings suggested that we should get help from you should we have reason to come down here to Tokyo. Would you please speak with our group's leader, Flynn? He should be around here as well."

Nikkari nodded. "Sure, I could do that. It won't be for long today, but we could exchange contact information. What are you doing here in Tokyo?"

In the time it took them to explain what was going on, Toki and Asahi returned with the doctor. He decided that Walter needed a lot of time to recover, a full month, in order to make sure it didn't get worse. He even offered some medicine, warning that he could only spare a few pills to try speeding up his healing. While Walter didn't like hearing that, it was better to make sure he was in good condition. Flynn agreed on getting the message and said he could go back to Mikado, Isabeau too if she wanted to take care of him.

"So you girls are already training to fight demons?" Isabaeau asked. "How old are you?"

"I'm fifteen, so I'm old enough," Asahi said.

"I'm fourteen, maybe," Toki said.

"We need every able-bodied person who's willing to help out," Nikkari said. "Young hunters aren't allowed to go out on their own, but if they can get a phone, they can start working."

"Yeah, but they're charging a lot of money for these ones," Ashai said, dissatisfied with it.

"As long as you're working together, how about you take these in exchange for helping us out?" Isabeau said, offering Nikkari the papers. "They gave us these as a reward for clearing the domain, even though you'd need something with the summoning program to do so."

Nikkari glanced at them, then seemed surprised. "Ah… yes, that doesn't make much sense unless you intended on selling these. You don't mind giving them away? People would pay a lot for these."

"It's fine," Isabeau said. "Just keep helping people and make good use of them."

"What, are those for new phones?" Asahi asked, her eyes going wide.

"Yes, two of them actually," Nikkari said.

"Oh my gosh, thank you!" Asahi said excitedly. Although Toki seemed like she didn't get the fuss. "Could we get your contact information? Because then we could send messages to each other."

"Sure, sounds good to me," Walter said. If the dream was any indication, Toki could use some friends, maybe some mentors. It seemed she had some new friends and a mentor already, but it couldn't hurt for him to help her as well.

* * *

Flynn and Nanashi ended up going back into the terminal room, since not many people would go in there. "I thought there were domains on every terminal," Nanashi said, looking around half-cautious and half-curious.

"I made sure they were open for everyone now," Flynn said. "But you need three terminals registered to use them, so you might want to register this one now."

"Sure," he said, using his gauntlet to do so. He got briefly distracted.

Flynn recognized that expression, as it was something he'd felt himself. "Is something wrong?"

Once it was done registering, Nanashi stepped back. "Do you know if I'm Akira? I spoke with you in our dream last night, but after that, I dreamed that we were talking about something and you called me Akira. But I don't know if it was the same kind of dream."

"It's most accurate to say that you were Akira," he said. "But you were reborn as Nanashi. It is your choices as Nanashi that will determine what happens to you."

"I see," he said, still thinking it over.

"Do you want to get further involved or no?" Flynn asked. "Or do you want some more time to consider it?"

"I think I want more time to think about it," Nanashi said. "Not just for me, but I have a feeling that Hallelujah and Toki need some more time away from their organizations. Especially Toki, since she doesn't seem sure of much outside of fighting. I just met them too, so I'm not sure how to help them avoid trouble."

"That's fine," Flynn said, hoping that Nanashi chose to keep out of things. Krishna seemed amiable and cooperative, but he also seemed that way when he'd been working to destroy the world in his own fashion.

"I did want to ask you if you knew anything about what happened in Minami Sumanichi," he added.

Flynn had to think about that. "No, I don't. It's always been deserted any time I go there. The main thing I recall about it is that Pale Rider is generally found there."

"I know, I met him when I was younger," Nanashi said. "Everyone died there about eight years ago because of poison sludge, starvation, and a swarm of demons. I was the only one who survived that time as far as I know. But since I was a kid and very sick at that, I don't really know what happened. There was a factory the adults in town worked in, where the sludge first came from. So I want to know that more than anything, just what really happened and why everyone died."

An incident like that would explain why Pale Rider was there, Flynn thought. And it might be possible to question the fiend about what he knew. Whether he'd answer or not was questionable, but it was worth a shot. "Well right now, I'm focused on getting my friends ready to fight Xi Wangmu. Only one of them knows about how I've done this all before, so it'll be difficult to get a reason to head to Minami. But I'll make a note of it and treat it as your request."

Nanashi smiled at that, although he seemed sad at remembering it. "Thanks, I can't offer you anything for that information now, but maybe I'll come up with something. We're going to keep training with Nikkari, so if you do end up needing more help, we could be ready later on."

"Good, I know I can count on you," Flynn said.

"You've said that to me before," he said.

"That's too far back for me to remember right now, but it's still true," he said.

"Master, you have an urgent message from Isabeau," Burroughs said.

"Hang on a minute," Flynn said, checking the message. It was worrisome, and yet not enough to hold them back. "Hmm, one of my friends took a serious injury and needs a month of recovery."

"That's really bad," Nanashi said, concerned about it even though he didn't know Walter.

"Yes, but they'll go back to Mikado," Flynn said, sending them back a message. "So to us, they'll be out for around an hour. I just hope he sticks to resting as he needs."

"That's got to be confusing to keep track of," Nanashi said.

"A little, but I've got Burroughs set up to make the time calculations automatically," he said. Isabeau sent a return note saying that she was going back to take care of Walter, and that Nanashi's teacher Nikkari was willing to speak with him. "We should wait here a while. So what's this town like? I really don't remember that past life all that much and I've never been here before."

"Akihabara?" Nanashi asked. "This used to be a big electronics and computer center, with lots of stores that sold phones, TVs, computers, and a lot more. But post-war looting got to most of these stores, except the largest store around. It was owned by a camera company, but it sold many electronics; it got quickly claimed by a gang of demons and turned into a domain that's still there. There were also shops and cafes for video games, comics, and cartoons. That's why there's a lot of artists and actors around here; they've been trying to keep what's remaining here from further harm."

"I see. So the camera store is a potential source of good resources that's untouched, and this area is already in contention between Gaea, Ashura-kai, and the locals."

Nanashi nodded. "Yeah, Nikkari always tells us to keep wary in this area for the feuds as much as the demons."

Destroying that domain was another potential goal. But, it had to be weighed against the feuds. "Perhaps later, something can be done here," Flynn said. "Nothing big yet, though. It's here and that's already better."

Nanashi smiled. "Yeah, it's great that you can change fate. There's a lot of people living here, and it seems like a waste to destroy it."

Hopefully, the fate of Nanashi dying to become a tool of Dagda could also be changed. If he started training himself now, he did have a chance. "You look out for yourself and your friends for now," Flynn said. "Even if you want to keep out fully, you'll need to be able to defend yourself in the future."

When Walter and Isabeau came to the terminal, Nikkari, Toki, Asahi, and Hallelujah were with them. Asahi was quick to drag the other young teens off into the bar to discuss Hunter names. "We might want to take another table or we won't get any talking done," Nikkari said, although he seemed fond of them.

"That could be," Flynn said. They got some food and drinks at the bar, not great things but he did want to finally talk with this man he'd only heard about before. He too was fated to die.

"So I've heard from Nanashi that you're in some kind of time loop, living the same days over and over again," Nikkari said.

He nodded. "It's not so much a set period of time as a series of events. But the conclusions are terrible even at their best."

"Do you know why you're stuck?" Nikkari asked.

"Not fully," he said. "It may be that I'm not satisfied with any of it, or it might be some other force. I've been looking for the optimal future and now is the best I've had."

"And this place surviving is one of the results," he reasoned.

"Yes," he said. "You should beware of a demon called Adremmalech. I've not met you before, but you stick to simpler missions since you act as a mentor, right? But that leaves you vulnerable when the wave of stronger demons arrive. Nanashi and his friends need to survive that encounter too."

"I usually train them to prioritize basic missions such as resource and food gathering," Nikkari said. "They're important to how things work out, then?"

"They could be vital, or they could perish," Flynn said.

"What about your friends?" Nikkari asked. "Do they know about your time loop?"

"One does, but not the rest. I'm trying to avoid telling them because they have major decisions to make that will influence the future greatly. While they could make a bad decision, I feel like they won't if they experience things in Tokyo without my foreknowledge. It's more of an impact if they're not expecting it."

"I can see the merit in that," he said. "But you told Nanashi and Asahi."

"I didn't tell them everything I could because they should experience some things first hand as well," Flynn said. "But one of you needs to be prepared for Adremmalach, and you make the most sense. I can give you the compendium information on him if you want."

"Sure, that would be good to know," Nikkari said.

* * *

 _Gabriel's missing. Go find her._

Kazfiel had gotten those orders months ago. But he was having no luck figuring out what happened to her. No luck in regaining control over the humans of Mikado either. With the rapid spread of Literature opening their minds, the humans were no longer interested in blind faith. But then, a lot of the things they wanted were caused by problems they made anyhow: an end to class favoritism and such. They also wanted to learn more, which was bad, and they wanted to find their own way, which was worse.

Mikado was the project of Gabriel and the other three seraphs, though, so Kazfiel didn't put the full effort of his forces towards regaining control of Mikado.

But, where was Gabriel? Kazfiel had figured out that she left her position as a nun of the monastery on some sabbatical with no indication of when she would return. Then last winter, the D-gene was triggered, mysteriously reverted and blocked, and an impostor of Gabriel had appeared to claim responsibility. And Lilith was involved with that somehow.

But he'd simply been told to find Gabriel. He'd sent angels across the whole world trying to find her, even in close space like the moon. Maybe he'd have to expand that to other planets of this solar system in case she was out there for some reason. More likely, if incredibly strange, he would have to send someone down into the land of the Unclean Ones. There was apparently a group of young samurai already searching down there. Perhaps she was trying to rescue the other three, who'd been lost for centuries?

"Excuse me, sir," a principality said on approaching him. "I hear you've been in charge of our actions in Mikado currently."

"Hmm?" Looking over the principality, he had soul markings that indicated he was under contract of the demon summoning program. "Yes, what is it?"

The principality bowed his head. "I was called into contract as an angel by a human marked as an important person. Curiously, he is marked as the hero of Chaos but has found an interest in the teachings of our Lord. His beliefs are not yet set and I am seeking extra guidance to guide him along our path. I know it is unorthodox, but he doesn't have strong contact with demons yet and we may have a chance to convert him to our side before they can guarantee him for theirs."

"That is a very unorthodox move," Kazfiel said. "I am unsure of doing so without guidance of our Lord."

"Yes, but we may have lost the hero of Law already," the principality said. "He has been listening to his passions as well as trying to judge matters on his own. The hero of Chaos that I have been trying to teach has been studying on his own, but he is growing fond of our ways. He's here in Mikado for about a month with his betrothed due to an injury inflicted by a demon; I only now got the chance to get out to find you."

"How could we lose the hero of Law so early? He is meant to be assured for our side."

"I do not know that, but it shows on his soul now, the same as the study of Law shows on the Chaos hero."

This was incredibly strange, and he had no foreword on this. Perhaps this had something to do with Gabriel's disappearance. In that case, it would be advantageous to contact him. "I see. I'll look into this myself and see what more should be done with the two heroes. What of the Messiah? How is he?"

"Sorry, but I'm afraid he'll be bad for us as well," the principality said. "There are four others traveling with the two heroes. I've been watching them quietly and all the signs point to their squad leader Flynn. From his talks with the Chaos hero, he's lost faith in God some time ago. You've heard talk about an impostor of Gabriel, right?"

"Yes, it's mysterious who could impersonate her," he said.

He shook his head. "It was truly her who activated the D-gene. Flynn and one of the other young samurai, Issachar, were the ones who somehow reversed the transformations. Flynn was also the one who started the idea that she was false and convinced all witnesses of it in an absurd manner."

Troubled at this news, Kazfiel realized that she must have fled down to Tokyo after such humiliation. "Truly? A human like him, even a chosen one, should not be capable of such blasphemy. He's become a false prophet."

"I agree," the principality said. "I don't like it myself, but should I tell that to Walter, he would dismiss me from the program promptly as he is foolishly loyal to Flynn. I have considered revealing to him that Flynn is romantically involved with that other young man in order to break that loyalty. Still, his loyalty to me is not as deep and I still want to teach him."

"Shouldn't such lovers be unthinkable in Mikado?" Kazfiel asked, confused and disgusted by it. It was against God's teachings.

"They don't seem to be lovers yet, but are moving in that direction," he said. "Although, when the D-gene was activated, Issachar turned into an angel."

"A D-gene angel?" Kazfiel asked, shocked enough that he shuffled his wings closer.

The principality nodded. "There was something odd about him, when he appeared like that at Obelisk Plaza. It, well, I can't put a finger on it, but it unsettled me to see him. Yet for some reason, his angelic appearance was more convincing to the humans than Gabriel's. This whole situation is backwards and absurd, which is partly why Walter's interest in Law may be a good opening for us."

"I should ask Gabriel about this when we find her," Kazfiel said. "Thank you for coming to tell me these things. Until Gabriel or one of the others comes back, I am leading our forces here. Continue serving as your contract dictates; I'll contact you later if adopting the hero of Chaos is proper."

"Yes, sir," the principality said, then retreated back.

After getting some more news from others, Kazfiel located the marked hero of Chaos. He was with his betrothed currently, meeting with a priest on marriage preparations. "We decided to marry because we want to work together towards a goal," the woman said. "And we will continue working together, as samurai, and as a couple."

"Yeah, the wisdom in the scriptures is that a man takes care of his wife," the hero said. "And I will, in supporting her dedication to serving as a samurai. I've not run into any so far that state a woman should be considered helpless and dependent. There have been stories of women who are strong and do great things, which I believe she's capable of. So if she wants to continue serving, she should be allowed to."

The priest nodded, a little quick on accepting this. "Then you both have considered this well. That's everything covered for both of you. When do you want to have the ceremony?"

"It would take a couple of days for my family to get here," Walter said. "And it's hard to say when our friends down in Tokyo can get back."

"You still need some time to recover," Isabeau said. "How about in two weeks? If we send them a message now, they should be able to get back in time."

"That sounds good, so we also need to get a message out to my folks."

So he'd be here for two more weeks… Kazfiel felt that would be some good time to contact him. But should it be done? The Lord had not told him anything like this even though this was a good opportunity.

 _Go for it._

This was the Lord's will, so it would be done.


	42. A Mikado Wedding

**Chapter 42: A Mikado Wedding**

"Excuse me, would you come out here?"

Walter paused in the hallway on hearing the voice. "Who's there?" he asked. There didn't seem to be anyone in sight. Although, there was a light coming from outside, near the balcony door.

"Come here and see."

Might as well, he thought. The balcony door was locked since it was winter, but the key was kept right nearby. After grabbing a coat from the guest room he was using, Walter went out onto the balcony. It was a frigid night already, but there was a warmth on the porch radiating from the angel waiting there. He had a number of yellow wings covering his body.

Maybe he should have grabbed his gauntlet as well. He wasn't supposed to be fighting yet, but… "Are you one of the angels causing trouble around here?" Walter asked.

"I'm not causing trouble," the angel said. "I am Kazfiel; I was sent to search for Gabriel and heard that you were doing the same."

"We aren't searching for the angel Gabriel, but some demon impostor of her," Walter said. "Why are you angels attacking us?"

"There has been a great deal of confusion among our numbers." Kazfiel said. "A number of the low-ranking angels get their orders from high ranking angels like myself and Gabriel, so her being gone leads to confusion."

"But why would that lead you to attacking us?" Walter asked. "That's what no one can figure out. It seems like you're trying to conquer us, which doesn't seem like something angels would do."

"Mikado is not supposed to change," Kazfiel said. "It was set up for a pure and peaceful place. But things changed slowly over the centuries, like the development of the two class system keeping power and luxury to a select few. Power should be spread evenly among humans so they are fair and equal with each other while acknowledging that the all-powerful God is central to everything."

"Well then you should clear up all the confusion because the angels are making life hard for Casualry and Luxurors," Walter said, frustrated but trying to keep patient. "Nobody is going to understand your message if you make it so unclear."

"What is clear to angels and what is clear to humans are two different things," Kazfiel said. "At this point, it may be best for a human to speak to other humans to sort out things on your side. The more the samurai fight back, the more the angels will continue to fight. I can speak with the angels to pull back their attacks, but this should not have occurred."

"Right," he agreed, although he felt like the angel was trying to worm out of responsibility. "I'm not sure I'm the right person to talk to the people around here, since I mean to get back to searching for the impostor and her accomplice in Tokyo."

"You have been searching for knowledge of God, haven't you?" Kazfiel asked. "Your soul has been seeking the truth, for Him. If you do His work, you shall find your way."

Walter raised an eyebrow at that. "But it's you asking me for this, not God."

"We angels are servants of God," Kazfiel said, shifting his wings. "We bring you the word of God."

He shook his head to that. "But we've already dealt with one impostor angel. What's to say that you're not an impostor either?"

"Your faith should begin somewhere. If you continue to listen to doubt, you will always be lost." He seemed to be keeping his cool for now.

"I know that," Walter said. "But it's supposed to hit me as clear as a sunny day, right? This ain't hitting me like that. God should know where His angels are, so you shouldn't need to be searching for them."

"Even angels do not understand everything like God does. But we have undying faith and loyalty to God. If He tells us to do something, we will do it. Things will work out in accordance to God's plan. Still, we must do our work in accordance to what He's told us. I would like to see the fighting here stop so we may focus on locating our lost fellow."

"Well then quit attacking us," Walter said. "We aren't hunting you angels down, only the demons. Nobody's willing to listen to someone who's attacking them."

Kazfiel sighed, then said, "Very well, I'll sort that out. You are important to God whether you realize it or not. I hope that you will listen to Him." The angel then left.

Walter stayed out on the balcony for a couple more minutes. Was he important to God? He couldn't think of why he would be. And if these angels were servants of God, it might not be so good to side with that God. After all, if they would indiscriminately attack humans just because they got confused, their master in God couldn't be much better. Although it was very disappointing to realize that.

Actually, it was like Flynn said. Whoever had created the world obviously loved their creations. But whoever was running things with the angels now was being horrible. And then Flynn had been more faithful than he had been when they were younger. Maybe this kind of realization was feeding into Flynn's current troubles. That was another reason not to work with these angels as he didn't want to betray Flynn.

Behind him, the door opened up a little. "Walter, what are you doing out here?"

"Wondering why I came out," he said, then turned and smiled. "It's a joke, don't worry."

Isabeau smiled a bit. "All right, but don't be out long."

"I'll just come in now and snuggle up to you to warm up," he said, taking the door to go inside.

Laughing as she stepped back, she said, "This would be the night for it. But why were you out there?"

He waited until he was inside and the door was shut to say, "One of the angels called me out there, said he wanted to talk to me. He claimed he wanted to stop the fighting up here, but he kept trying to avoid the blame for them being the aggressors."

"You're lucky he didn't attack you," Isabeau said, worried about this.

"Well that is one good thing, but that isn't much," Walter said, then put an arm around her. "It doesn't matter, especially when we can spend time together tonight."

"We're not married yet," she said, although she was smiling. "But I wouldn't mind staying up with you for a while."

* * *

Flynn kept an eye on the time conversion on his gauntlet. They needed to leave soon if they wanted to make it. While he'd had to cut off his talk with Nikkari, he hadn't been far from the terminal. Navarre had arrived not long after him, then Jonathan. And hopefully…

The terminal door opened, letting in Issachar who had apparently run over from wherever he'd ended up. "Sorry if I made you wait," he said, heading up the stairs. "It was unexpected."

"Wasn't it?" Naverre said. "First we hear that he got injured badly, and now he's well enough that the two of them are getting married? It should be crazy to think that."

"The time difference is drastic," Jonathan said.

"You made it in good time," Flynn said, still keeping an eye on the time. He already had the terminal set to send them to Aquila Plaza. "Just waiting for morning… now." He activated the terminal, making the room brighten up as it sent them on their way. Once they arrived, he added, "Good, we have a few hours to get ready. See you guys there."

"Right, see you later," Jonathan said, heading out once the room dimmed back to normal lighting.

"I think Gaston is going to be twelve now," Naverre said as they headed out. "If this mission goes on for much longer, he's going to end up older than me!"

"I hope that doesn't go too far," Issachar said.

Once Naverre was off, Flynn said, "I know one way to fix the times, but that requires earning back Fujiwara's trust and getting to Ginza as soon as possible after that."

"So is Gaston going to end up as the older brother?" he asked, smiling in amusement.

"He could," Flynn said, although he wasn't sure if Gaston was nineteen or twenty when he usually got down to Tokyo. "Where were you when we got the invitation?"

"Oh, there was a guy who was trying to get attention for his practice shooting range," Issachar said. "I didn't realize that and thought it was an actual request to take out a demon vulnerable to guns. But I did get some tips from one of the local Hunters on how to improve my accuracy with a gun, so it turned out fine."

"That's good. You can't get stronger to do more damage with a gun like you can with a sword, but getting better at using one will make it more effective." It was also good to know where he was going to specialize this time around, although guns wasn't surprising.

"Yeah, I think I'll keep working on it, so I might go by that practice range again." Then he smiled eagerly. "And I did learn some neat things, like that ammunition should be a limited supply, but thanks to the paper clip glitch in the summoning program, we don't have to worry about it."

"I always wondered why it was called a paper clip glitch, but it is handy," Flynn said.

"Well apparently it was first discovered with a box of paper clips," Issachar said. They were then interrupted by a message alert. "Oh, it's from Walter."

He was asking to speak to the two of them before the ceremony, if they had some time. "May as well go see what he wants," Flynn said, sending a quick message back to let him know they'd be over.

Issachar nodded, then quietly said, "But I've been right so far, huh? Walter did get injured, but now he and Isabeau are getting married; it is turning out to be a great day."

Flynn couldn't help but smile at that. "Yes, this has been great so far."

Since Isabeau was preparing for the ceremony at the monastery, they met with Walter at their new home. It was hectic there because Walter had invited his family from South Ooida to the wedding and they were staying there. He was already dressed for his wedding, in a white formal suit that looked odd on him since it was modestly covering any bit of skin that could show below halfway down the neck. "Thanks for coming over, I'm glad you guys could make it," he said, getting up once they were brought into the parlor he and his parents were talking in.

"It was a close one, but we didn't want to miss this," Issachar said.

"Since you guys are here, do you want to be in the ceremony with me?" Walter asked. "I did get some clothes for you both if you want."

"Oh sure, that'd be great," Issachar said

"Sure, I'd be glad to," Flynn said.

"Great, then we should go over some things real quick," Walter said. "Sorry, would you excuse us?"

Fortunately, the outfits didn't need adjustments. There really wasn't much they had to do in the ceremony, and Walter had been prepared to ask his brothers to take part if they couldn't make it. But it seemed Walter had something else in mind in this too. "What's the matter?" Flynn asked.

"There's a couple of things that's happened that I wanted to tell you about," he said. "Firstly, there was an angel who showed up here to talk to me a few times. His name was Kazfiel and he said he was there to find the real Gabriel, not the impostor that we dealt with. He claimed that the other angels were attacking because they were confused by that, but I think it was a really weak excuse."

"Yeah, that's a terrible reason to be attacking people," Issachar said.

Kazfiel; that was one of the heralds, although Flynn usually ran into a mindless version of him. "Did he mention why he wanted to talk to you?" Flynn asked, trying to put aside again the worry of if that mindlessness could happen to Issachar now.

"He said I was important to God, but I haven't had any other signs that I am," he said. "And no matter how I told him otherwise, he wanted to put the blame on their attacks on us. I was going to listen to him because he might have been an actual angel like my principality, but I think that proves him to be otherwise."

Actually, Kazfiel was a real angel. It was just that angels were not like what people thought they were like. But there were benefits to this doubt even if the truth would eventually be discovered. "We need to figure out what these angels are really up to, if that's possible," Flynn said.

"Maybe it's something that we can tell Hope about, to have the samurai investigate them," Issachar said. "But not today, because we're celebrating."

"Yeah, don't be afraid to ease up every now and then Flynn," Walter said, smiling at him. "You are way too serious most of the time."

"I'm just a serious person," he said. "But I'll try."

"Good," Walter said. Then he glanced at the door for some reason. "There was one thing that Kazfiel brought up that I wanted you to hear about; I talked with Isabeau about the rest, but not this cause I wanted to talk with you guys first. See, he said that I shouldn't stay close to you two because you were courting each other."

"He told you that?" Issachar asked, shocked at it. Flynn felt concerned that Kazfiel knew, but he had a feeling Walter had already decided who he'd stand with.

Walter nodded. "Yeah, and that finally pissed me off at him. Those angels are doing all kinds of wrong things, but not you two. It does seem completely believable though, so are you two in love?"

"Um," Issachar glanced over at him nervously, even though he'd been the one to tell Jonathan first.

Flynn patted Issachar's shoulder. "That's true. And don't worry about it, Issachar. He's already invited us to be a part of his wedding, so he seems fine with it."

Walter grinned. "Yeah, I'd rather support you guys than some snotty angel who thinks humans are beneath him. And you two are good for each other, I know that already, so I'm glad for you."

Good, this was more expected out of Walter than Jonathan. If it wasn't for Mastema being around, Flynn would feel certain that Walter was in a good position. YHVH's angels would continue having a hard time bringing him under control, but Mastema wasn't one of them. He might become a bigger problem if he got interested in Walter. And how was Jonathan going to interact with the various forces of Chaos around? None of them had yet come forward to speak with him, so it was difficult to judge how well Jonathan was doing.

Issachar smiled, although he started to have some tears in his eyes. "Th-thanks, Walter, I'm glad you're fine with us. Jonathan knows too and he's supporting us too… man, you guys are a blessing."

"So are you two, in my opinion," Walter said. "I think Isabeau would be behind you guys as well, I just wanted to be sure of it from you first. I'm not sure how Naverre would take the news."

"I'm not sure of that myself," Flynn said. If it was presented in the right fashion, they might be able to convince Naverre that it was fine. But he was alive and sane now, which was better than normal. Naverre being against them might just be something to accept for the time being.

* * *

Tsujiki Hongwanji was busy and noisy. Warriors were gathering for a bold and daring mission. Not that long ago, one of their sages had revealed some significant wisdom: removing the demons who were addicted to Reds would make other demons less aggressive along with weakening the influence of the Ashura-kai. It was something that had to be taken advantage of, the sooner the better.

"I know a lot of us have scoffed at fighting Red demons because they are lethargic and hardly a challenge," one of their masters said. "But they are wasting space and valuable resources, idiotically supporting the tyrants controlling this city! By removing them, we shall be doing a service to everyone, even gaining a hold on places that the Ashura-kai have a choke-hold on. Let's move in and be victorious!"

Everyone in the room roared in a cheer. That is, everyone but Maitreya. He smiled, not about to be quite this noisy. But it was one goal met. To help things along, he was going to go along with them to take out a lot of lesser demons. He could also stall any retaliation from the Ashura-kai by attempting to teach them. That always made for a good time.

It wasn't all the Ring of Gaea warriors they could round up, though, since a good number were off with Kaga trying to break into Ikebukuro. Apparently, somebody had set up a strong barrier around the city, keeping Xi Wangmu and any who had been there penned in. They had asked for someone to come examine it to find out how to break it. Maitreya was pretty sure that he could figure it out. But she had turned his request down, so he would hold off on her request. It was only fair.

This was another step towards dethroning the Ashura-kai. But the path to Salvation was still uncomfortably uncertain.

* * *

At lunchtime, those attending the wedding split between the bride's party and the groom's party. There was one more lecture and test to go through, to make sure they remembered all the things they'd been told over the month. But it was things that they'd already been tested on, made easier so there was less chance of delaying the ceremony everyone had gathered for.

Isabeau had to listen to another talk on how a wife's duty was to serve her husband faithfully as the center of her world. She knew Walter had to listen to the whole deal again, that a husband was to take care of his wife as the center of his world. At this time, she wasn't sure that she felt that strongly about Walter. She knew she could rely on him and he was sweet at times. But it didn't seem like when Jonathan and Marie had gotten married.

Her parents had told her not to worry about that, because their love would grow as they stuck together. She did feel more fond of Walter than she had when they came up to Mikado this time. With more time, they would get even closer. It was a cheering thought, a good hope for the future.

Once the meal was over, they headed over to the church in the Luxuror district. As they were both samurai, other samurai in ceremonial garb came out to be a part of the formal procession. People who had heard there would be a wedding but had not been invited came to the plaza in front of the church, cheering for them and calling out well-wishes. They met up at the steps of the church; Isabeau had the priestess, her parents, Kathy, and Marie with her, while Walter had the priest, his parents, Flynn, and Issachar with him. When she took Walter's hands as the start of the ceremony, she smiled at him but felt a little relief that they were almost through all this pomp.

But they had one more sermon to get through, in the church with their friends and families watching over them. Fortunately, Walter didn't waver at all in listening. Isabeau listened as much as she could, although her mind tried to drift as the sermon ran back over things they'd been told many times in this past month. They could cut it all down to a quarter of the volume of requirements, she thought, and all the information would still be there. But to do things properly, you had to go through all of it.

At the end of the sermon, the priest asked the two of them to rise from their seats. "Have you come to understand to understand the sanctity of marriage?"

"Yes," they both said.

"Are you prepared to live your lives together in accordance to the wisdom of God given to us in the Scriptures?" the priestess asked.

"Yes."

"Then we shall recite the sacred vows to bind you two together as one for the rest of your lives," the priest said.

Yes, as one… in sickness and in health, in good fortune and bad, through all storms and blessings, working together under the eyes of God, following the wisdom of God, to the benefit of each other and the community, never to be broken until death do us part… it seemed like a tremendous responsibility on speaking these vows. But people had taken on such solemn oaths for centuries. They could fulfill these vows the same as everyone else.

And so they became husband and wife.

Then came the actual fun of today, the celebration afterward at their new home. "It feels great to have those classes over with, doesn't it?" Kathy said, prompting the others who were married to laugh.

"Oh yes, I feel relieved it's all done," Isabeau said. "And I feel sorry for you all who have to do these classes over and over again."

Kathy winked at that. "Don't tell my mother and father, but I'm trying to figure a way to streamline those classes and make them more fun. They're so dull now that it doesn't benefit us as teachers or everyone else as students."

"That would help, especially when they tell everyone to hurry up and get married young," Isabeau said. "Though some of us don't seem to be trying."

"I don't have to try anymore, I just haven't made a big announcement about it," Kathy said, smiling happily.

"Oh, congratulations," she said, glad for her. "Of course, that would be incentive for you to make the classes less boring."

Kathy laughed at that. "I can teach myself."

"Can you really do that?" Naverre asked. "I didn't think so."

"Oh hush, I've been studying," Kathy said jokingly. "And teaching myself would help my scripture studies. But what about you?"

"Well I've been in Tokyo, so me and the others have been running on different time," Naverre said. "Right guys?"

"That's true, it's been about a year that we passed in a couple of days," Issachar said. "We're still nineteen, well Flynn's eighteen, but we've got time if we want to."

"We could decide that we don't want to marry and take an oath of service," Flynn said. "Which seems like a good option right now."

"Yeah, I was thinking of that too," Issachar said.

"Well you do have to wait until you're twenty-four to do that kind of thing," Kathy said. "I guess you guys do still have time to figure things out."

"I hope you can find whatever makes you happy soon," Isabeau said.

* * *

"There was an error today at a defense base that resulted in the power disruption in northeastern Tokyo, but there was no trouble as a result. People were quick to retreat to safety. While there have been rumors that military missiles were nearly launched, it is based upon false observations. It was a regrettable error that resulted in a raised level of danger for a brief time; an investigation into what caused the error is already underway."

It was a safe message to send out, something people should accept. Mistakes happened to everyone, after all. But curse that Fujiwara! His log from Kasumigaseki revealed too easily that they had attempted to launch the missiles. Now Tayama was getting angry calls and messages from all over the city about it, even in Shibuya far from Akihabara. This whole thing should have been easy to brush off and a successful strike.

No, it was a failure on both sides. Now that more smartphones had been unearthed from Akihabara's shops, the three towns up there was less reliant on the Ashura-kai's protection. They could remove more domains off the shops to gain even more resources that had been locked down until the Ashura-kai decided to claim them. And thanks to Fujiwara's rude move, no one was going to believe anything Tayama said to the contrary. All of the town leaders were demanding an apology, a better explanation, compensations, or all of that.

Maybe he should remind the whole city of how much they depended on the Ashura-kai. Pull back on shop inventory, move important people like doctors and engineers into Shibuya and Roppongi, let some demons like Xi Wangmu or Mara do whatever they pleased: there was a lot that Tayama could do to bring the city back into order.

On top of that, there were some worrisome reports out of Sky Tower and Kasumigaseki. The Sky Tower guards claimed that a group of six angels had come down the tower. Unfortunately, the guards had fled and the report was skimpy on anything the supposed angels had said or done. And the Kasumigaskei guards said they had been defeated by a group of six claiming to have come from above the Firmament. They reported that the young warriors were extremely strong and skilled.

People from above the Firmament… it could mean that the angels were invading. The more certain thing was that these warriors from above would not have the proper respect of the Ashura-kai. With how agitated everyone was due to this missile mess, these foreigners would only disrupt the city even more. That could be worse than an angelic invasion, since there was no clear-cut way yet to seem like the best option.

He picked up his smartphone and called one of his contacts. It was answered quickly. "Hans here."

"I need some people investigated, a group of six young warriors who claim to be from above the Firmament. They have a blue and white uniform as well as demonicas. While I will forward the reports to you, I have to warn you that they're inadequate in information."

"Where were they spotted?"

"Sky Tower, where they descended from higher up halfway through the guards' shift, and Kasumigaseki, where they came from the north."

"The demonicas should make them easy to track. Do I have access to the terminal and security network's logs?"

"For this, yes," Tayama said. "We need all information we can get on these people."

"Got it… wait a moment."

"What is it?" he asked. It was typical for Hans to already be doing research.

"The terminal's logs are locked off."

Tayama got his laptop out of sleep mode to check on that himself. "I know there was a report several hours ago from the guardian that something odd was going on with one of the terminals."

"Do you want me to investigate this too?"

"Not right now, I'll get someone else on that," Tayama said. "Focus on the strangers."

"Got it, boss."

Once the call disconnected, Tayama checked more into the terminal system. But no matter what password he put in, his requests were denied. The last report from the guardian was about the mystery terminal acting up. That report didn't say what was wrong, just that the problem was being investigated. And from one of the managers, there was a complaint filed about the Kinshicho terminal being locked down.

He put in a call to the terminal guardian and looked up various business managers to claim stakes in the old Akihabara stores. If they couldn't get rid of that supply, the Ashura-kai needed to quickly gain control over it. Whatever it took to gain that control; it was a problem town anyhow and he had no hesitation in authorizing use of force or blackmail. Tokyo was his city and he was going to keep it orderly one way or another.

When the terminal guardian failed to pick up, he checked the security footage for the guardian's office area. There was nobody in at the moment. And… neither was anyone in the guardian's home apartment. Tayama called the apartment supervisor to no avail; the staff there had no idea that this family was gone without a trace. He ordered the rooms investigated in case there was some trace there, and would have to put someone knowledgeable to check on the terminal network. However, the trouble there was that few people had any idea of how the terminals worked. The guardian had been their most knowledgeable person in that regards.

The manager who put up the complaint couldn't be reached either. But he had sent out a warning in between the complaint and now: Kagome Tower was to be considered at risk.

"What the hell is going on?" Tayama muttered.

Taking a moment to massage his forehead and think, he wondered if this was some plot from the Ring of Gaea. It was more subtle than they usually went for, as they were made up of brutes and thugs that pretended to be spiritual and religious. But their leader Yuriko was conniving enough to do this kind of thing. Going after her was difficult. The assassins he'd sent had all been killed, with their heads returned as proof. Or they had been converted to her cause, usually by seduction.

"Well I'm not about to let you win, bitch," he muttered, getting to work on reigning in these problems again. And perhaps finding a problem to inflict upon her.

Maybe even those strangers from above.

* * *

The wedding party broke up after dinner, to let the newlyweds have the evening alone together. Jonathan would be heading back to his home with his wife; Naverre had said he was going to spend the night with his family to assure them that he was doing fine. As a result, it was just him and Flynn heading back to the samurai dormitory. "Hoy, you want to go up to the tower?" Issachar asked. "We don't really know the new prentices, although I heard there were several of them too."

"Sure," Flynn said, although he seemed to be deep in thought again. "Of course there would be a number of new samurai. There should be several picked out each year now as the angels planned to build up a sizable force of the samurai to fight for them."

"It's coming back to bite them now, isn't it?" he asked. "Because Mikado is fighting back to keep control."

"I hope that doesn't come to hurt Mikado," Flynn said. "But yes, having more samurai would benefit us now."

They didn't talk much more on the way over. Or by the time they got to the top of the tower. Flynn mostly stared out at the darkened landscape, lost in thought and making no indication that he wanted to talk. Maybe he was just considering some issue in his plans or when to make his next major move. For a little while, Issachar let him. The sky was full of stars, not a hint of the moon showing.

Issachar ended up thinking over some things said at the wedding party. While there was a lot of joking over the lengthy process of getting married, there was still that push from other people expecting them to be seeking marriage. It was what most everyone did, after all. Taking an oath of service and devotion was admirable; no one acted like taking that option was a bad thing. However, marriage was seen as the better option.

But then, the only way he could be with Flynn was for them both to take the oath of service and keep their relationship a closely-guarded secret. Jonathan and Walter knew, and Isabeau would know soon, but Issachar could trust them. And that Nozomi knew, but she swore that she'd not say anything about them. But to everyone else, they'd have to appear as close friends and nothing more.

The oath of service demanded that one's whole life be devoted to work. Like Hope, who seemingly had no hobbies and only took days off if he was ill. If Issachar took the oath as a samurai, he'd have to limit the time he had for photography, or science, or electronics, or even reading. He didn't want to try getting married, though, since he couldn't get married to Flynn.

Or, could he? "Do you think we could get married in Tokyo?" he asked, then realized he said that aloud. "Erm, I mean, if we wanted to…"

"Hmm?" Flynn asked, glancing over at him.

"They seem a lot more open to ideas than Mikado, so would they be okay with us?" Issachar asked, since he had already brought it up. "Getting married, I mean, if you'd want that."

"I don't know if they would let us marry," Flynn said. "They are more open to people being different, but in practical terms, they're losing more people than are being born."

"Oh, well I guess that is practical," Issachar said, disappointed in that. Then he put his hand to the crest on his cheek. "But what if there was some way for me to stay as a woman? I don't know how it work out with me being an angel transformed, but if I could change that, it'd at least be acceptable to others."

Flynn sighed quietly at that. "Be careful saying things like that. Any being around who could grant you that kind of wish would ask a steep price for it, which could get you in a lot of trouble."

"Oh right, like the fairy tales," he said, feeling embarrassed at having brought it up thoughtlessly. "It's just, I don't feel strange about changing into a woman; it's weirder that I became an angel. I wouldn't mind doing that for you. Heh, but I'm still the strange one, aren't I, since I don't find that strange."

He didn't say anything to that for a moment, which made Issachar feel more awkward and embarrassed about it. But then Flynn took his hand and pulled him closer. "I'm sorry if I made you upset. You don't need to change yourself on my account."

"No, I'm sorry, I'm just saying things without thinking them through," Issachar said, putting an arm around him. "I kind of want to, but you're right, that kind of wish is dangerous. And I'd still be a rather homely looking woman; I'm awkward enough as a man already."

"No, you're adorable to me," Flynn said, then put his fingers in Issachar's hair, taking out the hair tie. "And your hair has gotten a lot better as you keep taking care of it. If you put in as much effort as some of those women do, you'd be beautiful too."

Issachar smiled at that, although he felt a bit like crying since he didn't feel he was that good looking. "I couldn't match you, though, you're wonderful in every way. I guess, I'm just jealous of the others. Like somebody was saying today that Jonathan and Marie were really unusual since they were so in love at their wedding, while Walter and Isabeau were more like what most couples getting married are like among Luxurors. They do seem a lot closer than before, fond of each other."

"They are," Flynn said, closing his eyes partway.

"But we have to keep things secret even though I've already decided I would devote my whole life to you," he said quietly. "I think about you often, in worrying over you and admiring you, and wishing I could tell you how I feel when I don't know how to say it all… this morning when you kissed me for the first time, I won't forget that ever, I know it. I love you so much, but it feels like I'm causing you more trouble. But I would be so happy if there was some way…"

"I…" Flynn started to say, then stopped. He was trembling.

"Flynn?" He tried to tilt his head to look at Flynn's face better, putting his other arm around him. "What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid that I'll end up causing you grief," he said, then buried his head on Issachar's shoulder. "I don't want to look at these stars," he whispered. "They remind me of a cold and empty place, where I learned that God does nothing but watch while we suffer."

For a moment, he wasn't sure what to say, or what to think. Hadn't Flynn been mostly positive today? His plans were promising to work out, so he should be feeling good about things. But then he recalled how Flynn's soul looked, deeply scarred and battered. Maybe it was something Issachar had said, or maybe he really was inadequate…

No, Flynn loved and cherished him, just the same as he felt. It may simply be the stars distracting him with disturbing memories. Issachar hugged him tighter. "All right, we'll go back inside," he said, doing his best to be soothing. "And I'll see if I can get you some hot tea, you seem like you could use it."

"Would you stay with me tonight?" Flynn asked. "I, I mean, not like lovers, not yet, but, I don't want to be alone. I shouldn't be falling apart so easily, since I have to keep going. But the stars…"

"It's okay, I understand," Issachar said, brushing aside some disappointment that tried to bubble up. "Let's go back to your room. I could even turn into an angel and sing for you if that would help calm you down."

"You'd be the only angel who could," he said, staying still for a moment before letting him go so they could go back downstairs.


	43. Heading Across Tokyo

**Chapter 43: Heading Across Tokyo**

Due to how things happened, they started their day heading to Kinshicho. It was hard to imagine missing Akihabara since that area had been lit up and active. But Kinshicho was hiding fairly well, behind a park one way and a deserted area of streets another way. It was also a quieter town than Akihabara. The people were friendly, busy with crafting supplies for themselves and others. While the survey requests were all taken, there were still other requests to take care of.

Isabeau and Walter wanted to work together when they split up; nobody was going to argue that. And Jonathan knew that Flynn and Issachar would prefer working together too. So that left him working with Naverre today. Jonathan didn't mind it since he felt they were all good friends and he could work with any of them.

They took a request to get rid of a demon that was camped out on a bridge to the south. It had come from one of the first surveys, when the Hunter who found the manticore could not take care of it himself. Thankfully, the Hunter agreed to pass what data the program gave him. It included that the manticore was venomous. They had a lot of antidotes for that, so it didn't worry them.

"Where did you slip off to yesterday?" Naverre asked. "You missed a fascinating conversation about dressing up like your favorite characters and acting like them to celebrate their greatness. There weren't many character fashions that are known in Mikado literature, but Literature itself and some of the old mediums have great characters to play as."

Jonathan thought that was odd, but if they were happy with it, there seemed to be no harm in it. "Huh. Well, I met an interesting kid there and we ended up talking about various things for a while. He might have met the real Gabriel, so she's likely around too."

"That sounds like it will get confusing if we end up facing the real Gabriel and the impostor," Naverre said. "How would we tell the difference?"

"I think I could figure it out," Jonathan said. "If not, Issachar could tell in his angel form."

A screechy roar interrupted them. They weren't yet at the bridge, but they'd arrived in sight of the river. Just outside of a streetlight's radius, there was a shadowy beast prowling and whipping a segmented tail around. From the profile, it seemed like a manticore. Naverre raised his eyebrows, then called out, "Hey, weren't you at the bridge?"

"I don't think that was smart," Jonathan whispered over to him. The manticore could be easier to take if they surprised it.

The manticore growled again, but trailed off into a whimper. "Bridge taken, scary one," it said, trying to keep a bellowing voice quiet. "No like."

"You were scared off by something else?" Naverre asked, puzzled.

The manticore turned to face them with a vicious snarl. "ME NOT COWARD!" it bellowed properly before firing many needles at them.

It was a powerful beast. Thankfully, Naverre had picked up Media as Flynn had suggested. It helped to make a tough battle like this easier. They had to take some time to patch up their teams, then look ahead to where the bridge was.

"We took care of the manticore, but do we take care of whatever has taken the bridge now?" Naverre asked.

"We should at least see what's there," Jonathan said. "If we have to, we could call the others over to figure out what to do."

Avoiding the lights as much as they could, they headed towards the bridge. There was nothing blocking their view of two figures there. One was clearly some kind of machine, with two wheels and a long set of handlebars. It didn't seem too steady, but it was standing there. Close to the machine, there was a young man looking off to the south. He didn't have any demons with him unless the machine was something demonic. As they approached, it was easier to see that his black vest revealed a number of strange pictures on his arms.

He noticed them approaching the bridge and turned to find them. Deciding to be civil, Jonathan waved to him. "Hello. We came out to take care of a demon on this bridge, but found it elsewhere. Did you have to fight anything here?"

He waved back. "Yes, it wasn't anything notable. I hope that doesn't cause you trouble."

"As long as the bridge is clear, the job is done," Jonathan said. They exchanged names; he turned out to be Naoki, another Hunter. "Pardon me for asking, but what's that machine you have here?"

"It's my motorcycle," Naoki said. "It can handle rough terrain, so most of the streets are no problem to get around fast. And given how loud it is, a fair number of demons will scatter from that."

"Oh, that could be what spooked the manticore away," Naverre said. "But, are you some satanist or devil-worshiper with all those tattoos of demons on you?"

Jonathan felt annoyed at the question, although he had to wonder if Naverre meant the pictures being what he named tattoos. Strangely enough, Naoki didn't get insulted at the question. "You're asking me two different things. I could just like the designs, you know."

"Well I was told yesterday that tattoos usually mean something to the person who has them," Naverre said. "And aren't they the same kind of thing?"

"No," Naoki said. "Because Satan isn't a devil. He's the Adversary, the penultimate judge with only God ranking above him in the celestial hierarchy. Although, a person might be tempted to see him as a devil if they've committed some grave sin. Being a devil-worshiper is being someone who worships Lucifer, and I'd be neither. I just like the tattoos."

"Well I had to make sure of that kind of thing," Naverre said, trying not to look embarrassed.

"It's interesting to meet another who sees the difference so sensibly," Jonathan said, hoping to keep things civil with a potential ally. Naoki was out here on his own, so he had to be a capable Hunter and thus potentially someone useful to know. "I get so irritated when people mess up those two."

Naoki smiled at that. "Yeah, some people might call it nitpicky, but when you're out here dealing with demons, you don't want to be making that kind of mistake in mixing up identities. A number of them will be pissed off if you misidentify them, although mixing up two big names like that could invite lesser demons to sow more confusion. Anyhow, did you just need the bridge cleared? It seems good in that aspect."

Jonathan nodded. "Yes, some people want to make further surveys down this way."

"It's a massive swamp of poisonous sludge down that way," Naoki said, waving off to the south. "Been that way for years, but there's some promising warehouses in that area if it can be crossed."

"Oh, were you one of the ones investigating that?" Jonathan asked. "I heard there was some trouble a while ago that had everyone shut into the safe areas."

"Well I just got here," he explained. "I've got other things to investigate in this part of Tokyo, not the sludge swamp. There's supposed to be some unusual demons in the area, the sort I look for, as well as a strange phenomenon on a highway further south of the swamp."

"What kind of demons do you look for?" Jonathan asked. "We're looking for some specific ones ourselves."

"Really strong ones, in order to challenge myself," he answered with a believable confidence. "I can handle most demons across Tokyo without much trouble, so I keep an eye out for demons that are unusually strong for their area. They cause a heap of trouble and an unfortunate number of Hunters won't go after them. I do."

"That sounds like a lot of our fellows, unfortunately," Jonathan said.

"So who are you looking for?" Naoki asked.

"Lilith and an impostor of Gabriel," he said, then explained the general information about their main missions.

Naoki rubbed his neck on being told about them. "Hmm, well I couldn't tell you much about an angel impostor, but I do know some about Lilith."

"Really?" Jonathan asked. "What do you know?"

"You won't find her on her own," Naoki said. "Lilith is a temptress and a manipulator, so she'll find others to do her work for her. She likes to be in charge of things, so she's probably leading one group or another under an assumed identity. Probably not the Ashura-kai; they're too chauvinistic for her liking. But one thing that can clue you in to where she is is to pay attention to her daughters."

"Her daughters?" Naverre asked, puzzled at that advice.

He nodded. "The lilim. There is usually a group accompanying her. If the group is just lilims instead of having some succubi or other seductresses along, there's a decent chance that Lilith is around too. And if a demon report of an area has a sudden influx of lilims, Lilith most likely had a hand in that. It's not a conclusive thing, but a hint all the same."

"That might help narrow the search area," Jonathan said.

"Right, this city is difficult to search at times," Naoki said, then held up a hand. "Oh yes, and something else you should be aware of if you aren't already. If you're at all attracted to women, you're vulnerable to the potent charm magic that both Lilith and the lilims possess. Even if you find some charm protection amulet, Lilith is a skilled speaker and can get around that kind of protection if you let her talk enough. So don't confront her alone and be cautious of what she says."

"That would be something to keep in mind," Jonathan said, running his thumb over his wedding ring. "Thanks for your advice; I hope we can return the favor sometime."

"Don't mind it," Naoki said, getting on his motorcycle. "Demon hunters should help each other, after all. Good luck, hope to see you guys alive sometime." He then turned on his motorcycle, which let out a rumbling roar of machine sorcery before taking off to the south with its rider.

Naverre stared at it for a moment. "My word, no wonder the manticore was scared of that! I didn't think a machine would be so loud."

There was a part of Jonathan that felt the motorcycle was much too noisy and fearsome. But it was a swift machine, out of sight in seconds. What kind of thrill would it be to tame one of those mystic relics? He found himself smiling at the thought. "Fast too. I wonder if that's one of the forbidden sorceries we aren't supposed to bring back. It's almost a pity since traveling that quickly without the terminals would be handy."

After double-checking the bridge, they headed back to report in about the manticore to the Association, and about what Naoki had said on Lilith to their fellows.

* * *

It was a short walk from Akihabara, a river crossing that had to be made with the help of kelpies, and a long walk down to Kasumigaseki. Of course, a long walk led Asahi to starting conversations. "What do you think Mikado is like, being above the Firmament?" she wondered aloud. "They get to have the sun and be close to it, so I bet it gets really hot."

"Well the world is supposed to have all kinds of weather, so it could be hot, or it could rain, or even snow," Hallelujah said. "And I hear you can get fog without it being magic."

"Hazy air is a sign of dirtiness or magic," Toki said. "I don't see how you can get a natural fog."

Hallelujah shook his head. "No, it happens, um, I know I've read it before." Then he snapped his fingers. "Yeah, they're clouds! Clouds are just water vapor that form up in the sky; they've appeared down here at times, actually. And if the temperature is just right, the clouds can form right along the ground. That's fog. And since they're high up, Mikado probably gets fog a lot too."

"That would be kind of bad, wouldn't it?" Asahi said. "Since if it got all foggy and you couldn't see, you might walk off the edge of the Firmament without realizing it."

"That's be a long fall," Nanashi said, looking up into the darkness.

Behind them, Nikkari kept quiet. These old normal things were magical to these kids who'd never experienced them. And now, there was hope that they might experience such weather for themselves one day. Sure, that hope had always been there. But Flynn was certain he could remove the Firmament without harming Mikado or Tokyo in the process. There was a commanding look to him that made Nikkari believe it was possible almost immediately. Between his knowledge and that look, he even believed that Flynn was far older than he first appeared to be. It was magical to Nikkari, but must be completely normal to Flynn.

And something about these four kids had Flynn, angels, and demons paying attention to them.

Toki was easily explained. She was a weapon to others more than a person. The way she moved along the street, the way she dressed as a shadow, the absolute focus she had in battle, the stoic uncertainty she had in talking to others: she had been raised to have deadly skill and nothing more. With someone to direct her, she could terrorize the whole city. It was chilling to see a child solider, no, assassin like this. But she couldn't deserve a life like that. She deserved a chance to be her own person and live.

In contrast, Hallelujah seemed almost normal for a young teenager in Tokyo. It was clear from his skin, eyes, and fitness that he was a lot healthier than average, but that shouldn't be enough to mark him as special. But Nikkari felt something was unknown about Hallelujah right now. There was his relationship with his one demon, a brotherhood more than a working partnership. There was the way he had a smartphone but no demon summoning app when the program had spread silently and suddenly right when it was needed. And, there was something more that Nikkari noticed on this trek through the streets of Tokyo: Hallelujah was sensitive to the presence and mood of demons. He tried to hide it, but there were a couple of times when the boy became alert to an oncoming battle that Nikkari had not yet noticed. There was something special about him, but what was it?

Nanashi was even more difficult to distinguish from normal, but Nikkari had worked with him long enough to know that boy was something special. For one thing, he was a natural at demon summoning. Anybody could use the summoning program, true. But there was using it and having a knack for it that made a big difference. Nanashi had been using the fusion app too, so his demons were already twice the level of Asahi and Toki's teams even though the girls only started a few hours after him. And Nanashi's demons were quickly cooperative with him, while Asahi's nepaea kept teasing her and Toki's demons seemed wary of her. Given time, Nanashi could likely negotiate with any demon in Tokyo and gain influence with them.

And Asahi… Asahi… she didn't belong in this time.

Nikkari glanced around, keeping watch for any ambushes or challenges. The street was clear for now. Ahead of him, Toki, Hallelujah, and Nanashi were all similarly alert. They didn't need a reminder of how dangerous the streets could be. Asahi glanced around every now and then, but not often enough. She was too quick to get bored with just walking and so brought up these questions and conversations to pass time. In doing so, she was trying to learn more about her two new friends and figure out how to interest them.

If she had been around before the war, Nikkari was certain that she'd be one of the popular girls in school. Asahi had normal interests for a girl her age, at least back to that pre-war era. Her chattiness, positive energy, and eagerness to help would earn her a lot of friends. But in this time, she was a liability. Her talking was noise to disturb or attract demons, or to distract the rest of them. Her energy and words were encouraging, but would lead her to become tired sooner than the rest of them. In all honesty, she was better suited for staying around Kinshicho, to keep up the spirits of the residents and guards there.

But she wanted to be a Hunter badly. Since she was fifteen, she wanted to be accepted as an adult even though she had a lot to learn about responsibility. Asahi didn't have Nanashi's talent, or Toki's training, or Hallelujah's sense, or anything that could make up for her inexperience. She'd get angry with him if she realized that Nikkari was watching over her mainly so she didn't make a dangerous mistake. While it was an awful thought, Nikkari couldn't help but think that she was a prime target for a demon to kill or kidnap as a means to motivate Nanashi into doing something. There were even some humans Nikkari knew of that wouldn't hesitate to do so. She shouldn't be here.

But here she was. It was being a teenager, Nikkari figured. They fit the saying that if you forbid someone to do something, it was all the more likely that they would go and do it. With some experience, Asahi could be good for a role that needed someone encouraging and cheerful. Like guarding civilians in a crisis or running supplies to Hunters posted away from settlements. It was up to Nikkari to make sure that getting that experience didn't kill or permanently harm Asahi.

For now, though, Nikkari let the teens talk with each other. Things were relatively safe for the moment. If supporting others was Asahi's calling, then this was what she needed to be doing.

They got to Kasumigaskei without notable incident. But right at the elevator down to the base itself, they ran into the Mikado samurai again. "Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Asahi asked. "Especially you since you got hurt really bad."

Walter seemed much more alert, smiling as he recognized them. "Hoy there, nice to see you. I did take a month off, and now I'm back"

"Wait, a month?" Hallelujah asked, his eyes wide. "But, we saw you guys in Akihabara not that long ago, and you said you were going to Kinshicho."

"We did, and spent a few hours reconnaissance there after we went back for their wedding," Flynn said.

"There's a large difference of time between here and there, remember?" Nanashi said to the others.

"Oh yeah," Hallelujah said, rubbing his forehead. "It's weird to think of, though."

"It is, very much so," one of the other young men said. From what he'd been told, Nikkari guessed that was Jonathan.

Flynn nodded. "Fujiwara said he was waiting on some guests. If that's you, you may as well head on down before they get too busy fixing this place up."

"Sure, we wouldn't want to hold you all back either," Nikkari said. "Do you know where you're headed?"

"Yes, Skins gave us some directions on how to find some places from here," Flynn said. "We might see each other again if our paths cross."

Knowing that Flynn was training his fellows for a dangerous encounter in the near future, Nikkari wished them well and wordlessly encouraged his students to let them head on their way. There was a guard posted at the elevator as usual, but one that wore the uniform of a Hunter rather than an Ashura-kai. It was someone Nikkari knew, so they were readily passed to head down into the base. While there were a few people in the halls cleaning up and examining potential problems, Nikkari felt it was eerie for the place to be mostly deserted like this. It used to be bustling with activity and tension.

Fujiwara and Skins met with them in the control room. Only a few of the screens were lit up at the moment, showing camera feeds from various places around Tokyo. Of all the people that Nikkari had ever met, no one could match Fujiwara at acting casual even at his most alert and wary. He was already toying with a pen like he was bored. "Ah, hello Nikkari, it's been a while," Fujiwara said, smiling like nothing important was going on.

Nikkari bowed his head. "Hello to you both. It's nice to see you retaking this place; it was a pity that the Ashura-kai didn't make proper use of it."

"Yes, I feel the same," Fujiwara said. "I see you have more students than you did yesterday."

"Right, sorry about not warning you," Nikkari said, although he had. He saw where he was going with this. "But the demon reports seemed relatively safe despite the near power outage, so I felt it was a good trip for all of them."

"Probably good for you too since the terminals now require three locations to make use of them," Skins said. "Though you might not always be able to come here with students."

Fujiwara clapped his hands together, like he had just had an idea. "True, but you've all come at a good time now. I want to resettle the Association headquarters here since the Ashura-kai aren't using this base now. It's gotten dusty and we're not sure how everything is organized right now. If you all don't mind, we could use a few extra hands to check on everything."

"Sure, we wouldn't mind, right guys?" Asahi said, eager for the tasks. In her eyes, a mundane task like cleaning when done for the leader of the Hunter Association was likely to be in her favor towards advancing as a Hunter.

"Sure, why not?" Hallelujah said.

"We were supposed to head back for Kinshicho according to the Boss," Toki said. That was a soldier's mindset.

"I'll send Toma a note to make sure it's fine," Fujiwara said, then quickly assigned tasks so that Asahi, Hallelujah, and Toki were all sent to one of the locker rooms to clean and catalog while Nikkari and Nanashi were held back in the command room 'for a few minutes'.

Nanashi quietly watched and nodded along. Once his friends were out of the room, he asked, "You did that on purpose, didn't you? I know Nikkari sent you a text saying there'd be five of us coming."

Fujiwara smiled again; the glint to his eyes this time showed that he was genuinely amused at that. "Ah, you've seen right through me. No wonder Nikkari thinks highly of you. But yes, you're the important one to talk to and this may go into things I don't want most people hearing of yet. You see, it's not often that I can get Tayama in a position precarious to him. His leadership of the city has been, to speak frankly, toxic to even the people in the Ashura-kai's circle. Your actions in stopping the missiles has put an unexpected wedge in his grip over Tokyo."

"That is dangerous to you, young fellow," Skins said, stern but clearly concerned. "Tayama excuses his cutthroat tactics as what is necessary to keep order, but they are cutthroat and won't give any mercy to anyone."

"I know, but a lot of people would have died," Nanashi said. "Akihabara is bigger than both Kinshicho and Ueno, so I had to do something when I got the chance."

"True, that's still an important matter," Fujiwara said. "But we've already had to cover up your identity to Tayama himself and will have to keep covering you as much as we can for a while. Now, how did you stop the missiles here while you were in Kinshicho?"

"Well I got this demon with the demonica that's of the Virus clan, and it pretty much did everything technical," he answered, activating his demonica so he could call out Trojan.

The tiny toy horse snapped a few of its wires on seeing where it was called out. "Wooo, #seriousplace #delicioushardware."

"Don't mess with any of it," Nanashi said, to which Trojan immediately bobbed in agreement. He then showed the request information to them, along with a photograph that Flynn had sent along of a past life that supposedly they both had lived. Nikkari felt uneasy with all this reincarnation talk; it would have been called complete hogwash before the war. But in this time, it made an eerie amount of sense.

"So are you a reincarnation of Akira?" Skins asked; he probably felt the same way, that this was eerie.

Lowering his eyes, Nanashi looked uncomfortable with it. "I'm not sure myself. I don't remember things like Flynn seems to, just vague things that could be dreams. I mean, it wouldn't be nearly as weird if Akira was somehow my father and that's why I can use this," he put his right hand on the demonica, "even though I don't know who he is either way. It's like I told Flynn: I don't really want to get involved in all this big stuff until I can figure things out for myself. I just haven't had the time, and if people are in trouble, well I'm not going to leave them to that trouble if I can help. Even if it gets me in trouble too."

Nikkari put a hand on Nanashi's shoulder, making the boy look up at him. "That's a wise position to take for now. We just need to keep quiet for the time being, find some other reason to explain us being out here." Nanashi smiled up at him, although his eyes betrayed that he was still troubled.

"Well the basic work in restoring this place to a working condition is suitable for students such as yours," Fujiwara said, having thought of this ahead of time. He was like that, knowing his potential moves two or three steps ahead and able to adjust on the fly. "And Nanashi, speaking with you now has convinced me that you could very well be Akira reborn."

"Really?" Nanashi asked, puzzled at that.

Fujiwara nodded. "You're still figuring things out, but I can see bits of his conviction and selflessness in you already. He too was willing to put his reputation and life on the line for what he believed was right; he wanted to find some way of solving our crisis without relying on demons or angels, as both sides saw humans as mere pawns to play with. In the same way, the Flynn I knew back then also gave his all, even his own life, for what he believed in. Both of you were seeking that third option that worked best for humanity."

Skins frowned thoughtfully at that. "Yeah, but that has me worried about the Flynn we've just met. Sacrificing too much of yourself might save others, but it doesn't make the future for yourself look that bright."

"Yes, I feel that he's suffering already for that," Fujiwara said. "At the same time, I don't think we can stop him from carrying out his intentions, whatever they become. The war has already begun, even though most people will see this time as quiet."

"Do you have plans for this war?" Nanashi asked, starting to look too serious for his age again.

Their leader nodded. "Of course, but more than that, we can adapt quicker than demons or angels. Your community is basically at the front lines should the angels come out of Sky Tower, though. You'll need to help keep those grounds safe."

"They can fly, so they might set up elsewhere," Nanashi said. "But we will."

"We may have to agree to work under the angels temporarily should that prove safer to the civilians there," Nikkari said, recalling various scenarios he'd thought up. "In that case, we might have to move you and your friends elsewhere."

"Did you agree to work with Flynn further?" Fujiwara asked.

"Not right now," Nanashi said. "I do want to keep training myself, in case I need to join in at some point. But for now, I'll keep out of things."

"Well I can think of some things you can do that shouldn't draw too much attention to yourself," Fujiwara said, leading them to discuss potential plans.

* * *

After passing through a tunnel that required a toll, the six samurai found themselves in front of a sprawling marsh of poison. The glowing violet mass filled the streets. It may have even eaten some of the massive buildings as the area was more open than other areas in Tokyo. While someone had tried to put stones to walk across, some of them were already eroded to rubble. How had this big of a poison swamp appeared?

More importantly, "Are we really going to be crossing this?" Naverre asked. "It's huge!"

"This is the way to the central towns," Flynn said. "And there's an obvious path over it even if it's barely there, unlike in Naraku."

"We can make this," Jonathan said. "The people of Tokyo would have to cross it if they need to go this way."

"Right," Walter said. "Or are you too much of a prissy chicken to go out into the poison?"

"I can do this as much as any of you," Naverre said. Wanting to do so was another matter.

But they had to cross to move on, presumably. Or at least Flynn had decided to go this way and wasn't changing his mind on seeing the size of the swamp. Naverre tried to stick to the stepping stones even when they were just rubble; the goo was like walking over jam, squishy and slow to sink into. But if it was jam, it was something noxious and unfit to eat.

Of course, they had to fight demons all along the way. The demons grew even tougher as well, stronger than those in the northeastern area! Naverre had thought that he'd put together a pretty good demon team yesterday, but as soon as he got his spells upgraded, he had to negotiate some new demons and fuse the old ones. Even then, they had to team up in threes and work towards remaking their demon allies again.

This was not as glamorous as he'd imagined a samurai's life being. Nothing of this had been how he'd imagined. Sure, they were on a major quest for all of Mikado. But the stories never talked about long trudges through glowing poisonous swamps. Was this kind of thing really what he wanted to be doing with his life? This wasn't exciting; it was disgusting.

Maybe things would improve once they were past this awful place and never had to come this way again.

 _A/N: I just wanted to make a reply to an anon comment: if it was plausible, I do prefer avoiding 'homosexuality is bad' angst in writing relationships. I've heard people say they're tired of it and I would like to be a positive example in things. But for this particular setting, you're right, avoiding angst isn't plausible as both Mikado and Tokyo have reasons to look down on same sex relationships. And while Mikado is changing, ethical views don't change overnight, especially not from something as strict as what they had. I'm still trying to not make that kind of angst overbearing, as there's a boatload of other problems going on and the games already suffer from darkness-induced apathy._

 _And thank you all for your comments and reviews! I know I don't reply to comments often, but I appreciate the feedback; it's been encouraging, which I've been extra grateful for lately._


	44. Leader of Corpses

**Chapter 44: Leader of Corpses**

From the various looks on their faces (Naverre continually glanced at his shoes and the cuffs of his pants, Walter looking cross from time to time), the trek out to Shinjuku had been enjoyed by no one. It didn't bother Flynn anymore, not even having to loop all the way around a large block of the city to get to the actual town entrance. There were more disgusting places they could be walking, longer too. And, he knew they'd have to delve back into that swamp to reach Ikebukuro eventually. They didn't realize that, although they'd probably hear of it quickly from the locals. But even though none of them were complaining out loud, Flynn saw enough that he decided to let them have a long break just investigating the town before starting his plans to train them.

"Is this really the place?" Isabeau asked. "The area seems lit up enough, but usually they have guards posted at natural checkpoints like this near towns."

Shinjuku never had their guards out here, at least not in this world. But then, this place wasn't like he was used to. He'd seen that immediately in a disorganized mess of chalk art in the parking lot area outside the town entrance. That had never been there before. Almost halfway to the entrance, those responsible were still at work on it. One was a person he was expecting to meet here. Flynn always met her here. But the other… he was apparently telling the truth in the last message he'd gotten from him.

"We can take a quick look around," Jonathan said. "And there's some people to ask."

He'd been prepared to deal with Hikaru here and now, but not Krishna. Shuttering his focus to getting through this inevitable moment, Flynn said, "Right."

While he thought he was keeping outwardly calm, his friends immediately glanced at him in concern. They did know him more than usual because of the time he'd stalled. That would be a problem (and an embarrassing one at that). Sighing inwardly, he wondered if it would be worth it to start letting them in on things. It could help with Isabeau especially since she was concerned for the well-being of their group. As the group's medic, she could overrule his authority as their leader to make him take another leave for mental health.

None of them brought it up immediately. Instead, Jonathan went ahead to where Hikaru and Krishna were. "Excuse us, but is this the entrance to Shinjuku?"

Hikaru looked up at them. "Oh, hi! Yup, right over there," she waved with a hand covered in various colors of chalk dust. "You guys came quick."

"We did?" Jonathan asked.

Tilting her head, she asked back, "Yeah, didn't you hear? An alert just came out, a couple of minutes before, so you are suspiciously early. Anyhow, there's been a problem lately across town in corpse demons cropping up. They're tough buggers to keep down, but weren't a threat until just now when they decided to invade town."

"The corpses got into town?" Flynn asked, alarmed about that. Corpses were tough (at the level of his friends) but slow. The biggest danger they presented was that when they killed people, they would revive their victim as another corpse demon. Their slowness wouldn't matter when their numbers got high enough.

"Not quite, they got the shutters down," Hikaru said. "Somebody ran up here a bit ago and told us to make sure demons don't get in town this way. Okay, better than fighting corpses when we're not done here yet. They seemed worried, but it's been quiet here."

The metal shutters generally kept underground towns safe, but not always. And the one responsible for the corpses could wreck a shutter. "We should go down and check on them," Flynn said.

"Sure," Jonathan said. The others agreed to that.

"Go right ahead if that's your thing," Hikaru said, going back to drawing.

She was acting strange, but there was a possible reason… it didn't matter right now, not with the corpses invading town. Usually that was a request that let them gain the trust of the town, nothing to put the townspeople in danger. Flynn didn't think a few extra hours in the west would bring the corpses down here. But figuring out what changed would have to wait until the people were out of danger.

"Do you know something about this place already?" Naverre asked as they headed down the stairs.

Yes, he'd have to tell them something. "I'll explain later," Flynn said. "These corpse demons are tough defensively, but not that difficult in truth. Hopefully their shutter holds."

But that wasn't the case as he spotted the half-melted gooey corpses shambling around the hall. There didn't seem to be any still corpses from recently deceased, nor fresh bloodstains. Several doorways he spotted were blocked off, so the people had been able to get into hiding. Flynn hurried over to where a pair of corpses were trying to take down a blockade, leaving his friends to take the closer ones.

Once he had those two down, he took another look at this end of the hall. The Association bar had its door shut; it might be blocked from inside. Down the hall to the side, the shutter up to the shopping district had been broken down at about waist height; it seemed the corpse demons had done that themselves. The door to the other half of Shinjuku and the government district had also been broken from the pieces of metal on the floor. But it had then been retracted up, which was unusual.

"Hoy Flynn, there's more halls down this way," Walter called.

Those halls were usually infested with other demons, with a few people unable to get the Asura-kai to let them in the safe area of town. "You, Issachar, and Jonathan, you three head that way and clear things out. Isabeau, Naverre, let's secure this hall and check on the rooms here."

The others quickly agreed and went to their tasks. Flynn used his gauntlet to contact the Association bartender here. A minute later, he got a reply. 'The bar's packed with mostly non-Hunter folks, as I sent the others out to protect the smaller rooms. I'm sending out a pair of guys that have keys to our warehouse; please send one or two of you with them to make sure our supplies are safe.'

After Flynn confirmed that, he pulled Walter back from the other group to go to the warehouse. Isabeau was soon calming some children in one of the rooms and checking over the injured. He posted Naverre to keep an eye on the shopping district entry and went to check a smaller shutter going to the government district. Thankfully, that was still intact. But where was the Hunter who usually stirred up the corpses? His demon form was distinctive.

That person should be around because the corpses didn't have the intelligence to organize and invade.

* * *

"And a small word of warning: this is something you can only do once. There's no turning back when you do."

The girl's words kept running through his mind, uncovering things that he'd tried to bury and forget. Souta had been a quiet hard-working Hunter up to that point. Sure, there were lots of things that he was dissatisfied with. But they were things that he'd given up as useless to struggle against. Everyone was dealing with them: the oppression of being trapped in a dark land, the dullness of stalemate with the demons, the bullying of the Ashura-kai. If one didn't learn to deal with it, the despair was overbearing. One had to focus on survival, day to day.

But, that girl was different. He didn't remember her exactly, or why he'd ended up talking with her. He had talked with her a long time, even about those things he'd buried. What Souta did remember of her was her advice, and the way her expression made him feel like he could make himself the most important person around if he reached for that. Even above Tayama and Fujiwara. There was no reason he should put up with things that held him back.

Ever since their meeting, Souta grew more and more fed up with everything. It had been about the broader picture at first. Why did everyone outside the big groups have to be shut up underground? The Ashura-kai expected them to keep their noses to the grindstone and to accept stringently controlled supplies from what their group had already picked over. And they had no respect for the dead. Bodies were left for demons to devour or play with. If someone dear had died, those goons would snap at mourners to get over themselves and get back to work. Souta knew that all too well.

Yes, they didn't care for those who were dead. Souta had lost many of his family and friends to the war, including his own young children being kidnapped by the angels. The rest of his family had the misfortune of not being in Tokyo when the Firmament was summoned. Over the years, he lost others he cared about to demons, to illnesses, and sometimes to humans. And the Ashura-kai managers told him to get over it and keep working for them.

It wasn't the demons who were evil, Souta came to realize. It was humans who were evil, from the heartless greedy Ashura-kai to the shameless weaklings who followed them for safety that amounted to living like animals crowded in a kennel. Even he was guilty of that inaction because he simply did what he was told and never tried to argue for himself. The demons had been sent to rouse their spirits and grant them freedom from such sins.

And then, the local Ashura-kai managers crossed the line. They shut one of the big shutters of the underground town, supposedly because of an unexpected influx of demons swarming to the arrival of Kuebiko in the old government buildings. In doing so, they cut off nearly a third of the residents of Shinjuku from retreating to the safety of the main hall. They'd told everyone else to retreat back to their residences, perhaps so they didn't hear the pounding of fists on the other side as the others tried to get them to raise the shutters. There had been some horrific screams.

Those people… they'd been familiar faces, but not close. Souta was alone in life now, only connected to the dead. The last people he could count on as friends, some drinking buddies in the Hunter Association, were both dead now. They'd been killed because a macabre had surprised them. While they'd managed to defeat that demon, they were immediately ambushed by some corpse demons hiding in shadows. His buddies had fallen and, before his eyes, were transformed into corpse demons themselves.

Had they still recognized him? Souta didn't know; he'd spent quite some time near them, dazed but not harmed by the five corpse demons. Something in him expected the girl to show up again and say something more, but she didn't. Instead, he listened to the moaning and anger of the corpse demons, feeling his own anger building like steam in a pressure cooker. The corpses had said something about the demon in the government building. He wasn't sure what, but Souta said he'd go see that one.

But first, the people needed to be awakened as he had. They needed to face their sins; they needed to look death in the face as something they foolishly ignored. Somehow, the corpses responded to his words, calling more of them together. Souta led them to break into the main hall of Shinjuku so that they could have vengeance against the living. There were more screams, but he felt these were deserved. Then he headed out to meet with Kuebiko.

The old god had a towering presence and not just in size. One look at him put the vengeance of the earth in mind, a force that mere humans could not oppose. "Are you here to drive me away as well?" Kuebiko rumbled, gesturing over to three corpses in the room. "Then that shall be your fate as well."

Two Hunters… they'd been cowardly sorts, taking on easy jobs and only trying hard if something paid well. And one of the hated managers. They'd be better as corpse demons, Souta thought. No sign of their horrible selves, just death and repayment of their sins. He was pretty horrible himself for thinking like this. But, he didn't care anymore.

"I'm not here for that reason," Souta said as Kuebiko gathered a boulder of a fist.

"Then what for?" Kuebiko asked, easing off for a moment.

What for… the corpse demons had told him so. Souta tried to gather his courage, but it was in front of a being that could turn into a landslide and crush him. And Kuebiko wasn't the focus of his anger. "I want to make the Ashura-kai pay for what they've done," he said, quieter than he would have liked. "They tried to bribe you into doing what they want, right? I'm sick of that… I'm sick of everything! I brought the corpses into Shinjuku to make them face their sins."

"What of the sin of stealing the land from us gods and abusing it thoughtlessly?" Kuebiko asked. There was anger in him too, deep and ancient, enough to swallow up a small being like himself.

Souta felt like that was already happening. "I… I didn't think of that."

Kuebiko snorted dismissively. "Take whatever petty vengeance you hold and use it up against other fools. As far as I'm concerned, you mortals are only good as bodies to nourish the earth. I will make these civilizations crumble to pay for the sins of generations of humanity. You don't matter, fool. Your name will be forgotten once your breath ceases, while mine is etched into the land itself for eternity."

Then, what did he do now? He left because he was clearly unwanted there, not sure what to do anymore. He wanted to make the others pay for not caring; he wanted to bring those awful managers down. But there was also that dreadful haze that tried to seize up his mind again. What was the point of doing anything? He had no one left, no family, no friends, just memories of the dead. And he couldn't bring the Ashura-kai down. Souta was just one person who worked quietly and was ignored for it. When he passed, no one would remember his name. For that matter, no one would remember the names that were precious to him.

What was the point?

'There is no point,' a multitude said, surrounding him with more that was forgotten than he could ever remember. He was still somewhere in the government district, just… everything was so white. 'You're not capable of ending all suffering. But, you can end the suffering of those in reach, including yourself. Go back now. We promise you that your coming words will have weight.'

End the suffering of those in reach… "Fine," Souta said, heading back to Shinjuku town. The girl had spoken of vengeance and personal power. But right now, this voice of white meant more to him.

He expected a heavy quiet when he returned. Maybe voices of fear and helplessness if the corpses hadn't gotten to everyone yet. Instead, he heard discussion. "We've reviewed who should be here and the only people we can't account for are a few Hunters and some of the Ashura-kai who were outside of town when this started. The only confirmed death so far is the Ashura-kai guard who was supposed to be at the exit to the shopping district. If it wasn't for you guys showing up when you did, it would have been a lot worse."

"I'm glad that worked out."

The corpse demons hadn't gotten their vengeance? Souta felt angry at that, but it quickly got swallowed up by the emptiness his life was. What was the point? End their suffering. He continued in, taking a few Reds out of the pillbox he had. He'd already chosen to do this; it didn't matter why.

"But how did they get in? They seemed slow-moving and unmotivated."

"We're not sure of that, although their slowness did give us time to get barricades up. Not good ones, but it bought us just enough time."

"Well you have done some good work…"

"And you did nothing for the rest of us, just shut yourselves up in the shop once this area was in danger! You left everyone past this shutter to fend for themselves too."

"Hey, hey now, this wasn't in my job description."

"You said you were here to protect and support this town, but you've done no such thing!"

"We should focus on restoring security to this town, not fight amongst each other when there's still gaps in your defenses here."

"Yeah, what he said."

"Although if supporting the town was your job here, you've bungled that completely."

Souta walked over to the group, talking where the large shutter had been earlier. Some were familiar, some were strangers in strange clothes. But, what did it matter? They were all suffering and he could end it all for them. "He wasn't protecting the town, but taking advantage of us while he stood around and barked orders like the trained mutt he is," Souta said, almost glaring at the Ashura-kai manager there. But his fury was entirely smothered now.

"And just what were you doing when the corpses invaded town?" the manager said, quick with an attempt to get the heat off him.

Souta smiled a bit. "I brought them in here. I'm a leader of corpses."

The group there went silent at his claim, as if something about him unsettled them enough that they couldn't get angry at him. Maybe he looked like a corpse. That would be fitting. Although, one of the strangers in blue turned to him immediately. There was something piercing to his eyes, like he could see the truth already.

"But he is right," Souta continued, talking to the manager. "You took command without giving anything back; you have no respect for anyone, especially not the dead. I bet you don't know my name even though I've worked here since the Firmament appeared."

The manager started to say something, but couldn't finish. Right, his name would be forgotten. But it didn't matter anymore.

"Why did you bring the corpses into town?" the stranger with piercing eyes said, taking command of the situation now. And he did so fluidly, without shouts or threats.

They didn't need to know, he thought. But he went ahead and explained, "To make everyone face their sins and everything else they ignored. You try to control the demons with the Reds, but they're breaking that control. Shibuya is now a battleground, isn't it?"

"N-no," the manager lied weakly.

"The demons who accepted the Reds will die and be replaced with those who will refuse them, like Kuebiko here," Souta said. He didn't know where this information came from, but he knew it all the same. "You try to control us through penning us all in, but that will soon cease to work. People are tired of dealing with your shit, especially after that missile fiasco. They know that you do not care about life or death, that you don't care about them. But you can't run away now; you will pay for your sins."

"Hang on," a second manager said, trying to take back control, "don't be throwing around accusations like that without proof. You…"

Interrupting him was best. "You're afraid of that, aren't you? But you don't have to worry now. I can bring you salvation by bringing you to nothing."

The stranger tensed at that, his presence turning like a blade to its sharpest edge. The others there got uncomfortable, perhaps not realizing the change consciously. While he realized that he'd just made things dangerous, Souta wasn't able to care about that. His vision started turning white again.

He lifted his hand, showing that he had at least one Red in his hand. "We will become silence where none of this matters."

"Hold on, don't do that!" one of the managers said.

But he wasn't going to listen to anyone else now. "If we cannot throw off the yokes you put on us as humans, we shall do so as demons. I won't be the only one." Then he swallowed what he had.

A burning sensation quickly ran through his mind and chest, then tore out of his skin like it was paper. What emerged was an old hag, dirty wrinkled hands emerging from a tattered black dress, a ragged black veil of mourning over his head. All of his sorrows flooded over him, flushing out all colors and turning white of despair. No one could understand this… he shrieked to rend the air and make them feel this maddening emptiness. They would become nothing and when there was no one around to hear him, he would become nothing.

But that desire was cut short by a flash of immense power, a lightning bolt tearing him right apart.

'Come to us,' the voice of white said. 'Help us find the absolute end we seek, to end all pain and sorrow.'

He looked to the shadowy figures before him, not feeling anything but a wish that they seek oblivion too. "Your punishment is to bear my sorrow," he said, reaching out a dirty hand and seeking to tear into their souls.

"No, don't do this!" a voice he hadn't heard before called. One of the shadow figures ran up to him and grabbed his arms. There was a jarring warmth to that grasp, like a streak of sun trying to break into winter. "Joining them won't bring you peace. It will only bring you into their endless despair."

Endless despair? Fear took him over swiftly. "N-no, I don't want that," he sputtered, tears melting down his face.

'He belongs with us, as one of us, not to be alone,' the voice of white said. But it was terrifying instead of comforting now. He'd gotten over past sorrows; there were scars, but he'd moved on. But… right, that white was endless unless they ended everything.

"I won't let you touch him." He was fierce in defending him, banishing the White with just his words. Souta wondered why briefly, but then saw who was with him. He was an angel… or she, but that really didn't matter. While the other shadows were gone, she became clearer.

Should he be afraid that an angel was with him? Or grateful? "Wh-why save m-me?" he asked, his own form a quiver in between the human he had been, the demon he'd become, and something else…

"No one should suffer like they do," the angel said. Then she brushed her hand along his hair, being strangely gentle with him. "You're suffering enough on your own. What's your name?"

"Souta," he said quietly, feeling ashamed at being in tears in front of strangers. But it seemed this angel still cared about him, which brought out more. "I, I'm sorry, the last of my friends died and turned into those corpse demons today, or yesterday, sometime, and there's nothing left in the world for me."

"You don't need to apologize for feeling that way," she said, sympathetic and knowing.

His sorrows overcame him and she held him tight. She started singing and a sense of peace washed away everything else. He forgot his own name even though he'd just told her. But in that, he forgot everything else until all was new and strange, except for a feeling of love that asked for nothing in return.

* * *

That... That lightning… it was the same as back when they fought Ladon. It hadn't been God who'd intervened. Rather, it was Flynn. Flynn? How in hell was he strong enough that his spells could be mistaken for a miracle of God? And then Issachar had turned into an angel and went over to where the strange hag demon had turned into a white monstrosity. And that female 'hag' had started off as a distraught man who claimed that he'd save them by killing them all. Now, Issachar couldn't be seen but the light of his halo was still there, seemingly a light that came from nothing. What was going on?

But the bizarreness of this situation soon didn't matter when Walter looked at Flynn. His face was pale and his hands were trembling, like he was terrified of his own power. That didn't feel right as an explanation, though. It had been the words that the man had been saying; that was right, those words had disturbed Flynn and his soul was as volatile as a storm waiting to break. Make a wrong move, say the wrong thing, and someone else was likely to get smoked by that godly lightning as well.

"Flynn," Walter said, coming over to his side. At the very same moment, Jonathan did exactly the same as him. Their eyes crossed; things weren't right, their positions were wrong. But that didn't matter right now.

Even the locals who'd been talking to them realized that something was wrong here. The residents that had come out didn't know if they should be more afraid of the angel they'd just seen or of Flynn right now. The Ashura-kai men were trying to back out slowly and unnoticed. In contrast, the barkeeper was gutsy enough to step up and say, "Hey, that was a potent spell there. You need a quiet room for him to rest in?"

"Sure, that would help," Jonathan said, then took Flynn's arm. "Come on," he whispered, "We'll talk in private."

It took a moment, but Flynn nodded and tried to relax. Thankfully, Isabeau was quick enough to say, "Yes, and we mean no harm to any of you, including our friend there." She indicated where the light remained.

"Good," the barkeeper said, his voice a little louder than normal conversing to carry to others. "And thanks to your intervention, we'll be able to regain security here. We can discuss matters with you lot later." He then started calling for other Hunters to guard the exits and double-check rooms for demons.

The room they'd been directed to was a shared bunk room. Those who had been barricaded in here had already gone to check on friends and family. While Walter figured he should be careful, Flynn seemed less likely to lash out at the moment. "All right, what's up with you? That's some crazy magic to pull out all of a sudden, and you seem like you've been here before."

"I have," Flynn said quietly. He dropped onto a nearby bunk and seemed lost. "But not like this, never seen this happen before."

"Does it have to do with that picture Isabeau found at Kasumigaseki?" Jonathan asked, sitting by him on the bunk. "Were you here in a previous life?"

He nodded, but then said, "I don't remember that life well. It's this life… this time I keep repeating."

"Say what?" Walter asked, putting a hand on the bunk to lean there.

"I've done this enough times that I can't count them all," Flynn said. He pointed back to the door. "There was a ceiling grate down the hall I sent you three down that led up to the street; it had been kicked down, which let demons in that way."

"That's true, I did see that," Jonathan said, putting a hand to his neck. "But you didn't go that way."

"Not this time," he said. "When you ask around, the people will tell you that the main threat in the area is Kuebiko in the government plaza. They would have told you about the corpses too, in the shopping district. But this is the first time I've seen them down here."

He was speaking these things as a certain truth. It was a crazy thing, like something that might come out of Literature. However, Flynn had that look again, being older than he appeared. He also was haunted by what had just happened. "Man, that's," Walter fumbled trying to know what to say.

"Wait, so you know Tokyo already?" Naverre asked. "You know what's going to happen to us?"

Flynn shook his head. "I know a general sense of what's to come. Yet this proves that things can still surprise me. Actually, I don't have a clue what will happen to you, Naverre. You should have dropped out months ago after the incident with Alarune."

"Eh?" he asked, shocked by that as much as the rest.

"And Issachar should be dead," he continued. "He should have turned into an Undead demon, and I would have killed him."

"Wh-why?" Jonathan asked, paling at that. Walter knew why: if things had gone differently, they might have had to do that with Marie too.

"Our duty is to fight demons," Flynn said, regretful about it. He closed his eyes and bowed his head. "Actually, you all will die if things go as they normally should. Maybe not a death you'd think about, but you'd perish all the same. And even times when it's not by my hand, your deaths were my responsibility in some part."

All of them in here would die, like what they'd just seen. That was the truth. It wasn't just Flynn's seriousness this time that convinced Walter of that. It was some feeling deep inside, dreams of having unearthly powers but a corrupted body. One of those dreams popped into mind, a new one: facing Flynn in battle. He wielded a sword that seemed far too big for a normal person to carry, much less fight with. In Flynn's eyes, though, there was a sharp glint of something. He was someone who could kill gods, not just use their powers.

At the same time, he was this person here, now clenching his fists in his lap and trembling. "I won't let this game kill you this time. I won't let the White win, not the angels or demons. Not Salvation. I won't let them take control. This has to be the last time, or…" a sob stopped him from continuing.

What did you say to this? Walter wasn't sure, but he felt like he should be saying something. He knew that something bad had happened to Flynn, had suspected that it was someone dear he lost. But, the one he lost was all of them? He glanced around at the others in the room, all some mix of concerned, confused, and unsettled. If all of them died, through some fault of his own… that grief would be immense, paralyzing. And Flynn had lived through that too many times to count now.

He was also someone who could, no, who had killed gods. Perhaps for that very reason. That kind of power and responsibility, and grief, it was unimaginable. What could you say to someone like that?

Maybe… maybe just ignore all that and consider that he was their friend and leader. "Hey, um, but you've got us this far, huh?" Walter said. "You've got Naverre and Issachar with us now. So what if things are different? I think, no, I know you can do whatever you put your mind to. And we'll be behind you on that, right guys?"

"This is unimaginable," Naverre said, putting a hand on his forehead. "But… yeah, I'll try. Yeah, you can count on me!" He smiled, although he still seemed uneasy.

"Right, of course," Jonathan said, smiling as well. He put a hand on Flynn's shoulder. "But, that makes me think, were you the fairy who was giving Marie all those things to get to the ball?"

Flynn nodded to that. "Yes… some of those jewels on the dress are literally not of this world." He put one hand over the other fist, like he was trying to stop himself from trembling. He sounded ashamed as he added, "I've been manipulating you guys too, so your sight doesn't narrow and lead you to your doom. I shouldn't be doing that, but…"

"Well I don't care about that," Jonathan said, finally making Flynn look up at him. There was a brightness to his eyes… of course. "That means you gave me the best things in my life right now. I mean, it is troublesome that this mission keeps me away from them for so long to them. But I want to make the world better for them. Being down here, when I see the children around and some of the people, it makes me think of Marie and Adam, and I know these people don't deserve to live like this. So I want to make a better world for them too, although I don't know how. It seems you do, so I'll follow you no matter where this mission leads us."

"Right, I agree," Walter said, smiling at them. "I mean, the angels that showed up in Mikado are awful, and the demons everywhere are awful for the most part, so if you say they shouldn't win, we should make sure they don't. But what's with that white being with them?"

"The White are the personification of despair in all of humanity," Flynn explained. "That's who was speaking through that man after he turned into a banshee, since he turned white too. I'm sure you felt it, his despair in that scream. But that was just his despair; the White is everyone's despair."

Everyone… it made Walter shudder. "Yeah, something like that shouldn't win."

"I chose them once," Flynn said, shockingly. "When my grief took me to my lowest. They want to destroy absolutely everything. But it didn't work and I ended up back at start. It drove me insane; I could never fully escape the despair or the madness even when I want…" his voice trailed off.

"Flynn…" Walter put a hand on Flynn's other shoulder; he was still trembling. And this time, he didn't reply.

"Um," Isabeau said, finally speaking up. She came closer and crouched in front of Flynn. He didn't respond to that either. "Pardon me for being frank, but I don't like this."

"Well can you blame him after living through all that crap?" Walter asked before he thought better of it.

But Flynn still wasn't responding, not even when Isabeau tried to take his hand. "That's true, and it only worries me more. I suspected something was up, but…" she sighed. "I think he lied on that mental exam a few days ago. He's clearly in poor condition to be fighting demons, much less leading a group of us."

Jonathan seemed to nearly protest, but then thought better of it. "I suppose you're right. With this power he's been hiding all this time, he should win any battle he gets in. But if a demon gets to him like just now, we can't count on him being able to focus his attacks like that."

Isabeau nodded. "I mean, we should tell him to retire right away and go spend a lot of time somewhere quiet and peaceful. Even so, I have this feeling, like I know he can make things better. But that's if he doesn't fall apart completely before he can finish his plans. So I want to help him too, but I don't know if it should be letting him continue or making him step back."

"Actually, making him step back might make things worse on him," Walter said. "Remember how he was before this whole thing with Gabriel and Lilith started? He said to me one time that waiting on things to happen was sometimes worse than doing them. When Gabriel called him out, he was sharp as a knife with her, not backing down one bit. Just now, I was thinking, so what if he's been manipulating us? We trust him and it seems to help him focus on things. I just wish there was more I could do to keep him steady. But it is unimaginable stuff, like…" he glanced over and then realized something: Naverre wasn't in the room anymore.

Jonathan looked over too. "Naverre? I didn't hear him leave, but…"

This could be bad, perhaps moreso for Flynn than Naverre. "Dammit, did he have to get cowardly now?" Walter said, pounding on the bunk bed frame in frustration.

"It is an awful lot to consider," Isabeau said as the door opened.

While it wasn't Naverre, it was Issachar. He was still in his angel guise. Walter crossed eyes with him and felt a gentle warmth come over his mind, like returning to a fireplace after being out on a winter's night. Strange that it should come from him and not an angel like Kazfiel, or even his own principality.

"Sorry about that," Issachar said, smiling although there was some sadness to him. Then he glanced over at Flynn and got concerned. "How is he?"

Jonathan was quick to leave his seat so Issachar could sit by him. "He hasn't responded for a little while. Sorry, we were trying to encourage him out of being upset, but given what he told us…"

"It was really tough to figure out what to say," Walter said.

Even when Issachar sat by him and put an arm around his waist, Flynn didn't respond. "I'll see what I can do. I need to stay down here since I'm currently keeping demons from being able to enter Shinjuku."

"You can do that?" Walter asked, surprised at that.

He nodded. "I don't know how, but this area is safe for now. Look, would you all go help the locals secure this place without my power? And talk to them as usual; Flynn has a reason for making that a priority. Once he settles down, he has some training missions for all of us in this area. We need to get a lot stronger to be on equal footing with the demons we're searching for."

"All right, he's better off in your care right now," Walter said.

Issachar smiled at that as the other two agreed. But as they left the room, Walter couldn't help but wonder where Naverre had gone off to.


	45. The Sidewalk Artist

**Chapter 45: The Sidewalk Artist**

Krishna paused to look over the mandala he'd drawn on the ground. One circle flowering into a more complex design… this was the first time he'd seen Flynn physically, in this one time he remembered clearly. One believer could make a god, but it was not a lot of power. On seeing him, he felt that keenly since Flynn was so wary of him. It was a belief tinged with fear, something Krishna usually didn't encounter.

Belief with fear… he could be a dark god who thrived off human fear, terrorizing these humans into submission. A smile slipped out before Krishna realized it, but he shook his head. No, that wasn't who he was. It was very far from who he was. He should convince Flynn that he wasn't someone to fear.

Or, find other believers who wouldn't fear him. Krishna was an unusual god, since any of his believers also were believers in Vishnu. But any god needed believers, the more the better. More believers would dilute the fear. But there was always the danger of gaining too many these days. YHVH was a very jealous god.

He should speak to Flynn. As he was thinking of how to do that and not lose track of Hikaru, a bright force enveloped the area. It burned his skin with a curse against demons. They both scrambled to get out of the shield before it destroyed their physical bodies. "Yeowch, can't they warn us?" Hikaru asked, looking over at the new shield.

"Yeah, rude," Krishna grumbled, still acting drunk.

Once they were sure the shield was steady, Hikaru poked at it. A silvery glow surrounded her fingers. "Huh. It's an angel's shield, but this power…"

"Really strong angel?" he asked, although he could tell for himself that it wasn't.

Hikaru shook her head. "Nah, but it is peculiar. Hey, can you go check what's going on in there? And find whatever angel is doing this."

"In that?" Krishna asked, poking the shield himself.

"Hmph." She snapped her fingers and a jolting energy ran through him. It was a sobering spell.

To keep up the act, Krishna groaned and pulled his hat down a bit. "Wh-what the hell? Why'd you do that?"

"So that you're thinking clear, duh," Hikaru answered. "You can get in there and I can't."

"Uh…" she did have a point, although it wouldn't be pleasant, arguably less pleasant than being forced sober.

She put her hands on her hips. "You're an avatar, ain'tcha? So you can turn human again and bypass something like this that blocks demons. And even if you are human, this angel shouldn't be a threat to you. So would you go down and see what's up?"

"Well…" he shifted his hat. Shesha, a small snake currently, rubbed up against his ankle. "Why should we stop our date for this? I was having fun."

Hikaru pouted at him. "Aw, please? For me? I reeeally want to know."

"Come now, how am I supposed to say no to a face like that?" Krishna said, making her giggle. "All right, I'll give the place a once-over."

 _Be careful_ , Shesha said to him.

"Don't worry, Shesha, this shouldn't be trouble," he said, then closed his eyes. As an avatar, it was simply a form change to turn human. It was a risk since this gave him human vulnerabilities, including having a much harder time reforming if his physical body died. But he didn't mean to be confrontational, so he should be fine.

A human's body felt heavier too, not being as magical. He put his hand in front of him to check on the barrier; it didn't react at all. With that check done, he headed down the stairs to the underground shelter. He could feel the shield's magic on the back of his neck; that might get irritating. But he could deal with it.

The actual humans here were busy, rearranging barricades and checking on each other. At one end, somebody already had a machine set up to do repairs on a metal shutter door. "Hey," a man nearby said to him, "how are things at that entrance?"

"Quiet," he replied. "We didn't have any trouble."

"You're lucky cause we were invaded," the guard said. "Who else is up there?"

"Just my girlfriend," he said.

"Is she a Hunter or town guard?"

"Neither, but she's pretty good in a fight."

"We should still get somebody official up to guard that entrance," the guard said, taking his phone to send off a message. "Oh yeah, this is gonna sound weird, but we're currently under the protection of an angel, sort of."

"Really?" Krishna asked, acting skeptical like a normal resident of Tokyo would be.

The guard nodded. "He's either an angel using a human form or a human with an angel form somehow. He doesn't mean us any harm and hasn't made any demands, so we're okay for now. But if you can lend a hand anywhere to help stabilize things, we could use everyone's help. Even those samurai from above the Firmament are helping out; they're the ones who took Shinjuku back, so be respectful to the guys in blue coats."

"Got it," Krishna said, tipping his hat. Angel with human form or visa versa… odd. From the magic, he guessed the angel was in one of the rooms. And while he was a human, he could tell the presence of his believer, also in that room. That was useful. He headed there.

He did knock before opening the door. Flynn was sitting on one of the lower bunks near the door; it looked as though he'd been crying recently and was tense. If done right, it could be an opening to increase faith and dispel that fear. And the angel turned out to be one of the other samurai: Issachar, the one Flynn was in love with. Like the shield, this angel seemed peculiar. Maybe it was just him being a human; he wasn't like other angels.

"What are you doing here?" Issachar asked, standing up immediately. His tone and posture were hostile and defensive.

"Looking for you two, actually," Krishna said. "Sorry for interrupting, but I was wondering if I could help."

"Your best help would be leaving him alone," Issachar said.

"Hey now, I would be more helpful than that," Krishna said. "I could easily spread good word of you throughout the city and encourage people to like you. I know how to use some charm and…"

"We don't need enchantments for that kind of thing," Issachar said.

Then Flynn grabbed his hand to stop him. "Right, but," he looked over warily, "he's better on our side than not."

"But…" Issachar glanced down, then bit his lip. "Well, this isn't a good time so you'd better keep it short. What do you want?"

Krishna smiled, trying to put him at ease. "Well first, the girl who was out with me, Hikaru, wanted to know what kind of angel put up this barrier. She couldn't get in because she's actually a demon, not able to turn human like I can if I want."

"She was a demon?" Issachar asked, surprised. If he'd been an angel then, he might have seen that himself.

"A demon who can appear so ordinary as a human is often one to be careful of," Krishna said. "So what kind of angel are you?"

"Um," he rubbed his head, "I don't know. I figured I was just an ordinary angel, not like the one I've seen with Walter lately."

"There's definitely something peculiar about you," Krishna said. "Sorry, I can't say what, but you don't seem like other angels I've encountered. Maybe it's because of you being human too."

"What about Hikaru?" Flynn asked, staying seated where he was. "I've never seen her drawing with chalk before."

He shrugged at that. "I haven't pinned that down either. But it's clear that the Hikaru I was just with is not the same Hikaru I initially met outside of Kinshicho. She's more impulsive, less focused; a lot of those drawings are unfinished as she keeps going from one idea to the next."

"That's what I figured, if earlier than I thought," Flynn said, looking away now.

"I've been letting her drag me around while I'm pretending to be drunk," he added. "But she sobered me up to come down here, so I can work towards being a better spy on her. Though if she changes her attitude again, it could get tricky."

"You'd better get back to that," Flynn said, wanting him to leave.

For a brief moment, Krishna was indignant at that. Couldn't he make that a request? Flynn was just accepting that as what he was doing. That wasn't something you did with a god, especially not one you had even a little faith in. However, Krishna didn't want to lose that little faith. He had decided to earn more faith, after all.

"Are you sure I can't do something to help here and now?" Krishna asked, using a soothing voice and gaze. It didn't need magic to work; magic would just make things certain, but Flynn didn't seem to want that. "You look like you're in a bad spot; I know some calming songs, just the…"

"No," Flynn said, gripping the side of the bunk. "And stay out of my dreams."

"I'm taking care of him, so if your business is done, please leave us," Issachar said firmly. His silver eyes shimmered.

Krishna felt the tingle on the back of his neck get worse. Knowing how he bypassed the barrier, Issachar seemed like he could evict him now if he pushed his luck. He could fight to claim a better hold on his believer; that kind of thing was normal. But no… that was old thinking still holding on. Fighting Issachar, especially right here in front of Flynn, was counterproductive.

"Very well," he said, trying to take it gracefully. "But if you ever need me, I'll be happy to help in a heartbeat."

As he left the room, a scowl escaped him. He could still be a dark god, demanding complete faith. It was tempting, and also a foolish move. After all, Flynn was a Godslayer even in his current state. But what could he do, to soothe Flynn into having more faith in him and still remain good in his eyes?

* * *

Even though Krishna had left, Issachar still felt angry at him. He might have been human enough to fool the barrier, but the look of his soul wasn't fully human. He was still thinking like a god, careless about humans. For some reason, it felt like Krishna was trying to steal Flynn from him. Issachar was not going to let that happen.

But, he was gone and Flynn was still in a bad state. Issachar had managed to get Flynn responsive with some gentle singing, only for the worst person around to show up. His soul's light was like that night they'd spent together, quaking and nearly breaking again. With this newest shock, he might not recover any time soon. Perhaps he could be coaxed into a nap to see if that settled his mind.

Issachar went back to Flynn's side and saw something unexpected: Flynn was smiling, even calming down a little through some amusement. "Flynn? What's so funny?"

"The balance is shifting again," he said. "In a potentially good way for us. That girl Hikaru… yeah, she's a demon, but if she keeps this artist act up, she'll throw the forces of hell into a chaos they don't want. Of course, that means even more unpredictable things will happen. Hikaru is the main reason the demons can present a united front. They could start fighting amongst themselves if she's not rallying them. Unless…" he looked serious again.

After giving him a few moments, Issachar asked, "Is this one of those things you can't explain in case of being overheard?"

Flynn nodded. "May I ask you to do something dangerous? It might not be; I have a hunch that it could go well. But it could also go very poorly, even putting your life at risk." He looked over at him. "And I want you to call on me if things do take a turn for the worse."

"All right, I don't mind," Issachar said.

Bringing up his gauntlet, Flynn brought up the map they had of Tokyo. "Do you remember that park that was guarded as we were coming around to this place? I was going to keep you guys, especially you, away from there since there is another fiend that's usually in that area. He'd be much too strong for you to battle now. But, this one could possibly be handled peacefully. You be the one able to do so because you're good at making up stories."

"Really?" he asked, puzzled that stories might be able to distract one of the fiends.

"Really," Flynn said. "See, I'd like to speak to their commander. Someone who leads a group as dangerous as the fiends is not going to be easy to make contact with. The best way I can see is for us to attract his attention so he makes the first contact. So I'd like you to contact the fiend in the west park as an angel. If you do that, it could be enough to draw their leader into finding us. He could also be negotiated with peacefully if some caution is taken."

Issachar thought about it. "It's sounds strange, but I'll give it a try. Are you going to be in the park when I do that? Because I've already seen that dealing with these fiends can turn bad very fast."

"Sure, that would be best," he said. "Not with you, but close enough that I can salvage things."

"We'll do that later, since you still need a break," he said, taking his hand. "Although your thoughts seemed more collected than they were earlier."

"Sorry about that," Flynn said, looking down in his lap again. "I nearly shut things out so I could carry on as usual, but…" he clutched his hand tight. "You must have seen it: the others knew something was going on when we arrived. I had to start telling them the truth of my situation, and I ended up letting go of my restraint in front of them. As I thought, we can count on them as friends. Well, it may have been too much for Naverre, we'll have to see."

But his soul still looked pained, so it wasn't a charade. "You were still hurt by what happened," Issachar said.

"Right." He sighed. "That man… I don't know his name, actually. I couldn't find out anything about him since there was no way to find something identifying on him when he transformed from taking the Reds. No matter how I approached him, I could never convince him to stop. At some point, I gave up on saving him and a few others who are too far gone when we meet them. There's no perfect solution here, but I'm still trying to find the best possible."

He could understand that. "His name is Souta."

"He talked to you?" Flynn looked at him again.

Nodding, Issachar explained, "It's sad, but I can understand why you wouldn't be able to save him. He saw his last two friends turn into corpse demons not that long ago. In the past, the Ashura-kai treated him badly when people he cared about died. He was too overcome with despair and anger to have good judgment."

"And that made him an ideal target for the White," Flynn reasoned. "I guess that the Red transformation is also affected by current emotions, since he usually transformed into Dullahan, a warrior demon. Still, he's gone and there's nothing we could do to save him."

"Maybe not save his life, but I saved his soul," Issachar said.

"Are you sure?" Flynn asked, skeptical.

"He was at peace," he said, smiling at recalling it. "I know he's fine now."

"I hope so," Flynn said. "I should be able to take your word for it; I know you wouldn't lie to me. But I worry about you since you're an angel. At this point, it's not obvious, but being an angel must be a terrible position."

"How's that?"

"Well most of the angels I've met are mindless slaves or disconnected tyrants," he said. "And it's usually not their fault for being that way. I don't know if you can stay safe from that. Have you heard anything from a voice you can't identify?"

"No," he said, but then thought about it. "Well not a voice; I was sad when talking with Souta, but then I felt a reassurance that I was doing the right thing. And when I felt like that, it wasn't long until he felt at peace."

"It'd be best if it stays that way," Flynn said.

"I won't betray you, as best I can," Issachar said. "I think you'd better rest a bit. Do you have the training missions for us set up? I'll wait on you to go looking for that fiend."

He nodded. "Right. They know, then? I'll just put my name on them."

Once the missions were sent, they discussed a few other things before Issachar left him alone to get some rest.

* * *

Jonathan noticed the man in green talking with a town guard. Supposedly, it was quiet at that end of Shinjuku. But they did want the area checked out. Jonathan decided to head up and see if things were fine. According to what had been exchanged, only that girl was up there.

When he got to the top of the stairs, he checked with Burroughs on a demon scan. There didn't seem to be any in the gauntlet's radius. The girl was still there, drawing on the ground some more. "Excuse me, but are you sure this area is secure?" he asked her.

"No, but I don't care," she said, still drawing. "If anything does come by, I can smack them around."

"You seem awfully carefree for being on the streets," Jonathan said. Should he be worried about her?

"I got nothing I have to worry about," she said, then looked up. She quickly smiled. "Oh, you're one of those blue coats! Did you summon an angel to put up that barrier?"

He didn't need to worry after all. "No, one of our group can turn into an angel. He put up the barrier."

"Hmm, I would guess it was one of the guys with the pentagram marking," she said. "That's an interesting thing. Anyhow, I'm Hikaru! How about you?"

"I'm Jonathan," he said, going over to a more conversational distance. "Are you a Hunter? You must be very confidant to not be worried."

Hikaru shook her head. "Nah, I'm a freelancer. I do whatever I want."

"And you didn't want to go help with the corpse demon invasion?" he asked.

"Right," she said without hesitation. "Corpse demons are slow, so they should've been able to handle them themselves. Besides, they asked us to keep an eye on things here, so we did. Did you take care of the corpses?"

He nodded. "Yes, they took a lot of hits but weren't actually trouble to us. But then there was a man who swallowed some kind of pill and turned into a banshee. He might have been aware of that risk, so it was quite disturbing."

"Huh, he took the Reds," Hikaru said, looking thoughtful. "Do you know about them?"

"No, we're not from Tokyo," he explained.

"I thought so," she said, holding her piece of chalk up. "The Ashura-kai manufactures Reds as a food for demons, one that pacifies them as well. A lot of demon aggression these days is because they lack food just as much as humans. As a result, both humans and demons hunt each other trying to survive. And because Reds are meant for demons, they end up turning humans into demons."

"Is that something that's well known?" Jonathan asked. Some other Hunters came up to check out the area too, but Jonathan didn't pay them much attention.

Hikaru nodded. "Sure, they tried to keep it quiet but some people got desperate and turned into demons. Then others seeking power took Reds. Silly, isn't it? It should be a last resort kind of move. So what are you doing here?"

"Hunting down the demons who tried to turn us into demons," he said, then explained a little more.

She tilted her head as she listened. "Huh… I feel like I should remember something about Lilith. But anyhow, you're doing this despite leaving somebody behind? You're wearing a wedding ring, right?"

"Oh, yes," he said, touching the ring when she mentioned it. "But you see, my wife was one of those who got turned. So this is personal to me; I won't let them get away with this, no matter who they are."

Hikaru smiled at him. "That's good, I hope you're successful. You are up against some strong demons, even if they're fakes. Does that worry you?"

"It does," Jonathan said, briefly wondering why he was telling her that. She felt like a friend to him already; that was why. "I want to get justice for Marie, and all the others in Mikado. But I need to be able to return to her, so I need to be strong enough to survive and win."

"Right, just don't make the mistake of thinking strength alone will give you victory," Hikaru said. "Even the strongest people can be undone by any number of factors they don't consider."

"Yes, that's true," he said. After all, he'd just seen Flynn unleash a level of magic he didn't know existed in human reach, and then immediately crumble because of things said to him. How was he doing? Issachar would take good care of him, but was that enough?

"You got to have wit and creativity too," Hikaru went on. "Cause humans can outsmart demons, even if demons will try to claim you can't. Hell, humans can outsmart gods once they understand some things gods try to keep secret. In your case, you should make sure of that Gabriel's actual identity, or you'll be in for a world of hurt."

"I'm mystified as to who could think themselves one of the holy seraphs when she was clearly a twisted being," Jonathan said. "But yes, it would be prudent to figure her out before confronting her again. I'm just not sure how to do that."

At that, she got to her feet. "That is a problem, but there is always a solution! And I've just thought of a good one for you. Have you ever heard of the Tamashiro Mirror?"

"No, I haven't," he answered.

"Yeah, that's the ticket," she said to some thought she didn't voice. "Well, the Tamashiro Mirror is a sacred artifact of the nation that this city used to be a part of. It reveals the truth of what it reflects, even for things that are concealed or magically altered. It is guarded by the amatsu god Futotama. And last I heard, he is in this city somewhere around Kasumigaseki."

"A god of this city?" Jonathan asked, curious about it. But, was it right? "I'm not sure about getting assistance from a god of this city, though. I mean, we're supposed to follow God and only God, and working with another who claims to be a god doesn't seem right."

Hikaru waved her hands like she was telling him to stop. "Hey, hey, don't constrain yourself with that kind of thought! The important matter is bringing the wicked ones to justice, right? In a way that you can return home from."

"That's true," he said.

"Well then think about this," she said, putting a hand on her cheek. "A god that can be named is not the true God. God is… God is." She then swept her hand around. "God is everything. He is everywhere at once. He knows all; he is the beginning and the end. Now then," she pointed at him, "can someone like you grasp all that is God?"

Jonathan shook his head. "No, no human can grasp all that is God, just as you say. Though I've not heard that one thing, about not naming the true God."

"Well what name would encompass God, really?" Hikaru asked. "But even so, humans try to comprehend God. They can't, as they can only comprehend a facet of God at a time. But those facets are narrow enough that they can be named, and often are. The named ones are often interpreted by humans as gods, lesser than God but greater than they in some fashion."

Things started to click in his mind. "So then, you're saying that Futotama is a facet of God?"

"Not to be mistaken for the real deal, but yes," she said. "So you can seek assistance from a god like Futotama should the need arise. But if you are a follower of God, you won't want to take Futotama as a false idol, as someone you can have complete faith in like God. He will have some wisdom and power of God, but not all of it."

"I see, so it should be fine to ask if we could borrow that sacred mirror to reveal who the false Gabriel truly is," Jonathan said. "That would help."

Hikaru smiled again. "Yup! Although, don't be expecting to get the mirror for just asking nicely. It is a sacred artifact to this land, so you may have to do a favor for Futotama so he trusts you with it. I wish I could tell you where exactly, but who knows? Somebody in town here might know something if you ask the right questions."

"Sure, thanks for the suggestion," Jonathan said, smiling back. "Then what are you doing here, Hikaru?"

"Oh, nothing in particular," she said, glancing around. Then she frowned. "Ugh, to be honest, I don't know what I should be doing. Well, I could figure things out to do like working on this art, but I hardly feel like doing anything most of the time. Like, no matter what changes, it manages to stay the same. The balance keeps rising and falling on one line and it really sucks because everything ultimately goes in circles."

"So you feel like nothing is going forward," Jonathan said, mystified by what she was saying. Then by what he was saying too. "I mean, nothing in your life."

"Nothing in anybody's life is going forward, not really," Hikaru said. "Time isn't even going forward, at least not part a certain point."

His eyes went wide at that because he'd just heard something similar. "Wait… are you experiencing this time over and over again?"

"Actually, yeah, I am," she said. "And all the endings so far are stupid or they suck. But even early on, I couldn't really care about it. It's strange that I feel like doing even this much with the chalk right now. Are you caught in the same loop?"

"Presumably," Jonathan said. "But I don't actually remember it. Or if I do, it's little dream-like bits. But see, one of my friends told me just today that he's been living this time over and over again. And I believed him right away, like I'm believing you right now." Actually, there was something odd about that.

"Is he trying to do anything about it?" Hikaru asked, tilting her head. "Because the fact that I feel like drawing this much is something different. Usually I wouldn't care, but I actually made an effort this time."

He nodded. "He is, and he's hoping this is the last time. So if you could help him out, things could be better for both of you. It could even be better for all of us."

She looked at him a moment, then shrugged. "I'll think about it. Huh, talking to you makes me want to try, for the good of everyone." She suddenly giggled. "That's so weird of me! But who knows… oh hey, it's my date!"

The man in green had come back up to them; he picked up a snake that Jonathan had missed seeing. "Hey, did you get the information from this guy?"

"Now don't be jealous, he's married," Hikaru teased him. "But yes, he told me what happened. They're getting things under control here, so I was thinking of going somewhere else."

"Fine, though I don't really know anywhere in this city," he said.

"Thanks for giving me some things to think over, Jonathan said.

"Right, same to you," Hikaru said.

"Oh, Hikaru!" another woman called out, walking quickly over to them. She had rather revealing outfit that Jonathan quickly kept his eyes off of. "Would you hold up a little bit? We need to talk."

"Huh?" Hikaru pointed at her, unsure. "You. There's something I had to remember about you."

"Like a name?" the man in green asked. "I haven't met you before. My name is Krishna."

The newcomer smiled. "My name is Yuriko; Hikaru and I are friends."

At that, she snapped her fingers. "Oh yeah, I remember now! You're a traitor, Lilith!"

"Huh?" The woman calling herself Yuriko stopped in surprise.

"Lilith?" Jonathan looked at her face; it did remind him of the porcelain faces that the two demons had.

Although she was accusing Yuriko or Lilith, Hikaru was cheerful. "You're working with angels, or beings like angels, which makes you a traitor to demonkind. What'd they do, promise to stay out of you trying to get your man? You know that they're not gonna let you get close to him when he does show."

"Are you three all demons?" Jonathan asked, putting a hand over his gauntlet so he could send an alert to his friends. The Hunters who had come up weren't paying attention to them, somehow.

Hikaru didn't hesitate to nod. "Yup, though this guy is technically part human. Don't forget, dear Jonathan, that you can't rely on outward appearances." Then she tugged at Krishna's coat. "Come on, let's fly off somewhere! Anywhere, I don't care."

Krishna chuckled at that. "All right, let's go, Shesha."

In his hands, the snake hissed. Then it grew to an enormous size, circling around the pair and forcing Jonathan and Lilith to move back or get knocked over. Once Shesha had its two riders, it flew off into the darkness overhead.

"Well that was strange," Lilith said, putting a hand to her chest. "Say, but you're…"

Jonathan narrowed his eyes at her. "You're one of those responsible for the demon curse."

"It wasn't me who activated it," she protested.

"But you were going to take advantage of it," he said, furious with them. "My wife is one of those who got turned, someone you would have used carelessly. You're complacent in the false Gabriel's plans, so I'm not going to let you get away with that."

"Hold now, let's not get hasty and make some bad decisions," she said, smiling at him. "I don't like that Gabriel either; she was using me too, I admit. We can work together to bring her down completely."

For a moment, he felt like it was a good deal. Then he recalled what Naoki had said about Lilith. "No, we'd rather not work with you."

"Are you intimidated by a confidant woman?" she asked, coming closer to him. "I would like to help you; we could make for a good team."

"You're a demon, not a woman," Jonathan said.

"Please, at least give me a chance to explain things," Lilith said.

Hearing footsteps from the stairs, he shook his head. "No. We're going to defeat you."

"It's not time for that," she said, seeming disappointed. "There is much more for you to see and learn. If you can make it to Ginza, I'll give you an audience since you don't want to listen now. Farewell." She vanished, perhaps searching for Hikaru.

"Did that woman just vanish?" Isabeau asked, coming up with Walter.

"That was Lilith," Jonathan said. "She said she'd be in Ginza. And those two we first saw here were also demons."

Strangely enough, the Hunters who'd been checking around didn't recall seeing the two escape with their giant snake. They thought things were quiet at this end. Then Flynn sent them their training missions, to be handled once Shinjuku was safe. Jonathan sent a message to him about meeting Lilith and where she said she'd be.

They probably weren't ready to face her yet, Jonathan told himself. That made it lucky that she'd left on her own. However, it still felt bad that he'd found one of the demons and hadn't been able to do much about her.


	46. Where Others Went

**Chapter 46: Where Others Went**

"This vase is delicate but flawed in that it's wobbly," Gaston told Helen. Since Naverre wasn't going to become a chamberlain, their parents had taken in this girl to train. "So always put down a heavy cloth under it. We'll use this green paisley runner since it goes with the other decor today."

"What about the ivy one?" Helen asked, taking it out of the bin. "This would look nice with the vase."

Taking a look at it, he realized that she had picked out a less busy cloth, which was something that his father sometimes got after him about. But he was supposed to be the smarter one here. His parents had wanted a Luxuror child to take as an apprentice. After a few months of not finding any, they'd searched for a smart Casualry child instead. It only took a week from that point to find Helen. Still, he'd been training for this for most of his life. He should have picked that one out first.

Gaston still nodded. "That would work too; we'll use that one. We should pick other things to match the patterns on the vase and this cloth for the rest of the room."

As they continued their task of decorating this parlor, Gaston kept thinking about something: this work was boring. Sure, the results should look good. But they'd redo it in a week, maybe less. The process took a long time and it was so simple most of the time. Yet he still messed up more than he liked. Maybe it was because the sun was shining through the windows, inviting him to a nice day outside.

His mother got done with her meeting as they got done with the parlor. "These vases could use some silk flowers," she said as she inspected their work. "Helen, I'll teach you some important things about flower choices today. Gaston, go see about helping with tonight's dinner."

"Yes, mother," Gaston said, then headed off to the kitchen.

He went there, but peeked in the door trying not to be seen. The kitchen staff were standing near the counter, chatting over a tea break. Later on, they might need help. But right now, they clearly didn't. Gaston headed over to the samurai tower. Naverre wouldn't be there, since his unit was on a long mission underground. However, Gaston had gotten to know other samurai in the past couple of years.

One of them wasn't too far into the tower. "Hello, Sir Thomas!" he called.

"Good day to you, Gaston," he said with a smile. "Did you have some time today?"

"Yes," he said, giving him a bow to be proper. "How about you? I wanted to keep training."

"I have some time as well," Thomas said. "You're getting quite good with a spear, but did you want to try a sword?"

Most heroes used sword; his older brother used swords. But for himself, "No, I like the spears," he said. "I'll master them, and then be able to help my brother and his friends."

"Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but you're doing so well that I hope you do get chosen in a few years," he said.

"I will be a samurai too, just you watch," Gaston said.

* * *

"Hey, could you stand guard up ahead so we can fix this shutter?" The man was pulling along a strange machine.

"Sure, I've got it," Naverre said. He headed up the stairs as directed. There was another pair of corpse demons up there, but he had a demon who didn't have trouble burning them to a crisp.

With that taken care of, there wasn't another demon nearby. There was more of the poison sludge, although it looked to be shallow here. This area was a plaza, an open paved space surrounded by buildings that were in Tokyo's style but more like the Luxuror manors in size. While there were some garden spaces too, the plants were barely surviving. Someone must be taking care of them.

He had emerged from one of those tiny buildings that housed the underground entrance. Because of that, it shouldn't be hard to stand guard here. Naverre thought over what he'd just seen and heard. "Man, this quest just got crazier."

They were already searching a forbidden land, having broken the samurai code to get here. While Mikado was a blessed land, Tokyo was more advanced with technology, ideas, and fashion. And now their leader had lived this time multiple times somehow. It was more fantastic than any story Naverre knew of.

However, Naverre knew something unfortunate now, something certain. He wasn't the hero of this story. He should have gone insane thanks to Alarune. Since Flynn did something to change that, he was here now and it wasn't sure if he could contribute anything. But he wasn't about to take charge at any time, since Flynn had all the knowledge and power to lead them.

It was even less of a chance now that he was going to do something big enough to make his name famous. That was one of the reasons that Naverre had wanted to be a samurai, as it was a real chance to become a legend. But it wasn't working like he expected, being even tougher than that. It was for the good of the people, yes, the good of his nation. Still, if he couldn't make his name into a legend, did he want to put in all this effort?

It would be so much easier to just go back to the castle. His parents would love that, certainly. And if he stayed in Mikado, he wouldn't have to worry about his younger brother becoming older than him. Naverre could return to a beautiful lifestyle of taking care of all the treasures of the castle and making people smile with gorgeous events.

Then again, that would be giving in to his parents and admitting that they had been right all along. That would be its own disgrace. So what to do…

If he wanted to make people smile… these people down in Tokyo seemed like they could use something like that. A grand beautiful event to encourage them to not give up hope and not give in to demons (or angels like the ones in Mikado currently). There had been plenty of people in Akihabara who were interested in beauty and culture. But how well organized were they? Could they pull off a grand event like the annual Autumn Ball?

"But then, one big problem is how to get suitable food and good drinks to such an event," Naverre mumbled to himself. He had sampled a few things that the people down here were calling food. Much of it was pale or disgusting, but some of it had been decently good. But to have the sort of excellent food a host would be proud of, that would require getting food from Mikado.

Actually, what would happen if trade between Mikado and Tokyo began? Mikado had the capacity to overproduce foods if an effort was put to that. And Tokyo… well Tokyo did have its knowledge and technological sorcery that could make some parts of Mikado life better. But would the nations be open to trading with each other? Perhaps if it was presented in the right light… and once established, a grand event down here in Tokyo could take place.

"Master, you have a message from Flynn," Burroughs said, interrupting his thoughts.

"All right," he said, quickly checking for demons around. There were a few jack frosts in sight, looking at him. Nothing troublesome yet, so he checked the message.

'Naverre, do you want to stick with our mission? I'm sorry if I troubled you, but I need to start telling you guys more of the truth. I also need everyone to be certain in moving forward, as the risks and stakes will continue to grow. -Flynn'

"You were in a terrible state when I saw you just a bit ago, but you still worry about me," Naverre said to himself, then rubbed his eyes. "Well, I know you deserve to be a hero. Not so sure about myself, though. But maybe…"

'Flynn: it's fine, I'm sorry I walked out on you. It was some overwhelming truths to hear; I can't imagine how it is on you. Now that you ask, I have been wondering if I should be here. I don't know if I can keep up with you guys, even if I continue on as strictly support.

However, I've had a wonderful idea in the meantime. Once of our obstacles is the flow of time difference, but why can't we take advantage of that? I propose that we strike up a trade arrangement between Mikado and Tokyo, our extra food for their advanced knowledge and technology. My reasons behind that are that I think Tokyo could benefit from a grand event like the Autumn Ball, orchestrated by myself to show how humanity can shine even in terrible circumstances. But I need a trade deal set up so I can provide a good buffet and a few other things for the event. The people in Akihabara may be able to best help me of those I know, so what do you say to me going back there to strike up this deal and plan for the future? - Naverre'

Once he had the message sent, he had to fight off a couple of demons who thought he might be a weak guard being alone. Naverre was able to use his own demons to defeat them. Maybe he wouldn't be that much of a load. But now that he'd had this wonderful idea, he didn't want to drop it.

He glanced at his gauntlet and saw the light by the camera. Photographs were an amazing sorcery. But here, he saw a chance to use such photos as a tool for his goals. If he simply went up to the king and proposed this trade deal, he would be met with skepticism. But if he got some photos of conditions down here, including the food they were forced to eat, it could make them more sympathetic to this cause. But then, who did he speak to down here to propose the trade agreement?

First, to convince the king… Naverre started to make a list of possible arguments when Flynn replied. 'That is a really good idea. It may be harder to set up a ball down here, but if they get support in food trade, you could start winning the people of Tokyo over to the idea. If you add Tokyo's Literature to that proposal, do you think you can convince the king to go ahead with the trade?'

'Yes, if I take some photographs for him and the council to see the conditions down here, I'm sure I can convince them. The Literature would be a good addition.'

'If you need photos, I can put you in contact with Nozomi, the one who told Issachar about photography. She's skilled and would know how to make prints so such photos can be passed around Mikado's citizens to help convince them. This could be a good plan to pursue, so I'm fine with letting you go do that.'

By that point, Naverre was feeling excited for the plan. 'Thanks, I won't let you down! The prints sound like they would help. But whom should I speak with here in Tokyo to make such trade agreements?'

'Technically, you should speak to the leader of the Ashura-kai, Tayama. Realistically, I don't want any of us to deal with that sleezeball. You might not have heard of him yet, but we do not want to give Tayama a chance to keep his control over Tokyo. But he's like Abbot Hugo in that he may not be likable, but he's not someone to make angry because he can do a lot of indirect things to make things difficult for us. Instead, you should go to Kasumigaseki and talk with Fujiwara and Skins once Akazuya is willing to offer the trade agreement. They have a good network of people to begin distributing food through.'

'Good, then I'll work with the Hunters once I've got the king on board. I'm currently standing guard at one of the outer entrances to Shinjuku, but once someone else comes to take over, I'll see about starting with the photos.'

'Thank you, and be careful working on your own. I should be getting a quick rest in to settle my thoughts down and get back to work here. But I want to ask first, what would you think if I told you that Issachar and I are in a courtship with each other?'

"What?" Naverre asked aloud, checking to make sure he'd read that right. Was this some kind of joke?

Or maybe an example; the people in Tokyo did have different standards than Mikado. It should be an unthinkable thing. But now that it was asked, he considered that those two were very close. And people transformed based on a strong emotion in them at the time of transformation. Was that the reason Issachar had turned into something as pure as an angel? Actually, more pure-hearted than the angels they'd encountered since his protective aura was as reassuring as being safe at home. In that case, the unthinkable was apparently a good thing.

'I would have never thought of that, but now that you bring it up, it sounds completely believable. Is that why Issachar's an angel now? If so, then that's one of the most beautifully romantic things I've heard of in a while! It brings a tear to my eyes, in a good way.'

'That's good, since it is the truth. You were the only one of us who didn't know. Both of us were worried about how you all would feel about it, so it's greatly cheering that all of you are fine with us being together. In what you plan, you will run into others who challenge your views similarly. If you can find it in you to accept them for who they are, they will be more willing to help you with your grand scheme.

'And yes, love is why Issachar became an angel; he's more of what we feel an angel should be than the actual angels around. His love, and the friendship we all have, is helping me. But as he says, my soul bears many scars from all the times I could not save you all, as well as some torture I endured with that. You guys are all important to me and I hope I can find peace for myself at the end of all this with your help. Don't forget to keep in touch; I hope you do well, but I will end up worrying about you.'

'Of course, I'll keep in touch. And thanks for letting me pursue this course; I hope it can help you out as much as the others sticking with you will do. Although, you should get some rest or Issachar might get after both of us.'

Flynn didn't respond after that, so hopefully he was resting. This quest was strange and getting stranger, yes. But it also held promise to be something wonderful, with something that Naverre might be the best of them to accomplish. That made up for this disappointing uncertainty he'd been feeling. He could turn this into something worthy of legend too!

* * *

'Sorry, we're trying to get several other situations under control. Please do what you can to keep the demons from residences, but unless an independent Hunter arrives, you're on your own for a few hours.'

Nozomi sighed. It was unfortunate that a series of kidnappings by demons that liked to burn their victims alive was considered low priority. However, there had been a town invasion a couple days ago in Shinjuku as well as a clash between the Ring of Gaea and the Ashura-kai in a few other towns. Here, they could advise residents to stay inside and keep a few guards with them.

"Guess I'm on guard duty," she said. Perhaps there would be some time to take photos of these demons; the wickermen were striking in appearance, pacing up and down the street as if they were in a parade. Unless… she did know some independent Hunters. It wouldn't hurt to send them a message.

'Hey Flynn, do you mind if you or one of your friends comes to help me out with clearing out a horde of demons? They're at a small town near Shinjuku, kidnapping people to sacrifice. Here's the specific request if you have the time, and some directions so you don't go through the horde to get here.'

Fortunately, he was able to come by in half an hour. He even brought Issachar along. "Hi, how've you been doing?" Issachar asked as they came from down the hall.

"Hey, guys," she said, waving to them. "I'm fine, just got lots of work as usual. How about you guys?"

"We're fine," Issachar said while Flynn went up the stairs to take a look outside. "We've been doing some training in this area, actually, because we're trying to get into Ginza. Lilith is definitely in that area now, while the fake Gabriel is in Tennozu. After asking around, we think we can prove ourselves if we take care of what's going on in Ikebukuro."

"Those are all tough places to go," Nozomi said. It was a pity, since there were many sites that she wanted to take pictures of. However, just about every way to Tennozu was blocked off unless you had a connection to the Ashura-kai or the Ring of Gaea. "Good luck in getting there."

"Thanks," he said. "So how are things here?"

"Not that great, because the demons we need to take out are crowding the streets here," she said, gesturing to the door out. "They haven't lost any more to kidnappings the past day because everyone's been huddled underground; I came to relieve the guards and it made more sense to me to take out the wickermen. But there's too many for one person to handle as they'd be at risk of becoming another sacrifice."

"That is a large crowd," Flynn said. "Did you scan them?"

Nozomi nodded. "Yeah, while I was waiting on you to come. They're weak to fire even though they burn their victims. If they were weak to guns, I know some spreadshot techniques to take out a lot quickly. But I can't do that with fire, not even with my demons."

"I could," Flynn said. For some reason, he seemed worried about it.

"You can handle it," Issachar said to him.

"You have a multitarget fire spell?" Nozomi asked. "You seem more like a swordsman."

"I do, but I have some trouble with magic," Flynn said. "It's powerful and gives me nightmares. But there is far too many of them to just leave, or take on normally."

"It's not something to be ashamed of," Nozomi said. "I know a few people who aren't comfortable with us using magic; most of them wouldn't try."

"Maybe not to what I've dealt with," Flynn said, then took a deep breath. "All right, I'll do what I can, but I might drop back if I have trouble."

"You'll clear out a lot, so we can handle the rest," Issachar said, ready with his sword.

"Let's go get their attention so hopefully I don't have to cast again," Flynn said, heading out of the door. "Be careful."

The wickermen were quick to swarm them when they emerged from the safety of the shelter. Because of their width and spindly legs, they weren't able to make it into the narrow doorway leading down to the shelter. Several of them summoned out ropes to try grabbing hold of them. But then Flynn made the whole street into a river of flames that instantly turned the nearest wickermen into ashes. There was something strange in those flames, shadows of a destroyed city and wild demons. Or maybe those were people turned to demons.

That was impressive magic, and nightmarish, Nozomi could agree to that. There wasn't a lot to clean-up after that. As the nearby ones were gone, Nozomi shot at a few wickermen with her shotgun; they were enough damaged by Flynn's spell that she could take them out that way. Issachar wasn't bad with his handgun either. One who got too close got quickly sliced up by Flynn's sword. Nozomi hadn't even seen him draw it as he attacked so swiftly.

"Pardon me for asking, but does your magic usually project your nightmares?" Nozomi asked.

"Did it?" Flynn asked, putting his hand to his head.

"I saw something in the flames too," Issachar said.

"There is one spell I know that can do that, but not that one," he said. "Maybe you two are sensitive, or…" he looked out into the street, "there's something else here."

That something laughed as it appeared, a blue-skinned demon that was riding a giant cow's skull. "You got me, but man, I was expecting to have enough sacrifices to emerge in a better form. Since I don't, you three will have to finish off the job."

"Nah, we'd rather finish off you," Nozomi said, bracing herself for another battle. This demon was going to be stronger than the wickermen; that much was obvious. But there was only one of this one, Cernunnos, as compared to a whole parade of wickermen.

Between the three of them, their demons, and Flynn's powerful magic, Cernunnos was the one overwhelmed. "Are you doing alright?" Issachar asked Flynn.

"I could use a break to clear my thoughts," he said.

"Well the people here might want to treat you for taking care of the wickermen," Nozomi said, hoping to encourage him. "I'll ask for someone else to stand guard here. Oh yeah, how did my pictures work for that guy, Naverre?"

"They worked really well," Issachar said while Flynn went back and leaned against the doorway. "He was telling us this morning that the trade agreement went through. For now, we're just trading with northeastern Tokyo since those are the terminals we have registered."

"That's wonderful, even that much is a great improvement," Nozomi said.

For a while, it was just her and Issachar talking. And even when Flynn finally joined in the conversation, it was easy to see he wasn't the sort to talk much. Still, Nozomi felt it was fortunate she got to meet these guys. They'd become people that the whole of Tokyo knew, she was sure of that.

* * *

"I don't care how you get things done," Tayama snapped into the phone. "Your priority was controlling resources out there and you should have done so, not allow an outside source of goods to start trading with that region."

"But sir, it is really good produce," the man on the other end of the line said.

"That's not important," he argued, although it was. Foods grown above the surface would be clearly better than anything they could grow down here. That kind of thing couldn't be handed out willy-nilly.

"Well, I mean, the people here would riot even worse if we denied it to them now that it's here," the manager said.

"Then take control of the distribution, as is your job," he said, rubbing his forehead. Why did this manager have to be so thick-headed? "Muscle in on the trades; we rule the city and it is our right to make sure everything gets distributed properly."

"Well could you send some more muscle to help with that? I don't have enough guards now to cover the region."

Tayama bit his lip. He didn't want to admit it, but that was currently out of the question. With the western bridge of the northeastern corner gone along with control of the terminals, the only way he had to send more people there was through Tennozu to Toyusu, and then across the bridge to near Akihabara. "Since you lost control of the situation, you have to deal with getting things back in order yourself," he said.

"But I didn't…"

"No excuses! Take control of the trades with Mikado or get rid of them quickly. I expect to hear good results out of you soon." He then hung up and sighed. "But I probably won't. Those outsiders are throwing fuel on the fires."

Could he start rumors that eating the foods from Mikado would end up sickening everyone? Probably not, because that produce did look good. Even those youths who'd never before seen vegetables and fruits grown under the sun could tell that they were better than the wimpy and dull ones they could get grown with artificial sunlight. He might be able to frame this as a food-based trade war that was happening because the people above the Firmament were really angels who wanted to take control of their lives again. But would those people of northeastern Tokyo listen to that? They were still grumbling about not getting apologies and reparations.

But if the rumors of that trade war came from someone like them… he started to draft up a story to give to a few spies. The trouble would, again, be getting them over to the three towns. Although if they appeared unaffiliated, they might be able to get through the terminal system as it was now.

Then the door to his office opened up. One of the building guards came in with some teenaged punk that didn't seem like anyone in the Ashura-kai. "Hey boss?"

"What are you doing barging into my office?" Tayama said, glowering at them to let them know that this was not welcome.

"Sorry, but we found dis guy loitering around the building," the guard said, his expression tensing as he realized his mistake.

"Was he causing trouble or just loitering?" Tayama said. "I don't have time for mere loiterers."

"It's all right," the guy said smoothly, not a bit of concern to him. "Most people think I'm trouble just looking at me."

"Little wonder when you look like some devil worshiper," Tayama said, looking away from him. This guy did look young. He'd almost called him a kid, but that didn't feel right.

"I'm not, I just have an artistic side," he said.

"Well who are you and what are you doing here?" Tayama asked.

"I'm Naoki, a demon hunter," he said. "That's just what I was doing, looking into rumors of strong demons to fight."

"Then you're one of the Gaeans," Tayama said. That was trouble, but could be a lucky break.

"No, not at all," he said. "I do my own thing. But since I've got this opportunity to talk to you, there's something you might be able to tell me."

A few minutes later, Tayama watched Naoki leave with the puzzled guard, wondering what they'd been talking about. But it didn't seem like anything important, just some demons he was looking for. If Naoki didn't have those tattoos, one might think him a polite and well-spoken young man quicker. He could be trusted for now, although they might come into conflict if he went after one of the demons in the Ashura-kai's employ.

And it didn't take long for Tayama to forget about the intrusion, since he had far too many things to work on.

* * *

"Lady Gabriel, are you doing better?" The old woman offered her a cup of water, placing it on a table. Given that they only had the food she provided, they wouldn't have anything else.

"Yes, thank you for asking," she said. They were doing their best, which wasn't much. "How about your people?"

"Everyone's in much better spirits, thanks to you and your God that led you here," she said. "I even had the energy to come over here since the streets are free of demons. I haven't left the shelter in years."

It was a good recovery, but would it be enough? She might have to do some of the heavier work herself. "I'm glad to see you in better spirits. Is there anyone among you who can fight demons?"

The old woman shook her head. "No; all those who were capable of fighting were called away. We expected them to be back in a few days, but that was over a year ago. No one returned to Tennozu since, not even our shopkeeper from the Ashura-kai. And then, you came as the first one to help us. We wish we could do something great in exchange for your help, but there is not much we can do."

"Don't worry about that for now," Gabriel said, then asked her a few more questions about the people of Tennozu and what they might be capable of.

They did not have much to offer her. A good portion of the town were elderly or sickly even before they'd been abandoned (and that might be why they were out here). Others had crossed the Ashura-kai but didn't have the ability to join the Ring of Gaea. And a few had even been disowned by both groups, for betrayal, for being weak, or for the ambitions of others. Most unfortunately, there were no children in Tennozu. An infant had been born in the past year, but both the infant and mother died shortly after.

In Gabriel's view, the most useful thing might be ending their sinful and miserable existences in a way that did not give their souls to the White. The demons around the protected area were strong and desperate for prey; she could feel their darkness surrounding the light of her protection. None of these humans were going to get well enough to go outside her protection any time soon. As her plan required materials that should be in warehouses outside of her shield, she couldn't count on them to get those. They might be able to assemble things, but they'd inevitably question what she was going to do.

Of course they would. Even though she'd saved them from starvation, that just gave them the energy to get back to their mistakes. And these were adults who would be set in their ways, many of them having been forsaken in the global purge. If she didn't have to protect all of them, she could put her focus on important matters. As she sheltered here, the demons and the Messiah were still going about their wicked ways to make sure that the side of Law would lose.

That Messiah. How was he supposed to make things better? It was clear that Flynn was the one chosen for that role, as ill-fitting as he was. There were so many things wrong for him to be such a leader: his scarred soul, his willingness to speak blasphemies right to the face of someone he should respect, his perversions, his unwillingness to listen. All of those were major faults for the role, especially being unwilling to listen. That was what a Messiah was supposed to be doing at these early stages: listening and observing so he could make the proper choices when the time was right. Why had he been chosen?

Maybe she should just accomplish this goal and then leave this generation to ruin themselves. Once she had her peers back, they could salvage the innocent, take out everyone else, and start back from the beginning. They had God on their side, so it would work in time.

There was that young man she'd thought was the Messiah, Issachar. He was wrong too, but, the D-gene had somehow turned him into the angel. While it had been bad enough for Jonathan to argue against her, there was something unsettling about Issachar as an angel. She couldn't say what exactly it was, the light of his halo or the pity in his eyes. Or maybe something else; just seeing him made Gabriel feel like there was something terribly wrong that she was missing. He seemed strangely proper for an angel, although that was wrong since humans weren't to turn into angels except by God's direct blessing. That wasn't the case here.

He had said that she'd forgotten love. That was ridiculous. After all, she wouldn't be trying so much if she didn't love humanity. It was just that humans had gotten so far away from what they should be that it was difficult to love them. If things could be as God intended them to be, then there would be no problems at all. It might be that Issachar was limited by his mortal experience. She shouldn't worry about what he said.

From outside the shrine, she felt someone passing through her barrier. It would take another angel to do that… it was Aniel. Gabriel got up to open the door for him. "Greetings," she started to say, but then his condition alarmed her. "What happened to you?"

His wings were scorched somehow, his body battered. "Ah, don't worry about me. It was in service to our Lord."

"Come inside," she insisted, keeping the door open for him. "This place is not the best suited, but I've done what I could. I'll heal you."

"Thank you, and thank goodness, I finally found you," Aniel said, not flying straight with his injuries. "What are you doing here?"

"God led me here after I suffered through a terrible battle," Gabriel said, casting a normal healing spell over him. It wouldn't be enough, but there was that cup of water she could bless. "I defeated most of the demons, but it's only a matter of time before at least Lilith comes back. With a little more time, I should be back to normal strength."

"That's good, but what led you down here in the first place?" Aniel asked. "We've been searching the whole world for you on God's command."

"It was a momentary lapse of reason, I'm afraid," she said. "You've probably noticed, but we've lost influence over the people of Mikado. They now believe me to be a false angel."

"Yes, we've been fighting that misconception as well," he said. "Was it truly the Messiah of this generation who did that?"

She nodded. With the healing spell having done what it could, she started transforming the water. "He has a devil's tongue to confound the truth like he did. His name is Flynn; you should inform the others that we need to be careful of him."

"Certainly," Aniel said, settling into a hover near the wall. He rarely landed, being able to sleep in the air if need be. "We did find out that the Chaos hero is interested in Law. But he's not interested in listening to us. We're not sure about the Law hero, though we have heard some disturbing things."

"I wouldn't count on him being reliable," she said. "We are in a bind already. As such, we may need to consider working with people we usually wouldn't associate with." The water started to shimmer in being holy water.

"Like the Unclean Ones here?" he asked. "Is it God's will?"

"I am sure it is, because I heard from Him briefly," she said. "Most of them aren't worthy of being saved, but they will be used for God's glory."

"They should feel honored, if they can realize it," Aniel said. "What of the people of Mikado? They would not listen nor assist us, so we ended up fighting them. They tried to place the blame for the conflict upon us; we're not sure what to do with them."

Gabriel frowned a little. No, she needed to keep calm. "I'm not surprised. We can't use the sacred songs with them either; I tried after the transformation failure and was blocked."

"But if you were blocked from using that, what can we do?" he asked.

"We can try again once the others are free," Gabriel said. "I'm working on God's plan towards that. Do you have orders on what to do in Mikado?"

"No, I'm afraid not," he said. "We were told to find you as soon as we could, that's all. What should we do in Mikado?"

"Here we go," she said as the water was fully transformed. She then gave him the cup. "Sorry, we don't have the best resources here."

"It's fine, thanks for your help," Aniel said, drinking to help his recovery.

"It's no trouble," Gabriel said. "About Mikado, we should hold off on doing too much for now. They'll inevitably get into a situation where they'll beg for our guidance again; it always happens. However, whoever's up there should keep a careful eye on Merkabah's spirit."

"On Merkabah?" he asked, puzzled at the advice. "If you have them in Mikado, couldn't they regain control?"

She shook her head. "No, they have not received any orders from God to emerge as far as I can tell. Remember, they are a ruthless spirit with special allowances. Having Merkabah awaken in improper circumstances could be a disaster as much as what led us here. Speaking of, what did happen to you?"

"Crossing into these lands is no simple task now," he said. "There is an angelic barrier over all of Tokyo within the barrier of the Firmament. But it is a barrier of the treacherous Mastema, so I could not pass through it as I could yours."

"So that was Mastema who led the others into that trap," Gabriel said, concerned about that. In some ways, Mastema was an authentic angel of God. But he followed a rogue manifestation of God and had his own dark ambitions, both of which made him a corrupted angel who could not be labeled as a true fallen. "This will amplify the confusion among humans about false angels and true. We're in for a difficult time."

Aniel nodded. "I know; I've been fooled by him before, but I won't be again. There is a way through his barrier, fortunately, in the line that the terminals use. But in another complication, there is a demon within that line who tried to prevent me from passing through. I had to will myself through the firewalls it set up, which is how this happened." He gingerly brushed against his scorched wings.

"What demon could block a terminal line?" Gabriel asked, at a loss of identifying one with the kind of power to damage Aniel like this.

"I'm sorry, but I could not locate it precisely," he said. "I would assume it is of the Virus clan for where it was and how it attacked indirectly. An Antivirus would have respected a matching alignment."

After giving it a moment's thought, she replied, "That still doesn't make a lot of sense. They do have advanced computer technology in this time, but not enough to support an outbreak of Virus demons. Even a singular powerful one is strange. I remember how to summon an Antivirus, so we can set one to hunt down that troublemaker. We will need a way to get out of Tokyo."

"We should be able to send a message that way so the others know that we're stalled here for now," Aniel said. "But we may need to deal with Mastema before we can return to Mikado safely."

"He is far overdue on paying for what he has done to us," Gabriel said. "Don't worry; God gave me a good plan. He must have sent you to help."

"Yes, I would think so," Aniel said, then listened as she explained what they were to do.


	47. Conspiracies of Angels

**Chapter 47: Conspiracies of Angels**

Using her planned guise of the Black Samurai wasn't going to work out, since she hadn't acted openly in that role in Mikado and half the heroes had already seen her in the business woman guise. Lilith waited outside of Tsujiki Hongwangi in the latter guise, as some people here expected of her as Yuriko. She could hear the others coming back, boisterously singing in celebration. Earlier, she had gotten the report that their mission to annihilate Red-addict demons had gone well. They had lost many of their own; she told them that a death given for a cause was a glorious one, even though it was a weakness to die at all. Such beautiful folly. They acted like they would never die even though they were so frail compared to the truly immortal.

"Welcome back," she said, smiling warmly at them. "I've been waiting to hear from you all."

"Welcome back, Lady Yuriko!" one of the louder ones called, along with other greetings. "Glad to see you again; we've got some great stories to tell!"

"I'm sure you do," she said. "Excellent work on completing your goals. Come on in and celebrate; I'd like to hear all about how this happened."

Particularly, she wanted to know how they got this idea. It was pretty good, as taking out a section of the Ashura-kai's customers would weaken the enemy organization. But she wanted to know who came up with the idea, to see if they should be promoted or done away with. While it was good to encourage the humans, the Ring of Gaea was her group. She wasn't going to give up control over it. Gaining a puppet leader for Gaea might work, if the right puppet came along.

Various members she trusted claimed that a sage had come up with the idea. But they weren't sure who exactly that sage was. The telltale thing was that they didn't realize who told them this but trusted them completely. If this sage was a human, there would be some uncertainty for an unknown person. But certain demons could use mental suggestions to get away with this plot. So which demon in the organization was this? An infiltrator or someone she'd invited?

Lilith observed the celebrating crowd for signs of someone in a human guise. A spirit that didn't fit the body, or evidence of supernatural powers, either of those was likely. After ruling out those she knew about, she spotted what seemed to be a middle-aged man in a red cloak at one of the tables. He was listening to a discussion at a table where he seemed like the oldest one there at first glance. In looking at his spirit, he was absurdly older than any mortal could be and was a traveler of many worlds. That was the guy.

Sneaking over there at first chance, she waited until a debate broke out to nudge the cloaked one. "Excuse me, but could we go talk privately for a little while?"

"With such an interesting subject on the table?" the demon asked quietly.

"It's not like you're participating, only listening," she pointed out.

"Not at the moment," he admitted. "But if I listen until the argument loses steam, I can speak up to impart my greater perspective on things. Still, you've already pulled me out of that." He made a small hand gesture that drew attention off them immediately so he could leave his seat without disrupting the mortals. "Shall we go, Lilith?"

Was this…? No, she'd recognize him already if it was him. "Yes, elsewhere," she said, leading him off to a hidden passage that most members of the Ring weren't allowed in. Meanwhile, she wondered again what was going wrong with Hikaru. She was acting very far out of character even for a schoolgirl disguise.

Once they were out of the large meeting hall, the stranger asked, "Are you angry with me for this mission? I did not believe we'd lose so many, but your people are reckless in their passions."

"I'm not angry yet," Lilith said. "I was away for a time and expected them to be anxious for some action when I got back. But firstly, who are you?"

"I am Maitreya, an heir to Buddha; I have traveled over five thousand worlds seeking wisdom and understanding. I came to be within your Ring of Gaea here as the people seek power beyond normal human limits, and some seem to be achieving it. Being here, I am content to offer the guidance of enlightenment to those breaking their limits merely to see how far they can go."

While breaking limits was something Lilith wanted to happen, she didn't want things to go how Maitreya would let them. He was from one of the Oriental cultures that blurred the line between men and gods. It wasn't even in the traditional way of demigods with divine parentage, or of the divine right to rule that made kings like gods. No, they had humans who rose to godlike status from their own efforts and became worshiped after death. Humans needed to rely on demons, preferably without even realizing it. They wouldn't do that if they could become like gods on their own.

Still, Maitreya might make himself useful. "If that is so, then why suggest that mission to go kill weaklings like Red addicts?" she asked, opening a door that led to her special audience hall.

"I have no hidden motives in that," Maitreya said calmly. He radiated that calm with confidence in his superior enlightenment. "It is as stated: the Red are one of the arch-stones of the Ashura-kai's power while the addicts are being a waste of space. They won't even be able to return from the Abyss like those of us with clear minds can do. Along with that, there is a severe imbalance in the ratio of demons to humans in this city. Taking out unnecessary fluff will make things easier on all of us."

"That makes some sense, but we've agitated the Ashura-kai now," Lilith said. "As much as we deserve this celebration, I'm expecting them to pop in and ruin things. We are going to have to be on guard."

"Of course, they wouldn't let this slide," Maitreya said. "They also deserved this in thinking they could control demons with such a base means without repercussions."

"We should be prepared to further humiliate them," Lilith said with a smile. "We'll have to find enough guards who aren't celebrating too much, but this place is well set-up for defense."

"Oh yes, we should be ready," Maitreya said. He couldn't be told everything, but this would be a good test of his usefulness.

* * *

When they had first passed by this park entrance, there had been a member of the Ashura-kai on guard. There was no one there today. "This is a place where plants could grow if they changed a few things," Flynn said. "They normally keep a guard here to keep others from doing so."

"Why would they do that?" Issachar asked, looking ahead. There were a lot of the concrete walkways and electric lamps, but there were garden areas that seemed like those in the castle city. "They don't have much for produce, so using everything they have would make more sense."

"It's a means of power through controlling resources. That's their method of claiming authority over the city."

"But it's still a waste of land and cruel to others," Issachar said. But now that Flynn said it, he could see how they were doing that. The Ashura-kai owned the stores and distributed food that wasn't from hunted demons. As they controlled the farmable land too, people would have to do what they said just to get non-demon food.

"The Luxurors were much more thoughtful to the Casualry than the Ashura-kai are to the rest of Tokyo. But what we do will weaken them." He paused, then turned to him. "Issachar? I've been meaning to ask, but you've been an angel this whole day. Why is that?"

He felt his face get warm at that; it was impossible to miss and other people had asked him about it. To them, he only said that he felt like it. To Flynn, Issachar said, "Um, I know this is going to sound really weird, but when I got up this morning, I just didn't feel right being a man."

"You didn't feel right being human?" he asked in grave concern.

Issachar shook his head. "No, that's not it. It's just, I can be a woman when I'm an angel, and that's what I felt like today."

Flynn stared at him for a moment. Despite all that he'd been through, it seemed that this still shocked him. And that could make Flynn unstable and dangerous just like a few days ago when they'd arrived here…

Sweating and knowing he was doing this all wrong, he stammered, "Uh, sorry, it's something that happens some days and usually I tell myself that I'm being dumb and I should ignore it. I act too feminine already, I should try to be better about that. But this morning, it was bad enough that I just changed form to settle those feelings in time to leave. I don't know what's wrong with me; I just hope that it's only for today."

Flynn then took his arm. "Hoy, there's nothing wrong with you."

Ashamed and trying to calm down, he bowed his head. "But…"

"It is strange," he admitted. "But if that's how you feel, it's fine. We'll talk about it later; this isn't the time, especially with what we mean to do here."

"Sorry," he said, trying to banish his shame. It helped that Flynn said it was fine. Maybe these feelings weren't completely wrong.

After another moment, Flynn quietly said, "I'm your leader out here and I should be keeping us on track. Still, don't forget that you're precious to me for being yourself, for being unique and different. I want you to be happy with yourself."

Issachar smiled at that. "Sure. We're out here to fulfill our duty, so we'll do that now. But don't be surprised if I get all gushy and sappy over you once we're off-duty."

Flynn chuckled at that, a beautiful sound. And the true light of his soul was trying to shine again. If they could bring that back out again, freed from his sorrows and pains… "Of course. Now then, are you ready to deal with this fiend?"

"Yes, sir," he said automatically, then smiled at himself.

After a brief smile back, he turned serious and gestured to one of the stairs. "Up that way, you should be able to see a large fountain. The fiend we're looking for is usually around there. I'll look over some other paths nearby."

"Alright," he said. "I should be fine."

Issachar took his time getting over to the fountain, fighting a few demons that were around and focusing on this task. To his angel sight, demons had a different light than humans did, and often different from each other. Some had light like a candle, others like the moon, a few others like a shaded light. It seemed to be related to what vices or virtues the demon was made of. When he got a moment to look at them, he could read them like he'd read Gabriel and Lilith. So far, the insight seemed true.

As he got close to the fountain, he felt a chill past what was normal for here. That was a sign death was near. Not long after he realized that, David appeared. "Someone's near," he said, then put down his fiddle. "Hmm? I knew you'd turned to an angel because of the demon plague, but what kind of angel are you?"

"I don't know," Issachar said. "Does it matter?"

"It matters a great deal," David said. "To you, to us, to other ange…"

"YOOOOOOOUUUUUU!" Something careened down from above, causing him to flinch as it might crash right near him. Instead, a strange silver-gray demon stopped to hover in front of him. The fiend had stiff wings instead of arms. "Are you a human or an angel?"

"A human," Issachar replied. Both David and this demon had an aura of death. David also had artistic passion that would disregard everything else, like respect for others; this fiend had paranoia and lies.

"Good, although you still need to watch out for the conspiracies of angels," the fiend said. "You seem to be a conspiracy yourself, trying to change fate."

"I am following someone else's lead and we are changing fate," Issachar said. "I didn't start it, though."

"Nobody admits to starting conspiracies and they're usually right," the fiend said. "Because all conspiracies started as a seed of true Chaos that existed before the beginning of Time. It is to keep history ever in motion, for good and for ill."

"Chemtrail, I'm keeping tabs on this person," David interrupted him. "So you don't have to try him in battle."

"Who said I wanted to fight him?" Chemtrail replied indignantly, kicking his legs at David even though he was out of reach. "This is a conspiracy that must be investigated. But if he can't answer the next question, then I will knock into him so hard that he can't ever walk again!"

"What?" Issachar asked, concerned about that. He didn't see Flynn nearby, so he'd have to be ready to run just in case.

"Excuse me, but," David said, annoyed at that.

"You!" Chemtrail shouted again, turning towards him. "Answer with the first thing that comes to mind! Who do you serve?"

"I don't know," Issachar said, holding his hands up.

"Do you really not?" Chemtrail asked.

"Well I serve the people of Mikado as a samurai," he said.

"But who do you serve as an angel?" Chemtrail repeated.

"No one as far as I know," he said.

David shook his head. "That doesn't work. Angels are servants of God by the very definition of what angels are. If you are an angel, even if you consider yourself human, you must have a master."

"But that would mean I'm a servant of God," Issachar said, which started to worry him. Flynn had told him that neither God nor the angels were what they expected. But then, would it make sense for him to serve someone that Flynn didn't believe in?

"Except that it's not that simple anymore," David said.

Kicking his feet again, Chemtrail rapidly said, "Right, because God is not something mortals can comprehend so confusion was introduced through superstition and misinformation which gave God various faces that people could understand, which of course got used by many splinters of the Illuminati and the secret cults behind secret cults to claim that their works were those of God when they were performed by humans or angels. That's basic plot-atry there."

"Not quite, but close enough," David said. "You should know the name of your God. It's strange that you don't, unless you're lying."

"I could be an angel of the God that still loves humans," Issachar said, as that made sense to him.

"Whaaaaaat?!" Chemtrail called in a way that could rival Naverre.

He nodded. "I transformed into an angel because of my love for someone. And he believes most in a God that loves humanity, so it makes sense for me to be an angel of the God that he believes in."

"If you transformed that way, you should have turned into a type of incubus," David said. "This is worse since you're now a servant bound to a master."

"No, it's a perfectly evil plot to drive his lover insane," Chemtrail insisted, a sadistic glee in his soul's light. "Transform this guy and then do absolutely nothing, no guidance or anything, and because he's a human in love with someone, he'll eventually do something to break the myriad of limitations angels have now. Then he'll become a fallen angel cursed to wander with a soul bound to Hell forever! They'll both be insane and the only thing needed is something apparently good. They'll look weak and whoever brewed the plot will look good."

It was alarming, but Chemtrail was making this sound as bad as possible. Recalling that he was supposed to interest this fiend, Issachar said, "But don't conspiracies that let you do nothing to win take a lot to set up?"

Chemtrail cackled excitedly. "Yes! They can do that because they've been around forever and got in their position a loooong time ago. At this point, they can set up things decades in advance and just watch what happens. Beings like that love to see you humans squirm, running around trying to catch up when you'll never be in reach. There's no reason to try hard except because it's entertaining; it's the perfect position to be in."

"Well what if we gave them a reason to try hard?" Issachar asked.

"Hell's bells, would you do that?" Chemtrail then bellowed with laughter.

"You'd find a fate worse than hell," David said, amused as well.

"But, but," Chemtrail spoke hurriedly again, "if you want to defy the God in control but are a servant of Yuji's God, then you'll create a unreal paradox that will wreck the structure of the entire multiverse and cause it to collapse into a singularity universe that will quickly blow up due to having all the awesomeness and suckiness of every potentiality at once, being every truth and falsehood at once. Yet the seeds of conspiracy, evil and good, will still be there, so we will be reborn into a completely different jungle of hypocrisy!"

"What does that even mean?" David asked.

"It means that this is awesome!" Chemtrail said, then flew off into the darkness.

"I don't see how that's awesome," Issachar said.

"Listening to that fool would drive anyone mad," David said, shaking his head. "I wouldn't recommend it. But with that, I'd expect him to pester you again." As Chemtrail was gone, David went back in the gauntlet.

The park was eerily quiet after they left, with some of the chill remaining and other demons having left the area. While there was a good chance that it was all nonsense, there could be a truth that he stretched far out of shape. What was that shape? Was it something worth consideration?

Flynn then came over to the fountain. "That seemed to go well."

"I don't think he'll fight me, but I'm not sure it'll work as we hope," Issachar said. "I don't know who he'll tell."

"It's something we can wait on still," he said. "Did Chemtrail say something disturbing to you? He shouldn't be believed."

He nodded. "I can tell that. But the first thing he asked me was who I served. Then David said that all angels are servants of God, only there's some complication that makes it important to know who I serve."

"That would be important," Flynn said. "Do you know who?"

"Not for certain, but I think it's who you believe in," Issachar said.

He smiled at that. "If that's true, then you have nothing to worry about."

* * *

Once they had the defense of the temple ready, Lilith went back to her audience hall. Maitreya was left to be part of the guard as he wasn't fully trusted. He definitely could not learn of this, not yet. But, she needed someone to help her with this more important matter, outside the Ring of Gaea. She suspected that it was a conspiracy of angels that led to this happening. Even if it wasn't, there was no reason to try Gabriel's help now. She wouldn't listen and it might be worse if she learned about this.

On the other hand, if other demons knew, she'd be in as much trouble. They might be able to help, but wouldn't give such help lightly. But she had one ally who could be told now and hopefully could do something about this. Given what she'd heard, she had to summon him out of the Abyss to talk with him.

Dantelion appeared with a closed book in hand. "Ah, thank you Lilith. Things got messy in your absence."

She nodded. "I noticed, but that's past us now. We've got a bigger mess on our hands: Hikaru has changed her personality and declared me a traitor."

A few of Dantelion's heads frowned while others looked worried. "Is that so? Did she lose her given identity?"

"I'm not sure," Lilith said. "When she called me a traitor, she acted like it was funny and she didn't care past that. If she had been acting as Lucifer, she would have been much harsher about it."

"Right, Lord Lucifer doesn't take betrayal lightly," Dantelion said.

"Hikaru might not listen to me at this point," she said. "I'd like for you to go find her and make certain of what's going on. If you can set her back to being Lucifer, that would be best."

"I'll see what I can do," he said.

* * *

'There's one more thing we need to do here before moving on, in the government plaza I told you to avoid. We'll head there together; meet me at the top of the stairs. -Flynn'

Walter had just turned in a request and had been contemplating another when Flynn messaged him. From what he'd been saying, they were going to another town called Ikebukuro tomorrow (or in about an hour down here). He headed out of the bar to meet up with the others. In these few days, the people of Shinjuku had repaired the doors and secured their town. They were very grateful for the help; one of the ladies who cooked for the town had given them some steamed buns, for one. The filling was oddly gray, but they were not that bad.

Isabeau came down from the shopping district entrance as he passed by, so he paused to wait on her. "Hoy, anything interesting happen?"

"Nothing good," she said, momentarily annoyed. "I ran into a number of the macabre demons and had to revive various members of my team repeatedly. While we can take out the macabres relatively easy now, we have to take them out before they take us out."

Walter rubbed his head. "I know that; they move so much faster with their scythes than I can with my axe. Because of that, I had to keep some faster demons on my team to deal with them."

"Right, I'll need to pick up more supplies tomorrow," Isabeau said. "How have things gone for you?"

"Not much different than your day, I think," he said, taking her hand to walk down the hall with her. "Lots of battles, but nothing that stood out besides those tricky macabres. Although I hope Flynn doesn't insist on a lot of these solo days."

"He does want to make sure we're all ready for whatever's coming," she said.

When they arrived at the meeting spot, it didn't take long for the rest to arrive too. Flynn had actually been in front of an old store in sight of the exit, likely meditating on the silk lotus in his hand. Perhaps being there was to reduce who could overhear them as he started with, "I've been considering the past few days what all to tell you. I'm still not entirely sure of it."

"Well I'm glad to know the position you're in, even if it is pretty bad," Walter said. "I'm sure you won't be leading us in a bad way."

"Right, we trust you," Jonathan said with a smile.

"And we'll be here to support you, whatever happens," Isabeau said.

"I'm grateful for that," Flynn said, smiling briefly. Then he turned serious, more than usual even. "Still, I feel like it's better for you guys to experience what goes on for yourselves. I may give you guys warnings on occasion. Like with Ikebukuro that we're headed to, the demon we're after there traps and eats people. We need to keep in good contact with each other there, especially in domains. But I believe you're in good shape for that area. You should consider this entire mission to be a mystery that we're investigating."

"But we know that the impostor Gabriel and Lilith are responsible," Jonathan said.

"Yes, but there's a bigger mystery going on past what we know," Flynn said, then gestured upward. "Do you know why they would want to turn us into demons? Or why we've truly been separated from Tokyo?"

"If you think about it, our distant ancestors were recent ancestors to the people of Tokyo now," Issachar said. "So we once had access to all the mechanical sorcery we find here, but were forbidden nearly all of it with the excuse that it was evil."

"But if it was a false angel who told us that, what's her standard of evil?" Walter asked as he thought of it.

"That has troubling implications," Jonathan said, looking down in thought.

"That may be something you can't find an answer to easily," Flynn said. "The people I'm having you talk to are like witnesses, perhaps only having a small piece of the puzzle."

"But the more pieces we have, no matter how small, the better picture we have of the truth," Isabeau said. "I see now; we were hearing a lot of the same things, but getting the perspectives of the people here on those problems and others let us see Tokyo more clearly than what we were told to believe."

Flynn nodded. "That's right. The things I'm having us do may be evidence to the mysteries, or to make sure you can handle important confrontations. At the same time, we're helping people and inspiring hope in them. They can't do much in return now, but there are many pieces to the solution I've put together that need to be put in the right places. Raising the spirits of those in this city and helping to unite them are things that need to be done for a better future."

"Right," Issachar said. Of course, he would have Flynn's greater confidence in this. "Even Naverre's decision to forge an alliance between Mikado and Tokyo in his own manner is a part of making things better."

"It's not something I planned for, but it'll be a big boon if he keeps at it," Flynn said. "It's also a boon that you guys trust me in this. So then," he gestured to where the government offices were said to be, "we need to take out Kuebiku before we leave this area. He is a danger to these people and he has something that we need to progress in Ikebukuro."

"I've heard about this Kuebiku from an old woman here," Isabeau said.

"What did you hear?"

"He was an ancient god of the nation of Japan, this land that Tokyo and Mikado are both in," she said. "He ruled over the lands and mountains, but in their wild form rather than cultivated. If he gets in the right position, he's likely to destroy these buildings to revert the earth into a more natural form. He would even destroy this building because he wouldn't consider them important unless they worship him.

"Also, there was once a war between the Japanese land gods, the kinutsu, and the heavenly gods, the amatsu. The kinutsu lost that war and were considered lesser gods as a result. She suspected that the division is still strained, although they tend to downplay it due to angels and foreign gods being a greater threat in their view."

Flynn nodded. "Yes, that's something that could affect events."

"The amatsu are heavenly gods?" Jonathan said, looking at Isabeau, then Flynn. "Remember when I told you all that finding a divine mirror might help us figure out Gabriel's true identity? I was told that Futotama, the mirror's guard, was one of the amatsu, but I didn't get a chance to ask what that meant."

"The old woman told me a little about them," Isabeau said, putting a hand to her chin. "It was… they were lead by the sun goddess Amaterasu and came from the skies to help people. They had some ark that allowed them to travel between the celestial realm and the realm of Earth. So I guess they're a bit like angels?"

Sort of," Flynn said. "The Japanese gods are very possessive of this land and the humans living here. Most of them don't trust foreign gods, demons, or angels, although they're in a poor position to do much about it."

"Are they more likely to take better care of the land and people because they see it as theirs?" Walter asked. It was strange to think of gods other than God, but that's how things were down here.

"About the same because they're willing to use and abuse humans in order to regain what they think of as their rightful positions," Flynn said. "Some are more benevolent than others; Amaterasu acts more benevolent, but there are reasons we can't rely on her at this time. Then you have Kuebiku here who will kill off most of Shinjuku, human and demon alike, in order to revert it to natural wilderness. Since Tokyo is blocked off from the sun, it will be a dark and magical wilderness. It will also be extremely dangerous to humans since as Isabeau said, Kuebiku won't care unless we worship him. And he will force worship from fear from those who survive the transformation of the land."

"Then we need to take him out even if he is a god of some sort," Walter said.

"But we're going to talk with him first," Flynn said.

"What for?" Jonathan asked. "If that's what he plans to do, there's no sense in talking to him since we won't talk him out of it."

"You should still hear his arguments before we get rid of him," Flynn said. "Then you will have something to compare the arguments of other gods against, to better judge what their motives are."

Jonathan raised his eyebrows to that. "Really? Huh, I think I see it. You'll be with us now, but there's no telling if we'll encounter others when you're not there."

"We've already met some disguised demons on our own," Walter said to him.

"True," he admitted.

"These experiences are teaching you better than me simply telling you what's going on," Flynn said. "Which will be important. The room Kuebiku is large, so we can confront him as a group. Make sure you're aware of the area too, in case there's reason to retreat."

With their discussion done, they headed north. After going up a large flight of stairs, they found a plaza with tree saplings and grass growing through the concrete. The trees were strange, with black bark and black leaves. They were already eerie despite their small size. From the look on Flynn's face, the trees were new to him too.

A massive building stood on the other side of the plaza grove, covered in black-leaved ivy. Inside, it was ruined like most of Tokyo but signs of its former grandeur were everywhere. The tiles were dirty and broken, but had a golden ivory color. pictures on the wall or fallen off it showed photos of well-dressed men and women. But the room was dominated by the demon god that had taken over. Kuebiku was like a mountain come to life, mossy gravel and earth gathered up with eyes of diamond and arms like as thick as tree trunks.

"Well you mortals took your time coming out to investigate," Kuebiku grumbled. "We need to discuss my terms of patronage for you to follow."

"What do you mean?" Flynn asked.

"I have taken back this land for us gods," Kuebiku replied. "If you wish to continue living here, you must become my followers and work the land under my guidance so that you fools don't mess everything up again. You should be obedient to the ways of the Earth so that everything is in its proper balance. And before you claim that your knowledge and tools can tame the lands, know that I have empowered this land beyond what you can handle. Within a month, this area will be powerful forest. You can already see that no foreign demons can come within the area that my power reaches. Do as I say and all shall be as it should."

"How are you going to grow a forest without the sun?" Issachar asked. "Your tree saplings don't look that strong."

Kuebiku slammed a fist into the ground, making it tremble. "Do not question me as a god! I will it, so it will be. That is all you need to know. I could possibly grow it faster with the assistance of the sun goddess, but she is much too soft on you. It's better that she remains as is."

"Can you provide food for the people here, along with protection from demons?" Flynn asked.

"Not until you've all sworn loyalty and obedience to me," Kuebiku said. "Any who does not must leave or they will perish. Any who would disobey will also perish. After what generations of you mortals have done to the world, I will not tolerate anything from you."

"Wait so you're gong to punish us for what our ancestors did?" Jonathan asked. "That's ridiculous."

"It is just," Kuebiku argued. "Humans are foolish beings; you have proven this with every generation. Thus, you must be taught strictly to stop being fools."

"Sheesh, arguing with you is like arguing with those angels," Walter said, hoping that Flynn would let them defeat this senseless god now.

Whatever Flynn wanted, the discussion abruptly ended as Kuebiku readied his fists again. "We are not like those vain angels who think they rule the world! We are the rightful owners of this land and I will prove that to all of you living here."

"I agree, you sound no different from them," Flynn said, drawing his sword.

It may have been a difficult battle if he (or any of them) had been alone, since Kuebiku was a powerful physical attacker who could call on landslides indoors. But between the five of them, the battle did not last that long.


	48. Man-Eating City

**Chapter 48: Man-Eating City**

'Kaga: You should go back to headquarters. Your group cannot do anything more there at the moment, but someone here knows more about breaking that barrier. Meet with one of the sages in person, but take their word with a grain of salt.'

The message was unsigned and she didn't recognize the email address of the sender. Kaga attempted to send a message back asking for more clarification, like which sage she should be asking. However, the address was rejected as invalid. In that case, it was better to ignore the unproven message. She still wanted to know who could get her address and know it was her.

It could be someone in the Ring of Gaea because the group that had come out with her had all returned to Tsujiki Hongwangi. She had shamed them for saying they were tired after a week-long stakeout. However, they said there was no point to being stubborn when the answer to breaking this barrier clearly wasn't around Ikebukuro. She got tired of their complaints and told them that if they weren't tough enough to continue, then they could go back. And so they all did.

Sighing, she went back to her phone's map to see where she might have missed a place. Then her phone chirped again with another new message. This one was from someone she knew. 'Kaga: I've dealt appropriate disciplinary actions to those who abandoned your mission. However, I must ask that you return to the temple as well. I would like to see Ikebukuro freed, but due to our battles in Shibuya, the Ring is very short-handed. We will discuss Ikebukuro and other plans we have. Yuriko'

It was from the proper address. Kaga still didn't like giving up. However, things weren't clear here how they were to take down this barrier. Asking the sages at the temple about it shouldn't take long. She glanced back at the barrier, then headed off back to the temple. Even if her family was gone, she would free their home. She had sworn it.

* * *

After another trek through the poisonous swamp north of Shinjuku, they ended up at a road that went up into the air. Why would it be built that way? Just because they could? Jonathan thought Tokyo was a strange place. But the people weren't bad for the most part.

There was a giant wall of fire cutting off Ikebukuro itself. Flynn brought out a wooden talisman they'd gotten from defeating Kuebiku yesterday. "It wasn't easy to find out, but this town was sealed off by one of the demons that works for the Ashura-kai. This Jirae talisman works as a sign that the order was taken back, which lets us enter Ikebukuro." He held it up to face the barrier, causing it to shatter.

"Sealing it off would make sense when it turned too dangerous for civilians," Jonathan said.

"They didn't evacuate the town first," Flynn said, dropping the talisman now that it was disintegrating from using up its power. "We might not find the people who got trapped here. It's unfortunate, but there's not much we could do at this time. We'll save who we can."

The way down from the raised road led to another poisonous area, albeit the sludge was thinner here. They had to jump down to a small building outcropping, then onto a vehicle where they could climb down a ladder. As they were getting down, someone called from the road above. "Hey, thanks for breaking that!"

"Sure," Flynn replied from the top of the bus, looking up at their company. "What are you doing here?"

Jonathan stepped away from the ladder and looked up too. He was familiar, mostly because of the tattoos. Dropping down after them, Naoki replied, "This place is somewhere I've wanted to investigate for a while; got lucky in being here at the right time, it seems."

"Hello Naoki, good to see you again," Jonathan called up to him. "You must be looking into Xi Wangmu as well."

"Right, she sounded like a good challenge."

"We heard rumors that she eats people and that's why this area was sealed off," Issachar said. "Were you going to take her on alone? That seems dangerous."

"That doesn't worry me," Naoki said. Once they were all down on street level, he added, "One of my sources claimed that she's made herself invincible. I was going to search around first to see what to do about that. What were you all thinking?"

Jonathan hadn't known, but he was sure Flynn had a plan. And, he did. "I was able to confirm that, also that she's using six sub-domains above her main domain to achieve this. We were going to take out the sub-domains first. If you want to work with us, we have six people again. We could take out the sub-domains at the same time now."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Naoki said. "This is definitely a demon to take out for good. It is unfortunate, though, that's she's reverted to this old form."

"What do you mean by that?" Jonathan asked, as Flynn started them off down the street to reach the domains.

"Well she started off as a monster that kidnapped and ate children," Naoki explained. "Then she stopped doing that, becoming a harvest goddess instead. She was known as a benevolent goddess who helped people, giving them comfort when harvests were poor and celebrating with them when the harvests were good. Then again, a lot of gods have gone mad in this time. Most of them have no followers who believe strongly in them, which makes them desperate."

"Are they truly gods if they have no believers?" Jonathan asked, wondering if that was part of why Kuebiku had been so demanding.

"You wouldn't think so, but the other we met seemed insistent on his authority as a god," Issachar said.

"No one likes to give up power they've grown accustomed to," Naoki said.

The building they were looking for was obvious, from the gnarled roots starting to cover the walls. Strangely enough, that ended up helping them. Flynn brought them to the back of the building where he was looking for a fire escape ladder leading them to one of the metal platforms overhead. The ladder itself had been crumpled like paper and cast aside. But with the roots, they were able to climb up and enter the building above Xi Wangmu's domain.

The level they entered had the vines of demon domains. But according to the gauntlets, this area wasn't a domain. Some parts of hall were clear, including a pair of elevator entrances and a string of strange symbols. "That almost looks like mystic script, but the symbols don't make sense," Isabeau said.

"Do any of you know how to read Chinese?" Naoki asked. Meanwhile, Issachar was checking his gauntlet.

"No, is that another language?" Jonathan asked. "We only know our own."

Naoki frowned at the wall. "That's unfortunate. I can't read Chinese script either."

"Burroughs can," Issachar said, listening to the voice only he could hear. "It's numbers and some words: earth, wood, water, metal, fire, and null. It's like magic elements, but not quite."

"Five of those are the main elements of a different classification of magic," Naoki said. "If we're lucky, they label the elements of the sub-domains which we could take advantage of."

"How would we do that?" Flynn asked.

Closing his eyes to think, Naoki replied, "Earth is central; it and null will be difficult to overcome. Then, I think it's, metal can defeat wood, wood can defeat water, water can defeat fire, and fire can defeat metal."

"But how will we use elements of wood and metal?" Isabeau asked. "Or earth for that matter."

"Metal is simple because you could use guns for that purpose," Naoki said. "But unless you know some specialized magic, you have to use raw strength for wood and earth in this purpose. I have means to use the earth element in one of my fighting techniques, which may be the best way to handle the null domain. And water-based demons can usually be defeated by a variety of means, so not having anything for wood shouldn't be a problem."

"I could handle the earth domain with magic," Flynn said, which worried Jonathan some. Would he be all right with using his magic? Or was he going to use his skill with a sword to finish that? "So if you can take out the null floor, Naoki, Walter can take the metal floor, Jonathan can take the water floor, Isabeau can take the fire floor, and Issachar can take the wood floor. Which ones are that?"

Issachar looked back at his gauntlet. "Jonathan is taking the fifth floor, I'm taking the seventh floor, you're taking the ninth floor, Isabeau the eleventh, Naoki the thirteenth, and Walter the fifteenth."

"Alright, let's go," Flynn said.

Since there were two elevators, they split up to reach their assigned areas. He ended up with Flynn and Naoki. "Good luck," the latter said as they reached his floor.

"Thanks, you too," he said, heading off straight into the water domain.

The air was damp and had a strange bluish tinge to it. Even the roots surrounding the domain looked different, darker and etched with a wavy pattern. There was a mermaid demon not far ahead, and some strange fish swimming through the tunnel past her. Watery demons were weak to zio fairly often, and if they were ice, fire worked great. Jonathan still hadn't learned an agi spell since he wasn't skilled enough to remember that many spells. But as long as he didn't get careless, this shouldn't be a problem.

* * *

Once the elevator door shut, Flynn said, "You're the commander of the fiends."

Naoki raised an eyebrow at that. "Yes. You didn't strike me as one who would see past my disguise."

"I haven't, but I noticed other things," he said. "What are you really doing here?"

"I don't have to tell you," he said. "Still, you must have a lot of confidence in your own power if you'll be that blunt knowing who I am. I decided to find you because I got word that you had an unusual angel in your group. Chemtrail isn't a reliable source, but he was excited enough that something had to be confirmed."

"What do you mean to do with him?" Flynn asked. This was a fight to be avoided if possible, and it should be easier than getting out of a fight with the other fiends.

"Does he still consider himself human?" Naoki asked. Once Flynn nodded, he answered, "Leave him alone after asking some questions. Unless he starts thinking of himself as an angel primarily, he isn't a problem to us. How about you let me ask him my questions and I'll get them to leave him alone? This timeline has strayed far enough from what it used to be that one person escaping death isn't a big worry."

The elevator had already arrived at his domain floor. "Fine, but I want to be there when you two talk."

"Sure, doesn't matter to me," Naoki said. "Given that you beat Red, this place should be a piece of cake to you. See you in a bit."

"Right, this won't be hard for you either," Flynn said, heading into the domain.

Being themed on an element of earth, going through this area was more like going through Naraku's caves than a domain. There were a lot of physically defensive demons in here, but most of them weren't defensive against magic. With the help of subapps that regenerated his magic energy, there was no demon that lasted long against his spells here.

* * *

"Heh, I don't mind getting beat up by a cute girl," the fiery snakeman said, smirking as he shattered into smoke.

"Ugh, I hate fighting demons like you," Isabeau said, checking around her. The domain was dissipating with the loss of its core demon. However, she felt something like the shift that came with using a terminal.

In a blink, she appeared in another domain. Flynn was there. "Good work," he said. "We've been drawn into Xi Wangmu's domain. Since you're here, the others should soon follow."

"Are we trapped in here?" she asked, looking around the room. There was a door out which seemed clear.

"Not anymore," he said.

That was good, and Flynn seemed calm. But he was good at hiding his problems. "And are you doing well if you had to be using magic?"

"I'm fine," he said. "I apologize, but that was a lie about magic making me nervous. That was to cover up my power and other things that actually cause me nightmares."

"That would be more believable that what else you've told us," Isabeau said. "Still, I hope you're not pushing yourself too much. We don't want things to get worse for you."

"Thanks, I'm doing better today," he said.

Not long after, the other four appeared in the room. "Isabeau got done before you guys," Walter said jokingly to the others.

"And you," Flynn said.

Isabeau sighed and shook her head. "That's only because the main demon of the sub-domain was a pervert and met me at a crossroads instead of waiting deep inside. He also wasn't difficult, thankfully."

"You shouldn't speak so crudely of my pets," a woman said, appearing in the room with them. Xi Wangmu seemed like a beautiful lady, unlike anyone she'd seen even with demons. She floated off the ground and had pure white skin. "Though you also shouldn't have killed them. But it works out since all my other meals escaped me. I'll just eat you instead."

"Not likely," Flynn said.

She did attempt to bite them, summoning a strange black maw to steal energy from them. Isabeau moved back to focus on healing for the group. As usual, Walter and Flynn got close to Xi Wangmu since they could take more hits than the rest of them. Naoki did the same at first, using his fists and jumping to hit Xi Wangmu in the side. Then he backed off and was able to use attacks at a distance with just some hand gestures.

There was a scary moment when Xi Wangmu grabbed Flynn and stretched out her head to swallow him whole. However, he easily blasted her with a bright light that defeated her immediately. Once the domain vanished, Isabeau made sure the others didn't have any bites or wounds that needed to be tended to quickly. There were some injuries, but they were all alive. They decided to find the town area of Ikebukuro in case those who had escaped Xi Wangmu were there.

* * *

By some fortune, a couple members of the Ring of Gaea had freed themselves from Xi Wangmu's domain traps a few days ago. Maybe they always had and joined Kaga's crew. It surprised Flynn, but the two Gaeans decided to free the other prisoners and escape rather than taking on Xi Wangmu themselves. They had been guarding the entrances to Ikebukuro, welcoming their group heartily because they'd taken down the supposedly invincible goddess.

Flynn sent Jonathan, Walter, and Isabeau off as usual to check on the few residents. Meanwhile, he and Issachar went into the abandoned Association bar to talk with Naoki. "He's the commander of the fiend clan," Flynn explained.

"You are?" Issachar asked, surprised.

"Yes, then you must be the angel," Naoki said. "That's good. If you didn't recognize me right off, you do see yourself as a human over being an angel."

"Sure, it's just a transformation," Issachar said closing his eyes for a moment. The star marking on his cheek quivered a moment before he vanished in a misty light and reappeared as an angel. Almost immediately, he gave Naoki a curious look. "Weird, you have a strange light. What are you?"

"I am the Demifiend, that's all you need to know," Naoki said. "You have a strange aura for an angel yourself, not like any other I've encountered. While I'm sure Chemtrail must have asked you, I need to hear from yourself: what God do you serve?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but with what happened at the time, we think that I serve the Great Will. But I haven't heard directly from whoever I serve, which is where I'm not certain."

Naoki shrugged. "Most angels haven't heard from their God in an extremely long time. If you are an angel of the Great Will, that's fortunate for you. I don't know much about them, but their actions seem generally benevolent. What do you plan to do as an angel?"

For a moment, he seemed bashful at the question. "Well, my only plans right now are helping Flynn in making a better future for as many people as possible. He knows the best way to do that."

"Because he remembers past timelines, right?" Naoki asked, then smiled. "I noticed some things, before you ask."

"That's fair," Flynn said. "But you're not the Demifiend I met in the Diamond Realm."

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

"You speak differently, more eloquent."

"I know the one you mean," Naoki said. "He chose to become a full demon. I didn't. That's the difference."

"Then you must be the one from that book," Flynn said.

"Which one?" Naoki asked.

"By the Light of Kagutsuchi," he answered.

"Oh, I hadn't gotten around to reading that," Issachar said. "There's not been much time for reading lately."

"Well I wouldn't take that one at its word," Naoki said. "The author's much too soft to tell a story like mine. Then what questions did you have for me?"

"You already know that I remember other time lines," Flynn said. "So I've known for quite some time who Lucifer is hiding as."

For a moment, Naoki's look sharpened. It should be closer to his true self rather than who he was disguised as. "That makes sense."

"But I have suspicions that even that isn't who this person is," he went on. "It is a convincing act to everyone here that they're Lucifer. But you would be able to tell the difference, right?"

"Yes, I could figure that out quickly," Naoki said.

"I would like to hear your opinion on that," Flynn said. "Because I think that you're really here in this timeline looking for Lucifer."

"It's a guess," Naoki said, not giving an indication of if that was true or not.

This was a risky gamble because if that wasn't true, then he didn't have much to leverage with the Demifiend. "I'll tell you their cover identity; I'd just like a confirmation from you if they are or are not Lucifer. Anything else you want to tell me about them is up to you. Does that work?"

Not taking any time to think, he nodded. "Sure, I agree to that. Who are you talking about?"

"A girl named Hikaru, I've got a photo of her from another time," Flynn said, retrieving that from his gauntlet's memory.

"Lucifer's hiding as a girl?" Issachar asked. "If it is him?"

"It wouldn't be the first time," Naoki said. "You go with a guise that lets you fit in where you are, like I am right now."

Flynn then held his arm out so Naoki could see the photo of Hikaru. "This is her. We ran into her in Shinjuku not that long ago, but she took off with Krishna and Shesha."

After a moment, he nodded. "Good. Do you have anything recorded on him showing up as Lucifer?"

"Yes," Flynn said, going over to the demon compendium for the information.

Naoki briefly frowned at the pictures before going back to a neutral expression. But that was a good sign to the truth. "This is peculiar, but close enough. Did you have anything else you wanted to ask of me for now?"

"If you're willing to say, what are your plans in being here?" Flynn asked. "Are you going to get involved in the cosmic game or just stick to the sidelines?"

"Well that depends on what happens shortly," Naoki replied. "I wasn't planning on joining in, but it was always a possibility." Then he smiled. "But perhaps that might be better for you who live in this world, huh?"

"Are you joining in or staying out?" Issachar asked.

"Think it over, maybe you'll see," he said. "I won't ask for a reward for helping you with Xi Wangmu, as this contact is more important. I'll get in touch; good luck with finding your targets." He waved and then was gone in a blink.

"He was holding back on his power as much as you were," Issachar said, shifting out of his angel form. "And that Hikaru was Lucifer, only she might not be? She didn't seem that important."

Flynn shrugged. "You weren't an angel when you saw her."

"That's true, I missed him too," he agreed. "Still, that's really weird. What kind of demon would pretend to be the devil pretending to be someone else?"

"Do you believe that's the case?" Flynn asked.

As he thought, Issachar nodded. "You were being careful with how you said things, but I could tell that you were speaking the truth, that she's falsely Lucifer for some reason. And I'm fairly sure he could tell as well. He seemed quite sure of it when you showed him the compendium data on Lucifer as you met him."

"I hope this works," Flynn said. "It could get the Demifiend involved in this war. But then, I have a hunch that he will be more fair to deal with than any other potential faction outside of the Hunter Association. He tried to be ambiguous, but he proved himself when he said that he chose not to be a full demon when he is the Demifiend."

"That would make sense of the weird light I saw in his soul," he said. "It was… well, just really strange in being kind of human, kind of demon, but not entirely either. He's definitely of chaos, but not evil." Issachar rubbed his forehead. "Actually, he was hard to read altogether. But if there's a false Lucifer around, where's the real one?"

He shrugged again. "That's something that Naoki could figure out faster than we can, now that we've directed him that way. It's one thing that I don't know at all in this."

"Right, that makes sense," he agreed. "So who is Hikaru really?"

"Sorry, I can't say that right now," Flynn said, bowing his head. "I would if I could do so safely. But once I identify her out loud, the major factions of this war will hear of it wherever they are. That would reveal for certain that I know more than I should, which will cause matters to spiral out of control."

"Really?" Issachar asked.

He nodded. "Really. Remember what you read about in Kasumigaseki? The angels manipulated the world into near-total destruction; the time we were born into was possibly the best result for humanity out of that. If pushed the wrong way, the angels or the demons could decide to simply end us all and we won't have much time to stop them. Our objective is to break the game, not ruin the world. So I need to hold back on using her true name until the right time."

"I've read a couple of stories where naming someone or something was important," he said, looking thoughtful. "And it seems like the more time we spend down here, learning things, the more complicated this situation becomes."

"It's always been like that, but at least you're here this time," Flynn said.

* * *

Cleaning up the Kasumigaseki base was taking a long time. Others were handling maintenance on the electronics and lights, to make sure they were working in a stable condition. Since the four of them were students, Fujiwara had them handling the manual cleaning of rooms between lessons. They were also getting the chance to learn more specialized skills in case they had talent for those positions.

But Hallelujah suspected the cleaning was busywork to keep them out of the way. He could imagine Abe getting after him for taking that. Strangely, he hadn't heard from Abe while they'd been here. No messages, no calls. Had something happened to him? Hallelujah didn't think it was likely since Abe had a way with demons. He never seemed to be ambushed by them. Still, he usually checked in with him most days.

'Hallelujah…'

"Huh?" He glanced around, but he was the only one cleaning in this room. There wasn't anyone in the hallway either; his friends were cleaning other rooms.

'Hallelujah, I need you.' It was a woman's voice, one he'd been waiting to hear.

"Gabriel?" he asked quietly. He didn't sense her presence nearby. But there was still a tingling sense of excitement. She could finally be calling on him!

'Come outside; one of my peers will meet you there.'

He had agreed to do this work… but it was just busywork to keep him out of the way. His friends might not trust Gabriel, but they hadn't met her. Somehow, Gabriel saw promise in him and was counting on him. Hallelujah wasn't sure he'd done much with watching Nanashi. But he was sure that he wanted to see Gabriel again.

"Okay," Hallelujah said quietly, then went to retrieve the bow and phone he had.

He nearly got away smoothly, but the guard on the street spotted him coming out. "What brings you out here alone?"

"Just some battles for practice," he said. "I won't go far on my own."

Thankfully, Chiro came out as soon as he said he was going to practice. His ears twitched.

The guard nodded. "All right, it should be quiet around here. Take care."

But, where was he to find the angel? Once they got out of hearing of the guard, Hallelujah said, "Hey Chiro, I got called by Gabriel again."

"Eh?" Chiro's ears twitched low.

"She's not bad, I'm sure of it," he said. "She said I'd meet another angel up here. Can you sniff them out?"

"Hoooo…" he didn't seem too happy about that. But after a moment of pouting, he nodded and sniffed around.

Hallelujah tried to sense the angel too. They should have a light unlike anything around them. On this street, the lights were all artificial. Except, one was different, further south. There was a purity to it that stood out in Tokyo's darkness.

Chiro barked then. When Hallelujah opened his eyes, the fox spirit was pointing south "That's what I thought," he said. "Let's go!"

Past some barriers, they found a red-winged angel that introduced himself as Aniel. "You're unusual for one to be helping us," the angel said. "But for the moment, we can't afford to be picky and you may be well suited for this."

"I guess a lot of people here would be hesitant," Hallelujah said. "But if it's for Gabriel, I'll do what I can."

"We all work for the glory of God," Aniel said. "Still, she believes that you will help us more than anyone else in Tokyo. I'll take you to where she is staying, but we must be careful. At the moment, she is being watched by a number of her enemies, mostly demons but also one treacherous black-winged angel. His name is Mastema and should you encounter him, you should not trust him. He merely believes that he is still an angel when he has been made perverse with his own delusions."

He nodded. "All right, I'll keep that in mind."

As they headed down south, Hallelujah wondered at moments if he should be doing this. People kept saying that the angels had been at fault for the war in the past. But, Flynn and his friends were dealing with a false angel. Aniel had even warned him of another false angel, so he and Gabriel might be the real angels trying to fix things. And he still didn't know what would come of helping Odin unseal Krishna.

There was also if she could love him like he did her, since she was an angel. But, maybe exceptions could be made? If he talked with Gabriel more, and helped her with her mission, maybe she'd make an exception for him? Just the thought of talking with her again made him eager and bubbly with happiness. It could work and it'd be like a dream come true, even if it was a dream he'd never had before.

Yeah, that'd be wonderful and he could ignore all the doubts with hope in that dream.

* * *

Sitting on top of a bus station in Ikebukuro, Naoki considered the situation. This wasn't the answer he thought he'd find, but it made sense of things. He still needed to confirm matters, at a good time. In the meanwhile, he knew he'd have to change his plans.

A shadowed figure appeared near him. "This is an unusual development."

"But it fits," he said. "I'm having difficulty tracking down Hikaru, though. I'd rather encounter her without first contacting her."

"Have you tried tracking down Shesha? Krishna could hide like her, but not Shesha to the right knowledge."

He looked up at his companion. "Shesha is a fairly common high level snake."

"Not the one with Krishna. It's not a shade."

"Ah, a world-eating snake would stand out," he agreed. "What do you think of this Lucifer ruse?"

"I need to do research on this. It could work for either side in my opinion, as long as they kept the true Lucifer silent. What do you think?"

He snorted. "It's clearly a false Lucifer, Flynn knew that. If you know him, it's a suspicious look he chooses. Although that throne was very nice, more like him."

"And what about the heroes?"

"Them? They seem to be human, not strongly influenced by either side. Except the fulcrum; he still is a Godslayer, since that can't be escaped. Unless you have a better idea of who he is, he could be unpredictable."

"He could be predicted; I have some ideas on what he means to do, since his goal is to break the endless war. It counts on his friends continuing to be human."

"We might want to keep tabs on them, to see how the world will shift. Let's just focus on finding Hikaru now and figuring out what's going on there."

"I'll see what I can find."


	49. Visions Converge

**Chapter 49: Visions Converge**

A roar came from overhead, bellowing over the fires around him. He was dreaming; Walter knew that for certain now. This time, he needed to track down the dragon to talk to it. He often heard it without seeing it. When he did see it, it was more content to race him or playfully fight him. But he'd been thinking over how to get its attention.

For that, he brought out his gun and fired it into the air. "Hoy! We need to talk!"

The dragon roared again, coming downward. Then a girl with black hair and a sheer silver dress appeared. "Really, it's time to talk? Being in action is better."

"Really, we're trying to figure things out," Walter said.

"What, like that?" She pointed behind him.

When he turned around, he found himself suddenly facing a vast sunny desert. A blistering wind came off the desert, making Walter wonder why he hadn't realized it was there before. Someone familiar was there, not having noticed himself. "Hoy, Jonathan!"

Jonathan turned around, looking surprised. "Walter? This hasn't happened before." He paused, looking at the divide between the desert and the burning city. "I really feel like this hasn't happened before."

"Right, but we don't remember things like Flynn does," Walter said.

"Neither of you should because you're pawns," the girl said. "Important pawns, yes, but those whose choices should be predictable."

"I don't like being a pawn," Walter said, annoyed with that.

"I think Flynn doesn't like that either," she said.

Jonathan came towards them, able to cross the divide without trouble. But once he got in the burning city, he stumbled to the ground. "I… ugh, my head…"

Walter went over and helped him back to his feet. "Careful there."

"You aren't supposed to be here, you see," the girl said. "You ever feel mildly like this when you're awake? Or not so mildly."

"Yes, several times when my views got challenged," Jonathan said. "It, it always felt like someone was rebuking me for something."

"I did too when I was going through all those marriage classes or doing Scripture studies," Walter said. "But I thought the former was my head injury, or the latter I was just reading too much."

She shook her head. "It means you're making moves that pawns like you shouldn't be making. It makes the master of the game angry because it shouldn't be possible. But here you are; you can both cross sides, but it will be tough the first time."

"I'll adapt," Jonathan said, although he still needed help to stay steady. "Is she the dragon you were talking about?"

"Yeah, she usually doesn't look like this," he said.

"Well seeing you two try this makes up for being talky," she said. "So what do you want to know?"

"What should we call you first, since you don't look like a dragon now," Walter said.

"I don't know," she said, as if it didn't matter to her. "I don't think I really have a name? At least not like this. So call me whatever."

"What, like call you Whatever?" Jonathan joked, doing his best to ignore what was happening to him.

"It's as good as anything else you could call me," she said.

"Eh, Black is more fitting for you," Walter said. "Anyhow, Black, we were hoping you and the caged angel in Jonathan's dreams could tell us more about how we could help Flynn. It's mostly a hunch, but we thought you two could help."

"We have learned more about why he is how he is recently," Jonathan said. "He's seen us die repeatedly."

"That and much worse things," she said, then swayed back and forth. "I don't know if I should tell you, even though he would be reluctant to speak of it. But it was enough that he once chose to destroy all of existence."

"He did what?" Walter asked, shocked at that.

"He was made to believe that the world wasn't worth saving, and so chose to destroy everything," Black repeated. "But he got dragged right back into the time loop he's stuck in, which drove him insane. He's calmed down from that, but it's not easy to build yourself back up from being shattered like that even with all the time he's had. Believe me, I've been trying to do the same and I still don't know my own name."

"Well what happened to you?" Jonathan asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. The earliest thing I remember with certainty is feeling betrayed. It was by someone, or multiple someones. But it was also being betrayed by something fundamental. Like, I dunno, maybe like when you guys first learned that demons were real when everyone said they were fantasy. Or maybe your job was guarding a bridge and telling everyone it was safe, only for it to suddenly collapse under you one day. But the only things I remember way back when are vague feelings and things I still know."

"That's strange," Walter said. "What about the angel over there?"

"She didn't realize she was caged," Jonathan said.

Black thought about that. "Hmm… I should be connected to her. I mean, it just makes sense. You two are supposed to hate each other, but you're basically on the same scale."

"We're supposed to hate each other?" Jonathan asked, looking at him and seeming puzzled at the idea.

"So beings that wander around in your dreams should have some connection to each other, one would think," Black continued on.

"Makes sense, although I don't see how I could hate Jonathan," Walter said.

"We're different, but not that different," Jonathan agreed.

"Well if you want to help Flynn out, you ought to make sure that your friendship is in good shape too," Black said. "He cares about both of you as his friends even though the fated track would tear you all apart. But you can figure that out. For tonight, you should introduce me to this angel! I want to go meet her."

"I'm curious about that too, even if it'll give me a headache going out in that desert," Walter said, then joked, "It's way too bright out there, like somebody made the sun ten times stronger."

He laughed a little at that. "It really is. But I'm glad to be dreaming here because I don't know if we could breathe with all this smoke."

"Well then let's try out the desert dream," Walter said.

When he crossed over, he felt nauseous and dizzy, like this whole dream was wrong. Jonathan was quick to return the favor, keeping him steady on his feet until he adjusted. Meanwhile, Black went back and forth across the divide like it amused her. They headed across the sands once Walter could walk on his own. He still had a headache, but wasn't going to delay them for that.

They came across the caged angel abruptly; she was quietly meditating, or maybe sleeping while sitting up. Black went right up and touched the cage, but drew her hand back quickly. "Hey, it's you!"

The angel opened her eyes. "You're all here?" she asked sleepily. Then she blinked, seeming more awake as she noticed Black. "Even you? But why do you appear female? We should be opposites, different sides of the same coin. So why do you not appear male?"

"Boo, I want to be a girl too," Black said, stamping a foot down in the sand. "Who cares about proper symbolism when you could be pretty?"

"Uh, aren't you a dragon?" Jonathan asked, raising an eyebrow. "Why would you care about being pretty?"

"It makes me happy and that's all that matters," she said. "So do you know my name?"

"Do you have a name?" the angel asked. "Naming things gives them form. You are chaos. What name could you give to chaos?"

"That's what I thought," Black said. "These two are calling me Black for now."

"Others are calling me Merkabah," the angel said. "But it does not feel quite right."

"Merkabah, the Chariot of God?" Jonathan asked. The angel nodded.

"What sense does that make?" Black asked. "Me, at least I currently have black hair. But you don't look anything like a chariot."

"That was not what I was thinking, but it does add doubt," she said. "But call me Merkabah for now. What brings all of you here?"

"We've been trying to reach these dreams to ask you two for advice," Jonathan said. "We want to help Flynn better, but we're not sure how. Black told us that we should make sure to keep our friendship strong."

"You mean so past cycles of time don't repeat themselves?" Merkabah asked. "I apologize, but I don't remember past cycles well. It has become increasingly apparent that it is happening, but I only have vague ideas about it myself."

"Like us, huh?" Walter asked.

"Well you are order and law, so it's not natural for you to remember this kind of thing," Black said.

Merkabah put her hands in her lap. "But I have been watching, as well as I can. Flynn has been suffering, but he's been happy as well. According to your roles, you are expected to be loyal to other people. So far, you have decided to remain loyal to Flynn. He will not follow the others even should you choose them. It is clear then what would be most helpful to him."

"Staying loyal to him along with keeping our friendship, huh," Jonathan said. "It makes sense, but is that really enough?"

"He seems to have a plan that he's tested out greatly," Merkabah said. "But in his mental state, he may fail to complete it if he is pushed to be alone again, or with a sole companion as is normal for the fated path. With the support of more companions, particularly you two, his chances of success greatly improve. The confidence of having you with him is worth as much as anything you could do."

"Well doing things will build on that confidence, so don't be lazy," Black said.

"We'll stay with him, right?" Jonathan asked.

Walter nodded. "Right. But what's up with you two? You seem really aware of what's going on in some ways, but not in others. Especially you, Black."

"My knowledge is related to how much I care about something," Black said.

"It should be that I know what I should know," Merkabah said, clutching one of her arms. "But I feel like that is not so. As you both are here, I've wanted to talk about something. Maybe ask, I'm not sure."

"Sure, what's the matter?" Jonathan asked, worried about her.

"It's about mercy," Merkabah said. "I'm sure you knew that I was listening when Marie said that the angels needed to be taught mercy. That does not make sense. Of those angels who did not fall, they should have the patience, love, and grace to naturally have mercy. But those I'm seeing in the world now have little of those virtues. It's bizarre."

"Are they all fake aside from Issachar?" Walter asked, feeling unsettled at that.

"Fake is not quite the right term," Black said. "They are false, not fallen."

"Fake and false are the same thing, right?" Walter said.

She held a hand up, her fingers close together. "They're a midge different, but that midge makes a world of difference."

"There should be true angels in the world," Merkabah said. "Issachar is human, yet he is the closest thing to a true angel that I'm seeing. He has patience, love, heavenly grace, and mercy. When other angels speak of him, they say they were disturbed on seeing his angelic form. Something is terribly amiss based merely on that."

"Is that going to cause him problems later?" Walter asked.

"That would be bad since that'd trouble Flynn more," Jonathan said.

"That depends on if Issachar can stand up for himself against other angels," Merkabah said. "I see him as an excellent example of human and angel, but they may see him as a false one to eliminate. But back to mercy, I believe I am not meant to listen to mercy."

"Aren't you an angel too, so you should have mercy?" Jonathan said, perplexed at that.

"I do know of mercy, but I am a judge and executioner," Merkabah explained. "That's what feels right. I must put aside mercy to have a clear and unbiased judgment of all I am called to judge. Someone else would argue for mercy and my judgment could be overturned by their word. However, when things are wrong like this, we may be on our own. Therefore, it would be acceptable to reassess my position and take mercy into account in dealing with others."

It was an odd line of reasoning to Walter, although the conclusion was good. Meanwhile, Black found that funny. "You feel that way because you've been in contact with these guys?"

"That seems plausible," Merkabah said.

"What do we change with you two?" Walter asked.

"It would be nice to know that," Black replied.

"I'm not certain either," Merkabah said. "Watching over you both has led me to see things through a mortal's eyes. It's a viewpoint I feel unfamiliar with. That forces me to think differently. However, I don't think that is what I feel is wrong. Flynn may have a better idea of what is wrong, but he wants us to observe and learn the situation ourselves. I've been observing when I can keep alert, but I feel like I'm kept asleep constantly."

"Well I'm dangerous when I'm motivated," Black said. "And you're just plain dangerous. We would totally wreck the game if allowed to work as free agents. I feel like doing so. How about you?"

"We don't know what the problem exactly is, so we shouldn't go in recklessly," Merkabah said. "And I can't do anything but observe and advise now. Let's not plan anything aggressive at this time."

"Bah," Black said, then looked off. Walter hadn't noticed yet, but her form was flickering. "Oh, um, I might be in trouble." Then she vanished.

"How do we help you two?" Walter asked, feeling fearful for Black.

Merkabah sighed. "She is impulsive, but powerful. For the moment, I'm being left alone in this cage. I will be fine, but we should track her down to see if she is in trouble. We would be in trouble if she got used against us."

"Is she…?" Jonathan started to ask, but then everything got fuzzy.

* * *

Shesha had dropped them near the very edge of Tokyo's western side, in a completely uninhabited area that had more poisonous swamp than buildings. Hikaru merrily led them this way and that without a thought to the poison. Eventually, they found their way to Shibuya. "Could we stick around civilization for some time?" Krishna asked, honestly tired of it all.

"What, you don't want to have more swampy adventures?" Hikaru said jokingly. "There's a dragon out there we could fight, or party with. Either one would be good. But so would hanging around here. We could do something good for the humans."

"Really?" Krishna asked.

She playfully punched his arm. "You're supposed to be a god, silly! So you should be doing good things to humans."

"There are an awful lot of us who hardly think of humans," he said. Those darker thoughts kept bubbling up in his mind.

"I didn't think you were like that because of Vishnu," Hikaru said. "He's generally benevolent unless you hurt somebody he cares about, including the humans who believe in him."

That was true; he should be more concerned about himself, and the humans. "Sorry, these times have been hard on me," Krishna said.

"Well then start helping people and maybe you'll feel back to yourself," she said. "And, um…" she looked off into the darkness.

After a moment, Krishna looked over and saw that she was completely spaced out. "Hikaru?" he asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Hmm?" She glanced around, then frowned. "Hey, what are we doing near Shibuya? We were supposed to be around Shinjuku."

"I told you that I didn't know this city well," Krishna said, knowing right away that he needed to be cautious. "You hadn't complained yet, so I thought we were going the right way."

After a moment, she smiled. "Guess I was having too much fun. There's something I should be doing. We should go ahead into Shibuya since we're here, figure out the situation. Maybe we'll have to wing things for a while longer. Hmm, but that's more interesting, actually."

"As long as we're not wandering those swamps, I don't care where we go right now," he said. How much did she remember?

She raised an eyebrow, but then said, "Fine by me. But did something happen?"

"Yes, don't you remember?" he asked back. "We ended up not where we meant to go."

"But how?" She continued to try getting that information out of him while he tried to avoid telling her; it was a challenge much better than figuring out what to do about Flynn now.

* * *

"It's not that bad of an idea," Thor insisted. "Just trading one for the other, right?"

Odin put his hand to his forehead, holding back a sigh. "Not quite, and the difference could undo us. You should know that better than anyone."

Traveling across Tokyo to cut down on demons had not turned out as well as they'd hoped for. For one thing, they had to find certain kinds of demons to battle. There were alliances to be kept, meaning they had to pass up dispatching some demons. And there were groups of other demons that were best to not provoke, like Lucifer's closer allies or any demon that fell under a Roman heritage. One also had to be careful with fairies. Even though they themselves were rarely strong, the Celtic pantheon often allied with fairies and they could be a threat. And many of those demons would be better off joining the cause of Salvation.

Even when they found demons to fight, they were running into problems. They had to leave Shibuya not that long ago since Maitreya had arrived with the Ring of Gaea for their cause. Elsewhere, they ran into humans who were not properly grateful for their assistance. Odin could understand why the humans didn't want them in the underground shelters. That was the safe zone for the weak ones. Even if they grudgingly respected that, the humans could at least give them the gratitude and praise that they as gods were due. Odin had to keep Thor from trying to punish some groups, since they needed the humans alive to gather their souls.

That led them here, back to Kinshicho Park where Thor had brought up his half-baked notion. "It's one world-eating serpent for another," he argued, though he should know better than to try arguing with him. "It's an important role, yes, but ultimately a tool. Why not bring in a similar tool?"

"Because you can't use Jormungandr as a tool," Odin said. "Vishnu tamed Shesha long ago, which is why Krishna can use that snake as a tool. You never tamed Jormungandr; you two simply fight whenever you encounter each other and so far, you've kept him from destroying the world. If we told him that we would let him swallow up everything, I'm sure he'd agree to that. But to disconnect the souls of humanity from YHVH and give them back to us gods who were cast down, we can't be sure Jormungandr would actually do that. He'd attempt to destroy us all and keep the souls for himself."

"I can force him to do as we plan," Thor said. "Jormungandr has never defeated me."

"Yes, but I wouldn't count on that with something so important," he said. "We have to come up with some other means to accomplish our goal."

Thor snorted, but did seem to think it over. "What about Mem Aleph? She has worshipers in the Ring of Gaea, so she won't be half-mad like Innana."

Shaking his head, Odin said, "I would rather count on Jormungandr than Mem Aleph. She could accomplish our goal of severing souls from YHVH and creating a new world, but she will take command of our allegiance, reestablish the matriarchal tradition, and force us to step down as leaders of gods."

"Are you sure of that?" Thor asked.

"Yes, I've heard some stories from Zeus." About half of said stories were about how Mem Aleph refused his advances, but Zeus did have good information. She'd had considerable power in another world where people had mostly forgotten her. With the Ring of Gaea worship, she might be more powerful in this world.

"Hmmm…" Thor looked out over the city from the rooftop they were standing on. This was a city of the night sky, a dark expanse full of sparkling lights and grand towers. It was an impressive landscape that humans had made here. "I could tame Jormungandr if I tried. Here, how about this?"

He did have a decent idea now. It might even work. Even if it didn't, it would be a more interesting quest than what they were currently doing. Once they patched up some potential problems, Odin agreed to taming Jormungandr to replace Shesha.

* * *

'To the Mikado samurai:

I hear from some of our men in Ikebukuro that you want to visit us in the Ginza area. In defeating Xi Wangmu, you have certainly proven your strength. Yet, you've also angered a few of our members who were looking to defeat her themselves. You've earned the chance to test your power with us, to see if we will accept you. But to appease the others, I have a request to make of you. Before you can enter Ginza, we want you to scout out Shibuya for us. We've recently been there to accomplish some goals and talk to the residents, but were driven out before we knew if we truly succeeded. Check the situation there and then report to us. If your information is sound, we will even let you into our temple of Tsukiji Hongwangi.

From Yuriko, leader of the Ring of Gaea.'

In their current states, neither Gaea nor the Ashura-kai were good for Tokyo as a whole. Flynn considered this mission from Yuriko, if passing on a scouting report would tip the balance. It wasn't clear what was going on in Shibuya, just the word from Souta and eventually the Shinjuku managers that it was being actively fought over. And like Shinjuku, the situation in Shibuya was not something he'd encountered before. He didn't want to get too worked up over that. It was important to know…

And since there was no domain over the bookstore here in Ikebukuro, getting to Tsukiji Hongwangji was needed to confront Lilith. Flynn also knew more about Ginza and the Gaean temple than he used to. He could make it clear that he and his friends weren't going to join forces with them easily. As Jonathan had told them all about his encounter with Lilith in Yuriko's guise, his friends would be better prepared to confront her.

It was a clear choice until he got another request directly to his gauntlet, this one from an ally.

'To Flynn:

There's something I want to do to further undermine the Ashura-kai by uncovering a terrible truth they keep from most everyone else. I'm sure you know what I mean, with the Roppongi Hills project. For the past few days, I've been gathering information for a video to release to the general public. However, I'm having difficulty getting video from the site itself. I don't think I can do much safely there in person by myself, so could you bring your group to help me there? Once I get in the building, I'm sure I can crack into their local network. We might even be able to shut down operations there, if we follow some precautions in being there. I know what those precautions entail, so we should be fine.

From Michi'

The request made him frown. He trusted Michi to have good intentions, and the ability to do as he planned if protected from the demons in the Reverse Hills farm. Although it was cutting out a few steps from normal, he felt like his friends would be fine there. They'd be horrified, of course, but it was a truth they needed to see. And if they had trouble with the powerful JSDF demons there, he could handle them himself.

However, it was coming strangely close to the request from Yuriko, who was usually the one who sent them to the Reverse Hills. Flynn had planned out a few ways he could get them into Reverse Hills, including just taking the request from Yuriko if she offered. But, from Michi? He would have no connection to the Ring of Gaea, as they had been his former employer's rival. They'd arrived in Shinjuku at an opportune moment as well… it felt like once again, someone had prepared a path for him even though he thought he was forging their way himself.

He'd take both requests on behalf of their group, of course. One was from an ally and the other was getting them to one of their main objectives. But was he falling into a trap of yet someone else directing his actions? He should be the one leading the way…

Another beep from his gauntlet startled Flynn. "Master, you have a message from Stephen," Burroughs said.

He sighed softly, then rubbed his forehead. "That's good, it was getting strange that I hadn't heard from him," he said to himself. "Let me see it."

As usual, it was a simple message. He could hear the man's calm voice in it. 'There's no need to overthink things, Flynn. I would not call this a coincidence, but neither would I call it malicious. In fact, there are those you didn't expect who are looking for your plans to succeed. I guided you before, but thus far have not seen a reason to intervene with you in this time. But I will still support you in your efforts. Also, there is something that you should keep in mind: as long as Issachar continues to think of himself as a human first, he is in no danger of losing his will as other angels might. I'm genuinely curious as to what his situation will lead to, much the same as what will actually happen when you break the game completely.'

Flynn read the message through a second time, just in case. Once he'd assured himself that it said what it did, he nodded. "Good… this is good. If Michi can wait, we can scout out Shibuya first, then see about the Reverse Hills. I should warn Fujiwara, though, so he can keep things from spiraling out of control when Tayama falls. Then it's a matter of making sure the Ring is also neutered. And if these rumors are true, that's already happening…"

Since Fujiwara wasn't fully aware of the situation, Flynn composed a note to him that asked if investigating Shibuya and Roppongi would cause problems. It also mentioned that his contact about Roppongi was insistent that it was important, so they would most likely go ahead with the request. He sent that, then started orders to his group that they would be heading to another town once they'd taken care of any requests they'd picked up here in Ikebukuro. In speaking with the two Ring of Gaea guards, Flynn felt they could be trusted to keep the survivors safe until other Hunters came to help out.

He was trusting a lot of people to do the right things, or at least do things he could count on. Even with his power, he couldn't fully control what anyone else did. What he had was knowledge of how many people involved tended to act and the ability to guide them towards moves he wanted to happen. Maybe his plans had weak points, and a lot of them. But there were others who wanted to see his plans succeed, even if they didn't know the details. Hopefully, those others would help things along.

Hope… he was counting a lot on hope even though he'd seen the reality of what could happen. "Maybe I'll falter, but I will not give up again," Flynn said quietly. Keep scattering pieces everywhere, into a strategy others wouldn't see coming, while adapting to people moving abruptly in ways like Naverre taking to trade… and keep holding onto hope, that this would work.

There were many potential points for failure… no, keep forging ahead. There was no point to quitting in the middle of the game. And focus most on the immediate strategy… which was observing how Shibuya changed and adapting his next moves to that situation. Flynn closed his eyes, sharpening his thoughts towards that goal. From what he'd heard, the Ring of Gaea had swept in to slaughter Red-addicted demons in Shibuya, putting them into a fierce conflict with the Ashura-kai on the latter's turf. The death count was unclear, although both sides claimed they did not harm civilians…

The sound of laughter briefly broke his focus. Flynn glanced up from the old desk he'd been using for some administrative duties; Isabeau and Issachar had both talked him into doing so today instead of going out to fight demons. Perhaps that was for the best. Across the way, he could see Jonathan and Walter talking with an old man, presumably reporting in on a request. Jonathan was playfully rebuking Walter for something, although both of them were smiling over whatever just happened. The old man, who was usually grim and serious, smiled like their antics were refreshing.

Seeing that, Flynn smiled as well. There was something that Masakado always said whenever they managed to work together: the spirits of Goodwill and Spite were meant to bolster the Spirit of Hope. It had never occurred before now, unfortunately. But back in Shinjuku, he had felt the balance shifting in a different manner. They both immediately reached out to him when he could have instantly killed either of them before he could stop himself. That had stopped him more than anything else could have.

Walter then leaned over and said something that got Jonathan flustered, then trying to laugh it off while smacking him away. The old man replied with something that made them all laugh. Elsewhere in sight, a young woman who he'd always seen dispirited was listening in and smiling too. His friends could bring cheer even to a place like Ikebukuro. Then this new path was working just as it should.

Since they were having fun, Flynn held off on sending the orders right away. Right as he decided that, Burroughs alerted him again. "Fujiwara has replied to your message; that was quick."

"It is an important matter," Flynn said, opening up the message.

'Flynn: I would agree that such investigations are important, and must admit that I'm not certain of what is going on with the Roppongi Hills School myself. No one has heard from the children who were gathered there outside of videos which we suspect are staged. However, it will dangerous for your group to get involved when the Ashura-kai is still recovering from the fiascoes with Akihabara and Shibuya. You are outsiders and we do not wish to lose the new trade your kingdom has generously offered us.

'But if you are willing to take such risks, then you must commit to them. As your source says this truth can topple the Ashura-kai, then you must be willing to do so if you seek out this truth. It may be best if none can identify your group as the ones who did so, at least not immediately. Would it happen to be the terminal guardian who is your informant? If so, I would like to coordinate with both of you to make sure things go smoothly…'

Fujiwara then had several questions on how they intended to investigate. Good, his interest was something Flynn appreciated. He'd done this investigation of Reverse Hills many times before, but Fujiwara had many years experience negotiating politics and even military matters. He was the best person to check over their plans and advise them of potential problems.

This was going well; it had to keep going well.


	50. The Secluded Sector

**Chapter 50: The Secluded Sector**

"Hey Nanashi, are you awake yet?" Another loud knock came on the door. "I'm not supposed to come in here, but I will if I have to."

"Didn't we already talk about that?" Nanashi grumbled, rubbing his eyes. Then his demonica started beeping.

"What was that?" Asahi asked.

Sighing, he looked up at the ceiling of this dorm room. "I set an alarm, like I said I would."

"Okay, just checking. Oh, and did Hallelujah come back?"

"Mmm…" he sat up and glanced over at the other bunk in the room. It was empty. "He's not in here."

"Oh. Well, guess I have to ask one of the older Hunters to check on the rooms in here in case he's somewhere else. Don't go back to sleep now."

Where was Hallelujah? The guard above ground said that he'd gone to fight demons on his own. When he didn't come back an hour later, the adult Hunters searched around the streets for him. Apparently he was still gone. Had he died? Nanashi hoped not. But, it was always a possibility.

After getting ready for the day, he went to the dining hall to get breakfast. There was no word on Hallelujah yet. But, Toki was sitting at one of the tables, doing something with her phone. He sat down with her. "What're you doing?"

"I want to contact somebody," she replied. "But I never had a phone before and they always contacted me. I don't mind working for the Hunters, but it's strange to have not heard anything."

"You worked with the Ring of Gaea, right?" he asked quietly.

She nodded. "They were like family, I think. And I've overheard that the group's in trouble now. I'd like to know the situation, and what they want me to do now."

"Maybe we can talk Nikkari into letting us visit Ginza, if we're done here," Nanashi said. "Although we don't know where Hallelujah went. We should try finding him first."

"The Ashura-kai might've called him back. That could explain why he's not answering our messages."

"You messaged him too?" Nanashi asked.

Looking back at her phone, she said, "Asahi asked me to. Maybe his phone isn't working."

"I hope that's it, and not that he's hurt," Nanashi said.

At that point, his demonica beeped. "Master, you've gotten a message from an unidentified source," Burroughs said to him. "It's safe and mentions your friend Hallelujah; would you like to see it?"

"Oh, sure," he said, putting his arm on the table. Toki looked at him curiously. "I have some message that mentions him," he told her.

"From him?" Toki asked.

Nanashi shrugged, then read it over. 'I've been watching over you, waiting for a good time to contact you. In doing so, I saw an angel lure Hallelujah off to the south yesterday. You will not be able to reach the place he has been taken. If you wish to find him and perhaps thwart the angels' plans, you should head for Shinjuku.'

"Is it a ransom note?" Toki asked.

"No, but it claims Hallelujah was taken away by an angel," he said. "And we should head to Shinjuku if we want to find him. I wonder if one of the tech people here can figure out who sent this message."

The message couldn't be tracked, unfortunately. After a few hours, it was still the only clue as to where Hallelujah was. Nanashi wanted to find him, but it would be good to let Toki check in with the Ring too. Did they have any members in Shinjuku? And was Hallelujah going to be okay? He was infatuated with Gabriel, which could be trouble in many ways.

* * *

The demons in this area were extremely powerful; Hallelujah could feel it even when he couldn't see the demons. He would have been frightened to be here in any other manner. However, Aniel could wipe out swaths of demons with a powerful light. The spell did make the hairs on his neck stand on end. He didn't want to face it himself. But Aniel and Gabriel were on his side. He would be fine.

Eventually, they came across a wall of golden fire stretching far into the sky. Aniel shuffled his red wings, revealing a thin arm. "Here, I need to bring you through our barrier."

"Alright," he said, taking the angel's hand. Passing through was like walking right by fire, a magical heat that wanted to burn him away. It didn't touch him with Aniel's assistance.

Down the street, Aniel let him into a shrine. There was a very strange being inside, a humanoid figure made from gnarled roots. But her presence matched that of Aniel. "Thank you for coming so promptly, Hallelujah," she said.

Why did she look like this? It was weird. But, it was her. "Of course, Gabriel," he said, smiling at her. "How can I help you?"

"We need some assistance in gathering supplies, for the plan God has given us," she said. "Currently, we're protecting a small group of people in a shelter nearby. However, they are not able to help us yet. But you seem tired. There's a room over there you may rest in; we'll discuss your part in our mission later."

He felt relieved at that. "Thanks, it was a long trek over here," he said. "Although, there was something I wanted to tell you about. I've heard that the people above the Firmament have been troubled by an impostor of you. It seemed like a crazy thing, but I trust the guy who told me that."

"I'm aware of that situation," Gabriel said. "It's regrettable that such confusion could occur, but I will fix the problem. What you will do will help with that. Now please, rest. Your tasks shouldn't be difficult, but you may need a sharp mind."

"Okay, I just wanted to make sure you knew," he said. "See you in a while."

"Sleep well," she said.

Hallelujah had some trouble getting to sleep as several things kept running through his mind. Why did she look like this? It wasn't very angelic. Then again, he'd seen some pictures of strange angels, like the throne that had wings that were a wheel of fire and a head that was nearly skeletal in its thinness. But she was still kind and thoughtful. Although she knew what he was, she was relying on him for something very important. Gabriel was still good, someone he could admire.

And adore… maybe something was wrong and she was stuck looking like this? Maybe what he was doing would restore her to a form more fitting of her, even more beautiful than her human guise. That would be wonderful. Although, it still didn't answer if she would love him like he did her. But the only thing to do was try; Abe would encourage him to go after a woman he liked. Except, he'd gone into a strange rage when Gabriel had first talked to him. Why was that? And where was Abe anyhow? It could be trouble if he just showed up out of the blue, as he tended to do.

At some point, he did fall asleep with a dream, maybe two, that suggested that he was doing the right thing. Hallelujah wasn't sure of the details, but he wanted it to be true. On waking up, he was given some water and a strange pale food called manna. While it didn't taste like much, it did leave him feeling energetic and alert.

Gabriel wasn't in the main room when he came out. Instead, there were four adults at prayer there. One man noticed and left off to greet him. "You're a new face around here."

"Yeah, Aniel brought me here a few hours ago to help them," Hallelujah said, trying to be polite and not stare much. The man was taller than him, but so gaunt that he had to weigh much less. The other three were in equally rough shape.

"That's good, although we still hope to help them," the man said. "How is the rest of the city? We've not heard anything outside of our area for nearly a year."

"It's been really chaotic the past week or so," he said, then explained what he knew about the conflicts and strange events.

In exchange, the man told him what happened with them. Strangely, they'd been abandoned by the Ashura-kai. Hallelujah knew several members that cared more about themselves than anything, but he felt that the group was always looking out for Tokyo's best interests. They took care of people. Why would they abandon a whole sector of the city? Especially since this was near the docks with their abundant warehouses.

Just when the conversation started to die down, Gabriel came back into the shrine. "Thank you for visiting," she told the locals. "But I need to speak with Hallelujah for a while. Please leave us for now."

"As you wish," the man said. "We'll pray that your plans go well."

"As you should," Gabriel said. Once the others were gone, she transformed herself back to her human guise. "I'm glad you've decided to work for God."

"S-sure, I felt I could trust you," Hallelujah said, which was closer to the truth.

She nodded. "We're trying to make the world that God desires, one of peace and stability. However, we are in a time of war. The high presence of demons has twisted up morality, leading to many sins. Those sins include this notion of false angels as well as families that abandon each other to save themselves. It has also led us angels into losing ground when we should be a clear choice of safe refuge for humanity. Therefore, God has instructed us to carry out an unusual plan. It must be done soon."

A world of peace and stability, where families wouldn't abandon each other… his throat tightened some at that. To make a world like that, it was definitely worthwhile to help her. "Right, then what do you mean to do?"

After a moment when some unreadable emotion flitted across her face, she said, "I believe you would call it chemical warfare. As long as people heed our warning, there should not be many casualties. I must admit that I am uneasy with resorting to such measures; we angels usually work with the gifts that God gave us. But, this is His wisdom, I am sure of that. We must gain some solid ground in this conflict or else much of our efforts will be for naught.

"In order to carry this plan out we must access a warehouse in this area that the Ashura-kai claims as their own." She gestured off to the east where the docks would be. "It is not far. However, there is another false angel lurking outside of my barrier. He proves his falseness by not being able to pass through it. Mastema will likely attempt to catch me in some trap should I leave this area; he's paying close attention to me. But as you may have guessed, he does not pay much heed to Aniel coming and going. Aniel will assist you again in reaching the warehouse with the items we need. And you would be able to enter such a place?"

"I should be able to, although it depends on the security level they put on the doors," Hallelujah said. "I've done plenty of warehouse work in fetching supplies, so I know the layouts of several."

"Good, it was the right call to bring you here," Gabriel said. "I'll send a list of what we require to your phone. If you can also come up with a vehicle to transport the supplies here, that would be a great benefit."

Chemical warfare from angels? It sounded strange, but she said it was a plan from God. If he wanted to stick with her, he should trust in this plan. But, he should let Nikkari and the others know where he was. Hallelujah got out his phone to send a text, but then noticed that it was getting no reception. This area was cut off. He wrote up a text anyhow, setting his phone to send it once it could get a signal again.

This definitely wasn't busywork; it might even be something that could change the city. Hopefully, it wasn't going to kill off people. Maybe it was just to kill off a large number of demons?

* * *

The Gauntlet Rite was coming up again. Although he had been training for a few years, Gaston was still only sixteen and thus not qualified to go through it. But he was able to help out with it. This afternoon, it meant that he went to pull gauntlets to test potential samurai with. The gauntlet storage was like any storage room in the castle, rows of relics carefully stored so they lasted a long time.

But it was a place connected to many legends, those of the past and future, all the ones he'd read of and more. It was very ordinary work, even more so than decorating around the castle. But Gaston felt excited to be here. What gauntlet might awaken to him?

One of his favorite teachers, Sir Thomas, was there to help along with a pair of women from the monastery. "We've had a lot of samurai chosen since that year your brother was," Thomas said, gesturing to an entirely empty shelf. "Given the way it's going, it's good that he moved back in with your family. We might fill up the dorm building entirely, which has never happened before."

"What are you going to do if there's not enough apartments there?" Gaston asked. It might be an issue in a couple of years when he got chosen, although he could possibly stay at the castle too.

"We're not sure, aside from encouraging some of the older ones there to seek their own housing," he said. "Although the rooms that have been taken up the longest belong to Flynn and Issachar, so we can't kick them out. They're technically still apprentices, I think."

"They're doing greater things then a lot of other samurai," he said. Naverre had told him about how the others in his group had gone to defeat a demon that controlled the land itself so that they could then go challenge one said to be invincible. Apparently, they had won both battles easily. As for what Naverre himself was doing, it wasn't as exciting. But he was doing things that no one else had dreamed of, namely seeking a peaceful union with the Unclean Ones of the Underground. Although, Naverre didn't like it when the people of Tokyo were called Unclean Ones.

"True," Thomas said in admiration.

"It's a pity that their efforts are taking so long for us," one of the women said. "We could use strong samurai like them in dealing with these angels and the zealots at Shene Duque."

"But they'll take out the leaders and things will get better," Gaston said. Although he still hoped that he had a chance to prove himself.

"I never thought the ex-abbot could get more intolerable," one of the women said. "But that speech he gave yesterday was awful. He wants everyone to give up all hobbies and reading, even the reading of Scriptures.

"I missed that," the other woman said. "If he wants everyone to give up on reading, how does he expect us to teach Scriptures?"

"Apparently only a few people will take on the burden of sin of reading, as he put it."

"Reading isn't a sin," Gaston said, taking another gauntlet off the shelf. Something on it slipped under his grip, so he had to grab it with both hands.

And the black panel now revealed lit up. "My word, this gauntlet," Thomas said coming to his side.

"It's chosen me, right?" Gaston asked, pulling the gauntlet to his chest. "So it's mine now."

"You didn't go through the proper rite, although it should belong to you," Thomas said. "Given how hard you've worked, this doesn't seem random."

One of the nuns came over to check, then smiled. "Actually, there's stories within the monastery of this kind of sign, when a young person helping us here is chosen shortly before the rite. It's usually one of our own, but it is considered auspicious."

"Hope might be wary, but we'll talk with him," Thomas said.

* * *

As it was more important to find someone who was completely missing, Nikkari decided that they were going to Shinjuku instead of Ginza. But as the message indicated that they might not find Hallelujah immediately, the old master agreed to stop by the station that led to Ginza. It was one of the areas that the Ring of Gaea guarded to cut off their territory from the rest of Tokyo. As a result, there was always a guard or two in this station. Nikkari kept Nanashi and Asahi out on the road to work on demon battles, so Toki could head down on her own.

There was a man sitting on a milk crate where the hall to Ginza was; his head was hanging down on his shoulder, asleep. Nearby, an armored Momunofu rapped his spear on the ground. "What business do you have here?"

"I came to get news on the Ring, as well as a phone number to contact someone through," Toki replied, showing a gold ring she was wearing as proof of her membership. Without her mask, that was the best proof she had.

The demon nodded to it. "We've had a hard-earned victory against the Ashura-kai in Shibuya; we want the scattered members to check in as a result." Then he knocked the man with the shaft of his spear. "Hey! Get up!"

The man snorted, nearly falling off his crate. "I'm awake, I'm awake!" he claimed, shaking his head.

"Don't lie, you were sleeping," the Momunofu said.

"You should be ashamed for such a poor job in guarding," Toki said.

"If you're going to complain, then take over for me," the man said, getting to his feet. "I've been at this for fifteen hours now and you're the first person to come by."

After showing him her ring, she asked, "Are we truly short-handed?"

"As far as I can tell," he said. "I was here at this guard station while everyone else was off in Shibuya or Ikebukuro. From what I heard, we got a powerful demon who was already rebelling against the Reds to help us. But then the Ashura-kai brought out some other crazy strong demons to fight back. I dunno, some people have been calling it a glorious battle, but it sounds to me like a slaughterfest on both sides. Winning is all fine and good, but if it comes at the cost of dying, I'm glad I was stuck over here."

It should be a cowardly thing to say. But then, there was some merit to still being alive and able to improve. Death would stagnate one's growth like nothing else. "Then we are in bad shape," Toki said. "But I was put to a special mission by Yuriko. I need to continue it until she calls me off it in person."

"That makes sense," the guard said. "I hope your mission is going well."

"It is, but I will decline making my report through you," she said, bringing out her phone. "I need some contact information, since I got a phone of my own. Some way to contact Yuriko would help, or the trainers of the youth warriors."

Bringing out his own phone, he said, "I have no contact with Yuriko like that, but I can forward your new number to the youth leader and give you their number."

"That should suffice for now," Toki said. Once she had the number, she excused herself and left the station.

Nikkari was close to the entrance of the station; he nodded when she came out. "How did things go?"

"I got some contact information," she said. "Not exactly what I wanted, but it will do. But it seems things are short-handed for the Ring."

He'd already turned his eyes back to Asahi and Nanashi fighting a group of demons nearby. "Are you going to stay with the Ring or the Hunters?"

"Watching over Nanashi is my assigned mission and it has not been taken back," she said. "I'm staying with him."

Nikkari glanced back over at her. "Because it's your mission or you want to?"

"Does it matter?" she asked. "I do as ordered, irrelevant of my opinion on things."

"I think your opinion is relevant to what you do," he said, turning back to the battle. "Those two would agree."

It should be bad; it was different. But Toki felt glad that he said that. "You have different means of training. How do you get your students to have appropriate discipline if you're so permissive?"

Nikkari chuckled. "I always thought I was more reasonable than permissive. These are dangerous times, so discipline is needed. But, I find that discipline doesn't need a harsh teacher."

Was that true? Nanashi seemed disciplined, but Asahi wasn't. But, Nikkari already trusted her skills. Her trainers had never said directly if her progress was sufficient, always criticizing and pushing her to keep training. They also didn't let her socialize with other students, or anyone at all. Maybe that wasn't important, but it was enjoyable.

"I think I would like to stay with you all for a while longer," Toki said. "It's different. I haven't decided if it is better, but it's different."

"Good, it helps to have different experiences," Nikkari said.

Once their battle was done, Nanashi and Asahi said that they were glad she was staying with them. That definitely made Toki feel happy, so this was good. Now they just needed to get Hallelujah back and things would be great.

* * *

Commander Hope hadn't seemed surprised when Gaston came in with the activated gauntlet. Maybe he had heard the stories too. Besides Gaston was sixteen; he wasn't a kid anymore. After asking if he was sure he wanted to dedicate his life to being a samurai (of course he was sure!), Hope agreed that he would join the apprentices from the formal rite in a couple of days.

Gaston's parents were another story. His mother gasped and acted faint. "Oh my word, you too?" she asked, dropping onto a couch.

"This can't be proper, since you're not old enough for the rite," his father said.

"But the commander and some of the nuns said that it was proper, that it happened sometimes," Gaston said. "Besides, this gauntlet won't answer to anyone else while I'm alive. I've been called to be a samurai and that's what I'm gonna do."

"You're supposed to follow after me since your brother dropped our work," his father said. "He did end up picking up the art of trade, but that's not quite as noble as our duties here at the castle. Do you mean to help him?"

Gaston shook his head. "No, I'm going to help fight off the demons and the angels, since they're both trying to conquer Mikado. A chamberlain's work is boring; I've been training to fight, so I'll be fine."

"Boring?" his father asked, getting angry. "How dare you…"

"But Helen and Eliza both love our work," he said. They'd adopted Helen's sister as well after they'd asked for the help. "And they're doing well at it, better than I am. We'll all be happier if we go with what we're good at."

"He would be a really good samurai," Helen said. "He talks with them whenever he can, and he's got to be strong enough too."

"It's tradition for our family to work within the castle," his father said.

"It wasn't always in a high position, you've said that," Gaston said. "And they're a part of our family now too."

His father sighed. "This is not satisfactory, but you already have the gauntlet. You had better put forth your best effort in this."

Great, he was giving in quickly! "Of course I will, I'll become the best," Gaston said.

* * *

As the three teens and one teacher passed through the central swamps of Tokyo, a faint figure shadowed them. Dagda hadn't bothered yet to return to a physical form as he preferred this one. It was closer to his true nature for one thing. For another, there were advantages to being a spirit. Going mostly undetected was one of them.

For this situation… a friendlier tact was required. A mysterious benefactor instead of a puppeteer. That made things riskier since it left Nanashi to make his own choices with minimal advice from him. When left on their own, humans tended to do all the wrong things before they did something right. If led right, Nanashi could quickly become powerful; he had the right potential. But that could take years if he trained on his own.

Dagda had to be perceived as a beneficial ally while gaining greater control over him. For the most part, that meant keeping anything underhanded unnoticed. This might require setting up situations for Nanashi to depend on him more. There was also granting his request for finding the truth of his past, but that required some trust to start with.

So give him the easy information, like here with Hallelujah. Dagda had been watching over them from outside, so he'd seen immediately that the angels had lured the other boy off. It was clear to Dagda what the angels wanted a half-demon for; it was more important that he was a part of the Ashura-kai. Whether it was direct or indirect, the angels' goal had to be in Shinjuku. It would be foolish of them to do anything in Tokyo before tackling the problem of Kagome Tower.

Dagda needed to set up a situation of his own anyhow. Shinjuku should be a good place since the teens weren't used to the area. As for what to replace Krishna and Shesha with, he had a plan already in motion. And if that didn't work, he had other ideas.

He'd had a long time to think this over; he would make this work no matter what any human tried.

* * *

The second clear difference at Shibuya was that the fences had been torn down. Flynn had never seen a good point of them, since demons had a number of ways to get around them. Mostly, it made it tough for humans to get around on street level. Many people avoided going on the streets as it was dangerous, so the fences were mostly an annoyance.

But the first clear difference was the bonfire in the middle of the street. A suspicious scent came off the smoke, as well as the blackened shapes in the flames. Where the fence had been, a woman was standing guard. "What group are you guys with?" she called.

"The Mikado samurai," Flynn answered for them. "And we're working with the Hunter's Association here."

"Alright, you can come in," she said. "Unless you want to help us keep this area secure, you can head down to the town over that way."

"Are you burning bodies over there?" Isabeau asked, taken aback by this.

"Yeah, it was the only thing we could do," the guard said, glancing back. "There was a very messy battle over several days here, not that long ago. The Ring of Gaea came charging through here, claiming that they were freeing us from the Ashura-kai by destroying their businesses here. When the latter group responded, many folks from both sides died. But neither of them are taking responsibility for the corpses they left all over the area; we had to gather them up and burn them before they drew in more demons."

"How did the civilians here fare?" he asked.

"We barricaded all the exits and kept those fighting from coming in, so the underground is fine," she said. "There's actually a town meeting going on about what we want to do about the two big groups, so everyone's busy around here. You can look around, but it could be a while before the bar's open for jobs."

"That's fine," Flynn said, as he could give his friends his own requests for this area.

They also had to make observations around for Yuriko. Flynn knew the area, so he could quickly spot unusual signs. As could be expected, the amount of demons around was very low. It would make his requests more difficult than he meant; that would need to be changed. The streets of Shibuya were no longer segregated from each other, which did make it easier to get around.

And once the people of Shibuya were out of their meeting, it was clear that they were cross at both groups. There were a few people who'd been injured in the battles, including one young man who had to get a foot amputated. "A few crazed demons bashed their way into the mall trying to find some Reds. I got half-rescued by a Gaean, but he berated me for being weak until I fainted."

"We're lucky we could get you back here in time to save you," a woman at the table said. "But one of the Ashura-kai managers told us not to prioritize his care since it's going to be a while now before he can do much."

"I can sew and do a few other things," he said, frowning at the thought. "I'm not useless; I can adapt to being without a foot once I have my strength back."

"I'm sure you can," Flynn said. While he didn't remember this particular person, encouraging him would hopefully lead to good things.

The woman nodded. "Nobody's truly useless, but both the Gaeans and the Ashura-kai would write off entire towns as useless. Now that Fujiwara is being more active, we have options other than them. And I hear you people above the Firmament are trading food for various things?"

He nodded to that. "For books and pieces of technology, things we don't have much of. If you can get a representative over to the northeastern towns through the terminal system, your town could join in the agreement."

"What about some seeds and saplings?" she asked. "A few of us here have been keeping them safe since the war because the Ashura-kai would keep the majority of that produce for themselves. They'd be better off in the hands of those who can take care of them and would trade or share the goods."

"I'd think that'd be acceptable," Flynn said, thinking that he might have to send a note to Naverre letting him know that it was a good investment.

"When I was growing up, most everyone here worked for the Ashura-kai," the young man said. "And they took pretty good care of us. In the past few years, though, they've been pulling back a lot of benefits and giving out more restrictions. Some folks even got reassigned clear over to Tennozu, and then we haven't heard from them since."

"We're trying to get into Tennozu, but there's a powerful shield over it," he told them.

There still wasn't much of a clue about why this clash happened in this timeline and not others. But there was a good chance he might figure it out by talking with the Ring of Gaea. Things like what happened in Shinjuku might continue to elude him, but it was past. He had to keep things going.

If his friends weren't against the Ashura-kai and the Gaeans now, the coming missions would surely convince them of his opinion on the two groups.


	51. Missing Days

**Chapter 51: Missing Days**

Shibuya was winding down and cleaning up after a big conflict. It worked for Hikaru since she could claim an office space without effort. Whoever the previous resident had been, they'd already done the hard work of getting good furnishing in here. A swanky desk, a chair worthy of a boss, a large cabinet showing off trophies, medals, and rarities: they might have stolen all these things instead of bought them, but it was still an atmosphere of wealth and power. She could even adjust things with magic, repairing wear and making the room unlike the mess outside. There were some flies around she had to swat out as an imperfection in this place, but that was minor.

While she meant to call in a few followers to confirm what had gone on recently, one demon showed up as she was still sprucing up the office. "Ah, Lord… hmm?" Dantelion stopped as he was closing the door, looking to where Krishna was.

"Don't worry about him, he won't be waking up any time soon," Hikaru said, waving dismissively towards the lost god. "What's up?"

"I've been looking for you for some time now, Hikaru," he said, remaining cautious of Krishna just in case. "This is an important time, but you abruptly slipped out of notice."

She wanted to know about that herself, as it seemed a couple of weeks had gone by since that last time she was certain of, back in Kinshicho. Even though he claimed that she'd sobered him up at some time, Krishna didn't seem to know what all was going around him and just wanted to forget things. But then, "You were working up in Mikado with Lilith, weren't you?"

"Yes, we were opening their minds with forbidden books and knowledge," Dantelion admitted.

"What happened with that to make you come down here?" Hikaru asked, sitting on the desk and giving the impression that she was open to excuses.

That lulled him into feeling secure immediately. "We succeeded in opening up their minds, and yet lost control of the situation when they decided they could handle things on their own." He reported a few more things, including how and why Lilith had sent him searching. "She said you were acting uncharacteristic of yourself, although I don't see a problem now."

"Acting how?" she asked. One did have to act various ways to make various strategies work; speak the words others wanted to hear, look the way they expected, and they'd follow your lead without even realizing it. She must have been acting very strangely for Lilith of all people to find it uncharacteristic.

"I was not witness to it, but it seems you were drawing with sidewalk chalk and not caring about talking with the group around this generation's Messiah," Dantelion said. "Although you did call out Lilith as a traitor in front of at least one of them, when she was disguised as Yuriko."

"Is that so?" Hikaru said, to buy herself some time to think. Which was mostly curses that she had run into the heroes and completely let that planned opportunity go. It did confirm that something strange was going on with her. Maybe it had to do with that unexpected dream, with Walter, Toki, and that dragon.

"Yes, she's actually quite worried about you," he said.

This was not right. She tightened her lips. "There's no need to worry," she said. "I know Lilith has it rough, being raised up as a scapegoat since the earliest memories of mankind. I'm willing to be lenient with her because of that. However, she should know better than to trust Gabriel and work under her. When the soul of the first man is reborn, the angels won't let her get anywhere near him if they can help it."

Several of Dantelion's heads looked concerned for himself at her change of attitude. "Don't you remember? It was all a scheme to get us up into Mikado, to make the angels think that we were an easy target for blame."

"You weren't to get in contact with Gabriel directly," Hikaru said sharply. "And I'm insulted that she sent you instead of confronting me herself if I was acting strangely, once the humans were out of the picture. As it is, I'm not going to support her further until she comes to me herself and offers a sufficient apology, or a much greater advancement to our end of the war than what I expected of her."

"I'm not sure where things went wrong, but I'll let her know," Dantelion said, starting to edge back out the door.

Snapping her fingers, she said, "If you don't do that in ten minutes, you'll no longer have a physical form in this realm."

"Ah, very well, if you'll excuse me," he said, then vanished without even bothering with the door.

"We'll talk on my terms, not hers," she said. Hikaru finished up with making the office hers, which included placing enchantments on the walls. With those in place, the office became a supernatural space. It would allow her to call on her followers without trouble.

The first one she called on was Samyaza. "Thanks, I was having some trouble getting back," he said. Noticing her guest, he chuckled. "Heh, decided to keep your boy toy around?"

"Why not?" Hikaru said, grinning. "He could be useful, might as well entertain me in the meantime. Since you haven't been in the world for a while, mind going over to Kagome and telling Asmodeus to come check in with me? And make sure security there is tight because of Gabriel."

"Certainly, my lord," Samyaza said with a bow. "But do you mind if I check on some humans I was watching first? They could be important."

"Who's that?" she asked, tilting her head and silently compelling him for an answer.

"Just the false heroes from here in Tokyo," he said. There was something he was holding back on. "I have a gut feeling they could still affect things, at least as some good pawns."

Since he wasn't telling her the full truth, she shook her head. "They might be, but we have to keep the tower secure. Once Asmodeus returns from speaking with me, then you can go check on them."

"I suppose that is more important," he said. "I'll be heading over there then." And since she had made this a supernatural space, he simply warped away.

Although she expected Asmodeus to show up soon, she went ahead and summoned up her next allies. Her two most loyal generals, in fact, Lucifuge and Belial. After exchanging some greetings, Lucifuge asked, "Are you sure about keeping that god around? Vishnu's aspects have always been neutral within the great conflicts."

"True, but can't you see his heart darkening?" Hikaru said. "As long as things are like that, I'll keep him within reach. But now, I have a serious matter to discuss with you two." Still sitting on the desk, she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm missing a large chunk of time from my memories, either the past week and a half or two weeks. I remember winning a fight against Gabriel in Kinshicho, but she escaped. After that, things get fuzzy."

"That's odd," Belial said while Lucifuge checked one of his magical tomes. "That was supposed to be your cover story, not the actual story."

She nodded. "Apparently, I was doing something during that time, but not what we planned. It was enough that Lilith thought it was uncharacteristic. I haven't spoken to her myself yet, but she was conspiring something with Gabriel. Her aside, we need to figure out what's going on because we are at war with the angels."

"Do you want a guard with you to watch for anything suspicious?" Belial asked.

If this was a normal situation, Hikaru would have said no. She was perfectly fine with defending herself even with her power sealed. This was not normal. "As long as you don't mind being in human form, that would be good," she said.

Belial bowed, then transformed into a man who could have been mistaken for one of the Ashura-kai, save for his bright red hair being unusual. "That is no problem for me."

Meanwhile, Lucifuge was frowning at his book. "I'm not finding a reason for you to be lacking memories; this will require deeper searching. But I can read what has gone on during that time. The records seem sketchy, but it'll be something."

Hikaru nodded. "Go ahead, we need to regain control of the war."

There were some interesting and odd situations going on in the world now. The humans of Mikado were struggling against the angels to keep their knowledge, but they weren't relying on demons to do so. Down here in Tokyo, both the Ashura-kai and the Ring of Gaea were weakened for various reasons. The conflict here in Shibuya had contributed; it led to something that they could potentially take advantage of. Lucifuge's tome confirmed that Gabriel was hiding in Tennozu, but had nothing else about her.

As they discussed what to do, Asmodeus arrived through the door. "What did you call me for?" he asked after a polite greetings.

"You've gotten word that your position needs to be really secure, right?" Hikaru asked.

He nodded. "Tayama told me so a while ago, although with no explanation. Samyaza also insists that he sent me a message, but he should have remembered that I haven't taken to modern mechanics. What's the problem?"

"Gabriel is in Tokyo and seems to be unhinged," she said. "She's also lost control of Mikado."

"Ah, then I'll increase security further," Asmodeous said. "There has been little going on that I've seen. Is there anything else I should know?"

Hikaru shook his head. "Not at the moment, but you might want to know that our position needs to be stronger. Should something happen, you may be pulled elsewhere. But Kagome is to be your priority."

"Yes, my lord, I'll get back to that," he said, giving another bow before warping away.

"With him on the job, she won't get her allies back easily," Belial said with confidence.

"Right, but we'll need to send somebody to figure out what's going on down in Tennozu," Hikaru said. "Since we can't count on Lilith, we also need others to work on tempting the Messiah and the Chaos hero."

"I'm seeing some peculiarities with the Chaos and Law heroes," Lucifuge said, leading them to discuss that. There might be a chance for them to win influence over the Law hero, which would be a wonderful victory over Gabriel no matter what this round of the war lead to.

While they were discussing potential strategies, someone else knocked on the door. Lucifuge put a hand to his chin. "That's… the Demifiend? He seems to be the leader of the fiend clan."

"They have a leader?" Hikaru asked.

"It seems so," Lucifuge said.

"Well let him in," she said.

Strangely, the person who walked in seemed like a normal human. He had a number of tattoos of demons and demonic script, but most people wouldn't realize what it was. "Hello Lucifer, I've been looking for you for a while," he said.

"Hey, then you got here at a good time," Hikaru said, smiling charmingly at him. "I've heard word around that you're the leader of the fiends."

"That's true," he said.

"Although you don't look the part at all," she said. He was using some good disguise magic, unnoticeable.

"Well I'm sure you'd understand why," he said, tapping his nose. That dropped his disguise, revealing a demon more fitting of the fiends. He was little more than a shadow within a black cloak like the Riders, with embers for eyes and a menacing aura of death. "I came from another world; it would be foolish to simply appear like this."

"You could dominate people, but I getcha," Hikaru said. "What do I call you?"

"Demifiend," he replied. "I have my own mission here, for which I need to locate the main passage to the Abyss in this world."

That was fairly common knowledge among demons, so it wasn't a risk to tell him. "That's a problem because the Ashura-kai are sitting on the main passage; you'd have to get in with them to reach it."

"That isn't too hard," Lucifuge said. "And they have it linked to the city power generator, so we can theoretically go to and from the Abyss anywhere there's power."

"I've noticed, but I need get to the main passage," Demifiend said. "I can do that myself if it's the generator."

"So have you found anything out of the ordinary, for an outsider?" Hikaru asked, adding a bit of charm to make him talk more.

It seemed like he noticed because he spent a moment looking blankly at her. Then he said, "There's a portal to a dying world on a highway at the eastern edge of the Firmament. I learned that it was a bad future to an event twenty-five years ago. From that and other signs, I can tell that this world's time is heavily fragmented, more than most worlds I've seen."

"That's interesting, but anything that could be done with that would be overly complicated," she said, disappointed. They talked for a while longer, but Demifiend was focused on whatever goal he had. He only said that he'd consider helping out if it was convenient.

Once he was gone, Belial said, "I thought the fiends all had an oath to serve you, even if they were involved in something else."

"He's from a different world, so that may interfere," Hikaru said. He was also immune to charm magic, so no easy way to get his cooperation. And if he truly led the fiends, that could lead to trouble if she didn't find some way to assure his loyalty. "We weren't counting on them, but it would be nice to have them involved."

"I don't think we should count on him, but he might do something useful for us," Lucifuge said, shifting a page of his tome. "He seems powerful, but we've never heard of him before. I'm sure we'll get things under control without him."

After more discussion, Krishna started to wake up. Hikaru sent Lucifuge off to do more research and Belial to guard the door outside. It was another prospect that had possibility but not certainty. But she felt like life was more fun with uncertainty. This was war, though; she needed some certainty.

They really needed the allegiance of one of the human heroes too.

* * *

A pair of Hunters checked on the office only to find it locked. "Maybe he died in that battle."

"If that's the case, we might have to get someone to pick this lock if you want it back," her companion said.

"Do we know somebody who can?" she asked, heading away. She glanced back at a new domain entrance that had appeared in this underground hall. Something about it gave her the chills; perhaps it was a high level domain. In that case, she wanted nothing to do with it.

Within the domain, a massive firestorm erupted from the right mix of energies. A cloaked figure within flames used them to rush to the other and pummel the giant fly into nothing. The flames cleared out, revealing a cavernous room that seemed more like a temple than a domain. After a moment, a swarm of flies reappeared, forming into a tall bronze-skinned god. "You fight well, stranger."

"Well enough to convince you?"

Baal nodded. "The fact that you bear Lucifer's light was almost enough. And now your ability in battle tells me that you could be one of Lucifer's generals. I'll believe you for now."

"Good," the Demifiend said. "But did you notice that Hikaru doesn't have that light?"

"Yes, that was what initially convinced me that something was wrong." He shrugged. "No one else thought it was strange. Once I declared her to be false, everyone thought I was being a traitor. I've been trying to get into the world to gain power and find others who agree with me. So I'm glad you're here; I just had to be sure."

"How long has it been since you've seen the real Lucifer?" he asked.

"I think it's been around sixty years, from Tokyo's perspective," Baal said. "I don't know where he is."

"I'm almost certain that he's not in Tokyo," the Demifiend said. "Have you searched the Abyss?"

"I searched his castle, not beyond that since the Abyss is massive," he admitted. "Hikaru has Lucifer's identity, so any divination points to her."

Demifiend snorted. "She doesn't have his light. Have you tried searching by that? It should make him stand out wherever his real self is, especially in the Abyss."

That should have been obvious; Baal pretended that didn't bother him. "It's not normally my responsibility to keep track of him. But I would like to find him. Whoever Hikaru is, she hasn't led us to victory for long."

"Do you know who she really is?"

"No." Thinking over it, he realized something else. "Actually, I believe that she doesn't realize she isn't Lucifer. Her identity as Hikaru is supposed to be a cover itself, that she has amnesia. Her personality as Lucifer isn't quite right, but is convincing to those who don't know him well."

"And Lucifuge and Belial, I saw," Demifiend said.

"Belial hardly thinks," Baal said. "Though I don't know what would excuse Lucifuge falling for such a ruse."

"He may be one to interrogate," he said. "Do you still have lesser demons who follow you? You can have them spread throughout the Abyss to assist in our search for Lucifer. Or do you think you could do better at leading the forces of Chaos?" He asked the last question with an unspoken threat against answering yes.

While this being was a stranger to this world, Baal had to admit that the Demifiend would probably be a better replacement for Lucifer than himself, even though he'd accompanied the first fallen since the very beginnings. Even though Lucifer was out of the picture, Baal knew it was better not to work against him. "I don't mind leading in our Lord's absence, but I would much rather see him restored, much as you seem to want. Don't worry, I do have legions that still follow my word and would search anywhere I send them. I'll even join the search myself, as it would be a better use of my time than waiting for the right opportunity to be summoned into the world again."

"Good, I'm glad we can agree on these matters," Demifiend said.

* * *

Faking sleep wasn't easy in this situation, but Krishna had overheard a good amount. It was information Flynn would like to have. Would it be enough to change his opinion? The more important thing might be how to contact him without alerting Hikaru to what he was doing.

Once the room had been quiet for a minute, Krishna rubbed his eyes and sat up. Hikaru immediately said, "Aw, did you have to put your clothes back on?"

"Sor…" he yawned for effect, "sorry, did you prefer that?"

"Well it added a little something to the room," she said, coming over to the couch he'd been lying on. "Though we can't hang out here forever. We ought to get some things done and there's someone able to help us out."

"Help us do what?" he said, looking over at her as she sat down by him.

"Something, I dunno." She looked bothered briefly. "There was a guy who dropped by while you were out, some classy demon who said he knew me. I sort of recognized him, but I couldn't think of his name until he told me. I'm sure he can help us get things done."

"Do what?" As he needed to keep up his ruse, he muttered, "Nothing that could be done is worthwhile."

"If that's the case, what's it matter what you do?" Hikaru asked, taking his arm. "You're not bound by what you used to be because no one knows what to expect of you. You could make yourself matter. You could make yourself powerful, more than you are now, so that humans must hold you in awe."

He didn't need her to make the humans hold him in awe. Although, maybe something she had… that wasn't who he should be. But the fear of humans could be a thrill, especially since these weren't his people.

Then she surprised him by saying, "You have a believer, don't you?"

"One," he said, wondering what she was up to.

"But it's a very weak belief," she went on. "In fact, you could say that it's hardly belief because it's a slight faith that you can accomplish something you set out to do. That's not how humans should be believing in a god."

Krishna nearly didn't say anything. But, the truth would make it seem that he was being convinced. "Right, that's a faith a human should have in other humans, not gods."

"If we could throw down the angels, there would be little that could stop us," Hikaru said. She leaned into him, seeming like she was counting on him. "These people aren't your people; they're not really mine either. But we can make them ours, change the world so we can rule it. We can make their faith something you deserve. What do you say?"

There was a way he could make the world his, never mind her. "That could work," Krishna said, starting to make plans with her.

* * *

'Walter- I had some questions. Maybe you can answer them, maybe not, but I'm trying to find some different points of view. That seems to be a good method. The simpler one is if your group has seen or heard from Hallelujah recently. He disappeared from Kasumigaseki yesterday, supposedly with an angel. We came to Shinjuku hoping to find him here.

I also spoke with one of the Ring of Gaea; I was trained by them and hoped to get more instructions. But I was informed that many had died in Shibuya. I was originally taught that if you died in battle while fighting your best, then it was a noble and worthy death. But the man I spoke to said that he was glad to keep out of it because he could survive. I could see the benefit in that since while I survive, I can continue to better myself. When I spoke with my trainer, she said that was a cowardly view and that survival should not be a concern to me. I should respect that since she is my elder, but I don't want to because I don't like being told that now. Am I wrong or is she? -Toki'

'Toki- In my opinion, that trainer of yours is crazy to tell you that your survival isn't a concern. No matter how important a mission might be, I can't imagine anything worthwhile in throwing your life away. I agree with you that avoiding death, even if you have to run away from a battle you can't win, is the way to go if you mean to improve yourself. I worried my friends enough when I got knocked unconscious in one battle; I don't want to cause them even more grief if I end up dying.

Sorry about not answering your questions in order, just that one idea pissed me off. We haven't heard from your friend recently either. Jonathan's the one with his contact information and tried to send a message when I told him about your note, got no response yet. We'll keep an eye out for him now. -Walter'

'Walter- It's fine. The others I've spoken with agree with you, that what she said to me was cruel and wrong. I was unsure at first if the events that led me to be with Nanashi and the others were good or not. But I feel now that it has been a good chance. I still think that I should keep myself strong as the Ring of Gaea taught me, but I'll consider what else I should be doing.

I hope we do find Hallelujah before long, since he's one of my new friends. -Toki'

They were to explore around Shibuya today, as usual. Since the locals were in a town meeting, Walter had decided to get a feel of the streets around here. There weren't many demons around, which was strange after all the time he'd spent in Tokyo. There was still something chilling about being out in the streets. Maybe it was just the cooler air under the Firmament. Although, Walter kept feeling like someone was watching him, or just nearby.

He wouldn't admit to being afraid, but he did appreciate the chance he got to meet up with Jonathan rather than continue on alone. "I still haven't heard from Hallelujah yet," he said as he got near.

"That kid could be in a lot of trouble," Walter said, worried about this even though he hadn't met the boy in particular. "We can't get to where we know the false angels are, although Toki said they were searching Shinjuku for some reason."

Jonathan seemed more concerned. "He told me that he might have met the real Gabriel, almost seemed smitten with her. I wanted to believe him, but if he met the false one instead, yes, that's going to be awful. And I think he is in trouble, if he's not answering these messages. We need to locate Hikaru too, and find that mirror."

"Well Flynn says there's a big mission coming up shortly, so hopefully we get time after that," he said. They had to find Hikaru since, based on Jonathan's talk with her, she was most likely to be the same as Black from their dream not that long ago. If she wasn't, the fact that she remembered too meant that she could still help.

They were in a more claustrophobic section of Shibuya, full of narrow streets and small buildings. This led to there being a lot of mystic relics and other items lying around. After a couple of battles and collecting some interesting looking items, someone called out to them. "Oh hey, you guys are here too?"

"Hello Hikaru," Walter said. "What are you doing here?"

She was hanging around the guy with curly green hair again, near one of the storefronts. There was a new man too, one with red hair so straight it seemed like a knife. "Just hanging around, as usual," she said. "It might have been more exciting earlier, but all well. Say, we spoke a few days ago, right?"

"Right, in Shinjuku," he said. Although Jonathan was the one who really talked with her.

"Do you remember what we talked about?" she asked, worried. "My mind's been hazy lately, but I seem to think it was important."

Was this the demon or dragon? There might be a way he could tell. "Right, you gave a good suggestion when asked about how to get stronger, although we haven't been able to act on it."

"Oh yeah, cause you need power to be truly free," Hikaru said. "So have you tried joining the Ring of Gaea? They would teach you well."

"That wasn't what you said," Jonathan said.

She shrugged at that. "Well I don't remember every conversation I have. Would you?"

"No, but you thought it was important," Walter said.

A faint voice seemed to speak near his ear. 'That's not her, that's someone else overriding her personality. What's going on here?'

"I'm not sure about Gaea, since we've heard some questionable things about them," Jonathan said. "Especially in light of what you said before. They don't sound like a group you'd recommend based on that."

"Weird, what did I say?" Hikaru asked, seeming sad and bewildered.

"You did seem like a different person for a while," the green-haired man said, making the other man narrow his eyes at him.

"Well I don't think she's the same person since she doesn't remember that conversation," Walter said, primarily because she didn't recognize who she'd actually spoken with. "So who are you?"

"I'm Hikaru, who else could I be?" she said with a pout.

"Please don't make fun of the lady," the red-haired man said sternly. "She's having enough trouble with her memory as is."

"Lee!" Hikaru said, now thoroughly embarrassed. "You don't have to say so!"

The disembodied voice then spoke up again; Walter recognized it now as Merkabah. 'These three are all powerful demons. You both may be able to handle Lilith together, but not any of these. At this time, you should back away.'

"Sorry, we didn't mean to offend," Jonathan said. He must have heard Merkabah too as he then added, "Anyhow, we're busy today, so we can't speak long. We need to get back to things. If you'll excuse us."

"Maybe we'll talk later, depends on what happens," Walter said, waving them off.

"If you insist," Hikaru said, then turned to her companions.

They hadn't checked that end of the streets, but he and Jonathan went the other way. "If all three of them are powerful demons, how are we going to help Black?" Jonathan asked quietly after a while.

"If we could get her alone, and be sure it's her, maybe we can do something," Walter said. "But what's about overriding a personality? That doesn't sound possible."

Thankfully, Merkabah was still able to speak with them. 'Multiple personalities in one person is not unheard of. I wouldn't take those demons at their word, but she may not be aware of Black and what happens when she's in control. In this case, it should be possible to separate the two if we can identify this other personality. Doing that won't be easy.'

"Guess we'll just have to get lucky to run across Hikaru when Black is in control," Jonathan said.


	52. Childhood Heroes

**Chapter 52: Childhood Heroes**

Naverre had gotten in late last night, so he didn't hear the news until morning over breakfast. "Congratulations, I'm sure you'll be a great samurai!" he said, clapping Gaston on the back.

He grinned. "Of course, I've been training for a while! I wanted to help you guys, but now I can't get down to Tokyo."

"You'll be a defender of the homeland, so that brings us confidence that Mikado will remain free," Naverre told him.

"Yeah, but I can get down to the fourth level of Naraku already," Gaston said. "If I could find some way around the barrier, then I'm sure I'd have no problems challenging myself further."

Their parents wouldn't like that, and Flynn wouldn't appreciate the surprise of having another younger samurai down in Tokyo. The difference was that the latter would be easier to convince that it was fine to let Gaston try. "Well if you do find a way, know that the people in Tokyo should be respected as people, like anybody else. They're different in their appearances and beliefs, yes, but the prejudices of old ought to be dropped. That's why I set my sights on helping them in a way I'm good at. Perhaps my contributions will not help with bringing those two evil masterminds to justice, but I assure you, it will become just as legendary!"

Even though he was nearly an adult, Gaston still had a boyish glee in his eyes on hearing that. "Really? What're you going to do?"

Cheered that he still had his brother's admiration, Naverre boasted, "I'm bringing the people of Mikado and Tokyo together to put on an awe-inspiring ball to promote the ideals of acceptance, hope, and peace!"

Gaston smiled at that. "Huh, not something I would've thought up. Well if anyone could pull that off, it'd be you."

"Without a doubt," Naverre said. "Did you have any assignments this morning? If not, I'll bring you over to Flynn to let him know you're interested in helping out."

"I don't have anything assigned yet," he said. "I'm not even assigned to the dorms because I'm not eighteen. Although," he frowned a little, "I ended up getting betrothed as a result of everything."

"What, really?" he asked, leaning forward in the dining room chair. "Who are you supposed to marry?"

"Helen, the girl Mother and Father adopted," Gaston said. "She's a couple years younger than me, but it was Mother's idea. They really don't want the position of castle chamberlain going outside the family, so even though Helen's great at the work, it'll make sure she's family."

He considered that. "That's silly, especially since they're training her themselves. But how is she?"

"She's smart and she's already a great hostess," he said, thinking it over. "And she didn't tell our parents about how long I've been training with the samurai. Because of that, she's a good friend but I hadn't thought about courting her. I dunno, I had to agree to it or Mother was going to fuss even more about both of us becoming samurai."

The others weren't in the room, so Naverre patted his brother's shoulder. "She is young still, but I think she'll grow up to be a pretty young woman soon. Don't worry about it; it could be great."

"I hope it'll work out," Gaston said.

"Besides, look at us," he added. "Because I've spent a lot of time in Tokyo, I'm not that much older than you now. If you join Flynn and the others, she'll catch up to your age before long."

"That could help," he agreed.

They headed out to the usual place to meet up, outside the Aquila Plaza terminal. Flynn and Issachar were there, along with Jonathan, Marie, and their now two children. "Hi Gaston!" Adam said, giving a toothy grin while hanging onto his father's coat.

"Hello, Adam," Gaston said. "How's Theo?"

"Mm, good," he replied.

"Good morning!" Issachar said, with a bright smile like usual.

Flynn nodded to them, then turned back to Jonathan. "We won't be starting the main mission immediately, so you may take a couple of days here."

"Thanks, we appreciate it," Jonathan said.

"Oh right, I heard about what you've done," Marie said, smiling brightly. "I wanted to do something for you, but I couldn't possibly repay you for everything you did."

Smiling, Flynn said, "It's fine, you're helping without realizing it."

"Well I went ahead and made you a lunch," she said, offering a meal pail to him. "I hope you like it."

"Thank you," Flynn said. "Come to see us off again, Gaston?"

"Not exactly," he said, holding up his arm. "I was chosen as a samurai when I was helping with the rite! And I want to help you guys down in Tokyo."

"Are you sure of that?" Flynn asked, thankfully not dismissive right away. "The demons down in Tokyo are far stronger, and it is a strange place."

Gaston nodded. "I'm sure; I've been training for this. And don't worry, I'm brave enough to face any danger."

After a sigh, Flynn said, "I don't doubt that you are brave, Gaston, but bravery doesn't count for much if you end up killed or permanently injured. And for our mission today, I would rather not have someone new to Tokyo involved. But would you mind helping your brother out? Naverre, you would have time to do some requests with him, right?"

"Sure, that shouldn't be a problem," Naverre said, thinking that this would be a fun day to catch back up with his brother.

"That'd be great!" Gaston said

"Get permission from Commander Hope first," Flynn said. "And send a note to your parents at least. Prove yourself in Akihabara and I'll consider taking you along on our main mission."

"All right," he said. But once they went off to talk with the commander, he said, "This might not work if we have to talk with Mother and Father. They don't like me challenging myself."

Naverre chuckled at that. "Don't worry. All Flynn said was that you should send a note to them. Nothing about asking them for permission.

Realizing that, he grinned. "Heh, Flynn's a great guy."

And he didn't realize most of what made him great. "Most certainly."

Fortunately, Hope didn't insist on Gaston getting permission from their parents as long as he swore to not go off on his own in Tokyo. He also said that Gaston was a promising apprentice, much as Jonathan and Walter had been. From that, it seemed Gaston was doing better than him. Naverre found that he didn't mind that. In fact, he was proud of his little brother for doing so well. He should help Flynn's cause greatly.

The first thing they had to do was deliver the crates of produce to the Hunter Association distributors through the terminal. There was a representative from another town, Shibuya, who wanted to add some seeds and saplings to the trades. "I have some notebooks with information on cultivating these," the woman said, offering those as well. "I brought some tea trees, eggplants, and ginger today, but I know where many more are stored."

This was something that Flynn had given him notice of, that it was a good trade to go for. Naverre didn't need the advice, though, as it was clearly good to get more variety in what they could grow. "Wonderful, I know some good villages who would be interested in new plants," he said. "The tea should be familiar, but what about the other two?"

"Eggplants are vegetables, ones that were sometimes used a meat-substitute," she explained. "And ginger was once a popular spice, very versatile."

New spice, new vegetable, new tea, it all sounded wonderful. "Good, we'll get them going." After negotiating with the group, it was agreed to send three crates to Shibuya since it was their first shipment of Mikado produce. The trade agreement had been going for a while on Mikado's end, so their farms had plenty to send underground.

Gaston talked with others who were hanging around the terminal while Naverre took care of his work. Once that was done, Naverre took him over to a point where they could see Sky Tower. "We had to come down that way. There's a huge wall of windows up near the Firmament where you can almost see the whole city."

"That's so tall," Gaston said, trying to see up to the top. "And Tokyo covers this area underneath the Firmament? That holds up the whole of Mikado!"

Naverre nodded. "It certainly does. Apparently, there's some undeveloped areas: poison swamps, a desert up north, and a stretch of salt water down south. But I did hear from somebody that in the old world, Tokyo was not the largest city in the world."

Looking closer to them, Gaston said, "You could invite everyone in Mikado into a couple of these huge buildings. And this wasn't the biggest one? Wow…"

"Tradition says that the old world was sinful, but it must have been an amazing place," he said. "There was another town where they had metal doors that rolled out of the ceiling to act as a protective barrier against demons. While the demons could break it, they also had a wheeled machine that patched it right up. And they have those screens that can record theater shows and play them back whenever people want. I don't see why some of these things were harmful enough to be forbidden."

"They do dress strangely," Gaston said "The women dress like men with pants and jackets while I saw one man who had something that might look more proper on a woman."

"But they still look good, right?"

After thinking about it, he nodded. "Sure, it's just so different from what I know."

"A lot of things in Tokyo are like that," Naverre said. "But just think of the possibilities that are presented with a more open mind towards fashion! And more than that, but the fashion aspect fascinates me. You probably saw that man in one of the traditional outfits; I've tried one on myself and it was quite comfortable."

"Excuse us," someone said from the entrance to the rooftop. A group of three men were coming to join them. From the cut of their suits, Naverre felt these had to be Ashura-kai representatives. The locals of Akihabara wore different styles. "You're the fellow who's been acting as a trade agent from Mikado, right? Naverre?"

"Right, that's me," he said. "Who are you?"

He gave a motion that was like tipping a hat, save that he wasn't wearing one. "I'm Hans, an agent for the Ashura-kai. I've come on behalf of the sector's head manager, the fellow who manages all the stores we run in this area. As part of that, we provide a good portion of food to the people. We wanted to know, why didn't you go through us for your food trade operations?"

Because Flynn had called their leader a sleazeball. But there was a more palatable reason to give. "I'm afraid that it's because I barely knew anything about your organization," Naverre said. "But the Hunter Association has been helpful to myself and my allies from the start. They've been able to distribute the food efficiently and fairly."

"Are you sure of that?" Hans asked. "Your goods aren't going through a proper store and you wouldn't be getting the best goods in exchange. We would like to offer you better terms for this trade. Would you come down with us to discuss the matter?"

"What kind of better terms are we talking about?" Naverre asked. Gaston put on a neutral face and kept his spear at his side, much like a proper samurai. He should understand since they'd dealt with their father discussing politics and other matters with other Luxurors. "The arrangement we have now is working fine."

"We can guarantee that your goods will be delivered to every store," Hans said. "And we can get you a larger variety of the books you've been asking for."

"We're already guaranteed deliveries to any town within the agreement," Naverre said. "In fact, I've checked on them myself, and we've added several more just today. There's nothing unsatisfactory with what we've been offered either, so can you prove you have better goods to offer?"

He took a few small books out of his jacket. "What about these?"

Going over to check, Naverre looked at the titles. "I've seen two of these before, and the other is an old almanac," he said, handing them back. They weren't the books he felt were best for Mikado: instruction books, encyclopedias, and other non-fiction works that gave lost knowledge back. Although, many of the fiction works were great to read.

"If you would come down to our office," Hans started to say.

There was a clash to his side; Gaston used the shaft of his spear to block one of the other men from grabbing hold of Naverre. "You back off too," Gaston warned the man on his other side. "Let's keep this discussion civil."

"Yes, let's do that," Naverre said, stepping away from being surrounded. "Sorry, he's been assigned to assist me just today."

"I suppose you must be careful," Hans said, but then pulled out a gun and aimed it at them. "We do as well, and my employer does not appreciate what you're doing."

His heart beat quicker as he recalled that first time he'd seen a gun. If Hans pulled the trigger, there wouldn't be time to react. Gaston paled at this, and rightly so. None of their father's peers were ever this audacious. But Naverre got an equally audacious inspiration. "And you would threaten an ambassador because of that?" he asked sharply.

Taken aback, Hans' aim slipped. "Am…"

"Ambassador, which I certainly am," Naverre said haughtily. "My work is brokering agreements between the kingdom of Mikado and the city-state of Tokyo. And while it may have been before I took on the work of an ambassador, I won't soon forget how self-serving the Ashura-kai managers in Shinjuku were. This threat only further disgraces your employer, so I can only give negative reports of your organization to the king of Mikado. But should you choose to step away now, I might instead report nothing of this rash incident so as to give your group a fair chance to prove yourselves worthy of negotiating trade terms with. If you're truly interested in that, you had best step away."

The group all seemed baffled at that, but they did move back. "I, I see," Hans said. "You do have a point. But then, would you come with us to Roppongi? Peacefully, of course. I can introduce you directly to our leader Tayama; he's more… graceful with negotiations. Right, he'd be the best person for an ambassador like you to meet with."

What was it his father said? Right, if someone invited you over to their home to negotiate terms, you had better understand the advantage they had and not fall prey to it. And that was with people who didn't threaten to kill in negotiations. "Sorry, I already have plans for today," Naverre said. "And I'll be busy for quite some time. He could request a meeting for negotiations on more neutral grounds, but that should come from someone more diplomatic."

"Very well, someone else should make contact with you soon. Pardon us." He nodded as some lazy effort at a bow, then headed back through the door with his men.

After a moment, Gaston smiled. "You handled that splendidly. I think Father would be proud."

"Perhaps, but it was frightening," he admitted. "Those guns are quite dangerous; I can see why those could end up forbidden. Anyhow, let's pretend like nothing happened for now, although we should continue to be wary of that group. I must say, I'm quite lucky you were around today, and so swift in reacting to that danger."

"I had a bad feeling about them, but wasn't going to hurt someone you were negotiating with," he said. "I didn't become a samurai to fight other people."

"Hopefully it won't come to that," Naverre agreed.

* * *

It might be that Flynn had delayed their mission because Jonathan wanted to spend time with his family now that he had a second son. Or it could be because he had to contact someone down here about it. Either way, Issachar had some time on his own in Shibuya. He decided to go into the bar not for a mission, but to find someone to chat with. There were plenty of folks inside, including a trio of kids near the bar itself.

Somehow, the bartender noticed him even in the unusual lighting. "Oh hey, you're Issachar, right? I've heard you're getting pretty good with a gun."

He went over to the bar out of curiosity. "I've been working on it, yes. What about it?"

"These kids wanted to make a request of someone good with guns, but they wouldn't specify what for except that it required going out on street level," he explained. "I told them that I'd consider it if they did really well on their school work. And what do you know, they all managed to get excellent scores on their past test."

"We studied really hard to make sure of it," the girl of the three said.

"And it wasn't a gimmie test either," one of the boys insisted.

"It can get really dangerous out on the streets," Issachar said, already thinking that he could ask Walter and Isabeau along to help keep an eye on things. "You'll have to do as you're told, even if I ask you to get back inside quickly."

"Sure, since they won't shut up about it unless we do this," the girl said, glancing at the boys.

"It's him insisting on things," the boy grumbled, while the quiet one looked sheepish. "We won't make trouble, promise."

"We'd rather you not go far or be up there long," the bartender told the kids; they acted like they'd been told that before. "Then Issachar, would you take them up on their request?"

"It won't be for nothing," the quiet boy said.

"Sure, just let me call a couple of my friends to help out," Issachar said, sending a message to them.

"Alright, thanks!" the girl said, smiling excitedly.

"I need to um, go get the thing," the quiet boy said, heading off.

A couple minutes later, they all met up by one of the exits. It was where they'd originally come into Shibuya, since the opening between the two buildings was an easy area to protect. After they checked the area for demons, they let the kids come up. "What did you want our help with?" Issachar asked them.

"It's to prove that something is ridiculous," the talkative boy said.

"It's not," the other boy said.

"But…"

"Hey, let him explain things," the girl said.

"Right, this isn't the time to argue," Issachar said, feeling like he was seeing himself as a kid in the one boy's shoes. "Go ahead."

"Um, thanks," the quiet boy said, looking up to him. "See, my dad was a Hunter and sometimes he brought stuff back for me. Like there's this comic book I really liked, so he found other books from the series, and even a video one time. It's awesome because the hero is a robot who fought evil robots to make a peaceful world."

"Those sound like fun books," Issachar said, although he wasn't sure what the boy meant by robots.

He nodded. "Yeah, and one of the hero's friends was a robot who used two pistols at once, and he's my favorite character. I talked with Dad about it and he said that he used two pistols at once too, and he'd show me sometime when I was older. But then he got killed on a mission a while back."

"That's bad," Issachar said, thinking over the idea already. Two pistols at once… he'd gotten used to using the one; adding a second would mean using it with his offhand. The coordination might be tough, but some practice should make it feasible.

"He did great things and helped lots of people, so he's still the hero I know," he said, then glanced over at the other boy. "But then he said that nobody actually used two guns at once because it was a dumb idea. Do you?"

"No but I only have one gun," Issachar said. "I hadn't thought to try two at once. As long as they're not too big, I don't see why it couldn't be done."

"But the most awesome use of a gun is being a sniper able to aim really far away for a perfect shot," the other boy said. "You can't do that with two at once."

"Well sniping doesn't work when there's a demon right in front of you," the quiet one said.

The girl interrupted them with, "Don't start that argument up again. People are getting sick of it, especially the teacher. We're here to see if somebody could use two guns at once."

"Fine," the talkative boy said.

Then the quiet one offered the bag he'd brought out "Um, here, if you want to try, this is one of my dad's guns. I can't let you borrow both, but if you want, you can practice with this one. But I'd like to have it back eventually because I want to use my dad's guns when I become a Hunter too."

"Thank you, I'd like to try that out," he said, accepting the gun. "And I'll take good care of your father's gun while I have it, I promise."

He smiled at that. "Good, I hope you'll be as great as him."

Issachar then brought out the gun he'd picked up in Sky Tower. "This'll take a lot of practice and coordination," he said. "You all keep back just in case, since I haven't done this before."

"Okay!" The kids went towards the town entrance. Walter quietly went over closer to them from where he'd been watching the street with Isabeau.

On a quick glance around, he spotted a large metal sign that looked like it had been used for target practice before. He'd already checked over his own gun, so he looked over the new one quickly to make sure it was in good shape. It was a different type than he was used to, lighter than the other. On seeing that it was fine, he aimed both at the sign. Using them literally at once didn't work out, but he soon found that a rhythm of one then the other did just fine. It was going to take more practice to get accurate with them, especially the second. But getting good at this would leave an incredible impression on others.

It certainly left an impression on the kids, who cheered once he got comfortable with it. "That was great, sir!" the quiet boy said.

"Maybe," the other boy said, trying not to seem as impressed as he was. "But it's not like they fight for justice and world peace and that stuff."

"Actually, we are," Issachar said, surprising the three of them. "My friends and I are samurai from Mikado, the kingdom above the Firmament. It's our duty to protect others and preserve peace. But recently, some evil demons emerged, pretending to be angels to take over our kingdom. They even cursed us all, nearly turning many people into monsters for the rest of their lives. We managed to stop them and reverse the curse, but the false angels ran away down here to Tokyo. And we followed them down even though no one in our kingdom had done so for a thousand years, because we need to bring those evil beings to justice and stop them from hurting people."

It was the kind of story that would have gotten him reprimanded as a kid, if his parents had heard about it. But now it was the truth. "Is that really true?" the talkative boy said.

"Sure is, every bit of it," Walter said.

"It does sound crazy," Issachar said. "But it all happened and we're trying to do the right thing despite how complicated and crazy things get."

"Wow, I hope you get them soon," the girl said.

"That's cool, but they're like Hunters," the talkative boy said. "Not like those comic book heroes who can transform or have superpowers."

"Well I don't have superpowers, but I can transform," Issachar said, shifting over to his angel form. When he did, he saw madness and aggression diffused through the air. It lingered closest to some ghostly forms that he hadn't seen before. Putting them out of mind for the moment, he told the kids, "Don't worry, I'm still human like you. I can take on an angel's form and power if I want."

The kids were all excited now, peppering him with questions. He let them for a bit, then told them that they should head back home. "I think you gave those kids more than they bargained for," Walter said, smiling at it.

"Well it was more than I was expecting," Issachar said, checking his gauntlet. Flynn had messaged them, but it said that someone had already replied. "It'll be an interesting skill to work on."

"It was quite impressive," Isabeau said, coming over to them. "Don't worry, Flynn and Jonathan are coming up here to meet us."

He nodded. "All right. But I don't think these streets will be quiet for long. There's a lot of lingering spirits that could turn into malicious ghosts in time. I'm not sure when, but their lingering emotions are everywhere."

"There is an eerie feeling being up here, like the quieter parts of Naraku," Isabeau said.

"Is it from that street war that went on here?" Walter asked, tense now that it had been pointed out.

"Most likely," Issachar said. "I could come back to try calming them later. As they're ghosts, they could make even the underground areas dangerous."

"Are you going to be all right doing that?" Isabeau asked. "Malicious ghosts should be taken care of before they can affect the physical world; it's part of the Scriptures. But the same passage also warned that those who can contact them in that stage might get possessed."

"Maybe I should read that before I do this, but I'd like to put them to rest," he said.

Flynn and Jonathan came up the stairs then, along with a man in a dark blue suit. Flynn introduced him as Michi, the terminal guardian. "Yeah, I shoulda been there to stop youse guys from usin' the terminals back in Ueno," he said. "But Flynn made me a better offer."

"Yes, and now he's offered to take us into an Ashura-kai facility that is both where they manufacture Reds and is the Roppongi Hills School that they set up," Flynn explained.

"That seems like a strange combination of groups," Jonathan said.

"It shouldn't be that way," Michi said, bringing out a device like a flashlight. It projected a picture logo on the building wall nearby. "The school is especially questionable. Here, this is an ad that went out about fifteen years ago."

The video played out, showing a woman in a colorful room. There was a small table with a group of children behind her, and a packed bookshelf behind them. "Here at the Roppongi Hills School, we aim to help all children thrive to bring about a better future for all. Our students are given a love of learning early on so we may help them develop the specialized skills we sorely need, such as in the fields of medicine and technology."

It continued on, explaining that the buildings were defended against demons and well-stocked in case of emergencies. There was also some kind of farm with the school that had strange words with it, although Issachar recognized the 'hydro' part of one as meaning that the farms focused on water for some reason. In between explanations, they showed the group of kids reading, playing, and singing together. The kids even gave short statements during the ad video, like one wanted to study hard to make Toyko great, and another was excited about there being so many books and videos. At the end, the woman said that for a limited time, tuition for new students would be completely free for their entire education, no matter where their education level was.

Once it was done, Michi ran the video backwards quickly to reach a frozen moment of the teacher talking with the kids. "I know some of the stuff talked about would be new to you guys, but what do you think of that?"

"It sounds like a nice place, but something seems off with that video," Jonathan said. "The whole thing only shows this part of the room, even if the camera gets moved around slightly."

"It's always the same four kids and the woman too," Isabeau said. "Even with what we've seen traveling through Tokyo, one would think they'd have more than four students, and of varying ages.

Walter shrugged. "There are some things I didn't get from that, but I agree with them, something's weird about it."

Flynn would already know the truth, and Issachar felt like he'd seen more than intended. "The whole thing was dishonest," he said. "I couldn't explain it much more than what they've said, but I can sense the dishonesty. Yet I don't feel it's intentional dishonesty from any of them, more like their words were not their own."

"Well you've pinned it on the head," Michi said with a nod. "The video is dishonest; a group of us have proven that this video was staged as the room they were in would not have looked like that. See, there's a way to film things in a plain room where the walls and floor are all one color, and then you put whatever you want in the video on those surfaces. But the truth of this video and others has not been disclosed to the public. Even me, who once had a major position in the group, doesn't know the full truth.

"There are a lot of suspicious things beyond the videos too. As you said, this video only shows these four kids. Any video from the school only deals with a small group of kids, mostly around this age group. There's also the matter of graduates from the school. It's been going for twenty-one years now and not a single graduate has come out of the school."

"That is really strange," Jonathan said. "I know the Scriptures take a lifetime to truly study, but those who do still come and go from the monastery regularly. It's an unusual hermit who would withdraw from society entirely for the purpose of study. Surely, it wouldn't be all of those kids like that."

"We never hear back from them either, nor those who volunteered to work as teachers there," Michi added. "A video like this comes out yearly as if to prove that the school is functioning as it should, but that's all we get. And believe me, in my work as the terminal guardian, I overhear things from across the city. I at least should have heard of graduates going through the system to work in other towns. But no, no word from them."

"Do they go to work in the factory portion?" Walter asked.

Michi shrugged. "Might be, but all of them? And that limited offer of free tuition never went away. They've even offered to pay parents for their children, or tried recruiting the children without parental consent. Or the child's consent as some suspect."

"The children we just spoke to mentioned something about a school recruiter that they didn't like," Isabeau said, considering that with concern.

"Yeah, they liked their teacher here better," Issachar said.

"Well strangely enough, one of the listed benefits of being in the Ashura-kai is that your children won't be recruited to the Roppongi Hills School," Michi said. "At least, it was that way. The innermost circle around Tayama has recently lifted that benefit from a lot of us without saying so." And he was angry about that; it even slipped into his expression despite his playful act. "I've got three young children, actually, and if it wasn't for Flynn alerting me to the situation, they would've been taken away from me and my wife without telling us. They could keep us quiet through intimidation before, but once they crossed that line, I'm not about to keep good and quiet anymore."

"But since he quit, it's a risk for him to go into an Ashura-kai facility," Flynn said.

"Especially that place," Michi agreed. "But if I can get there, we can uncover the truth and reveal that to the whole city instead of these scripted videos they put out. I can summon some really powerful demons since I don't fight personally, but it'd be better to get in quietly. I'd ask my wife to be my guard, but I don't want to get her involved either. Actually," he put a hand to his cheek, "we could have trouble sneaking an angel in there, but, you could sense dishonesty even from a video?"

Issachar nodded. "Yes, I think I'm reading emotions off the auras of humans and demons."

They'd just met, but Michi was concerned. "That could be useful for seeing matters deeper than the surface, but, from what little I know, it could be disturbing for you to be seeing things like that."

What did he know? "I'll consider it, but I don't have to be an angel for this."

"That's up to you, as it might help but it won't be pleasant in the least," Flynn said, concerned about him as well.

Michi then looked to Isabeau. "And you, Isabeau, another warning before we start. Now I'm not sexist in the slightest, but a lot of the men in the group are. It's important that you not go off on your own in this place. We should all probably not wander around alone there, but it's most important for you."

"That's fine, I can stick with Walter," she said.

"I do want you to come along despite that extra risk since I may split us up if we decide on something drastic and immediate," Flynn said, looking to her too. "I'd want some of us to stay with the children in that case, for their protection and to reassure them. It's also important for you too to understand what's going on."

She nodded bravely. "Good, I won't let any of you down."

Seeing that, Issachar decided that even if it was unpleasant and disturbing, he could brave staying in his angel form in case he could find something the others couldn't.


	53. Reverse Roppongi

**Chapter 52: Reverse Roppongi**

As they headed down the street, Jonathan noticed that the buildings here were different. Some were left dilapidated, while others were kept in a good state. Michi did have some explanation for this. "This area was a place for the wealthy and powerful before the war, and still is since Tayama rules from here. There's usually some patrols here, but if we run into them, I look like a high ranking officer and can brush them off."

That turned out to be unnecessary, as they only met demons along the way. Michi brought along a demon meant to help protect him, so they didn't need to worry about him too much in battles. At the building supposedly housing the school, there wasn't even a guard outside to ask what they were doing there. There was a guard inside, though, a demon who almost looked like a muscular human wearing a hooded brown cape. But there was a glow to his eyes, much like Issachar as an angel.

Michi gave a bow to the demon. "Hey, Tenkai, I'm just bringin' in some new workers, all right? And, uh," he seemed at a loss for how to explain Issachar's presence.

Tenkai had been scrutinizing them ever since they stepped through the front door. "Is that one of the God of Law's angels?"

"No," Issachar said, confidant in his answer.

"Then you must have brought him along as a replacement for Mastema," Tenkai said. "But you're the terminal guardian. They've been looking for you."

Rubbing his head, Michi said, "Uh, yeah, guess I couldn't fool you, huh?"

Tenkai closed his eyes. "Certainly not. They never asked me to look for you. Whenever I've met you, you've been far more respectful than others in the Ashura-kai."

"Well you are one of the old gods," Michi said.

"By the wisdom of the stars and the talk of mortals, I believe I know why you're truly here," Tenkai said. "To reveal the truth hidden from sight here, as they have betrayed you in their change of plans. But these secrets are the foundation of stability that the Ashura-kai has given Tokyo. You are aware that uncovering these secrets will destroy that stability."

"I know, but it's a terrible thing to base stability on," Michi said. "I was wrong to ignore it before even if the job supported my family, and now I have absolutely no reason to keep ignoring it."

"I don't think Tokyo will be unstable for long," Flynn said. "The balance of power has already been shifting."

Tenkai nodded to that, looking at them again. "Indeed. You should be aware that I cannot act against Tayama while he holds my medium. If he questions me about it directly, I must tell him the truth. If he does not ask me precisely, though, I don't have to answer him precisely. Still, are you willing to take responsibility for throwing Tokyo into chaos as a result of revealing what happens here? Are you willing to accept the danger should I have to explain everything?"

"Yes, we can take responsibility and accept the danger," Michi said, glancing at them.

"Certainly," Flynn agreed, while Jonathan and the others nodded. What was down here then?

"Very well," Tenkai said, then summoned up a keycard. "Use this to go up to Mastema's office on the seventeenth floor. Ever since he quit abruptly, it's been difficult to bring down his barrier for more than a few minutes. Hopefully your angel can alter it to allow us to remove and reset it more reliably. As that will be counted as normal maintenance, your visit doesn't need to be reported until the end of the month."

"Ah, thank you Tenkai," Michi said, accepting the keycard. "We'll go see about that first."

Was this Tenkai one of the more benevolent gods that might cooperate with humans? "He seemed a lot different than Kuebiku," Jonathan said as they went into a large elevator.

"He's an honorable god in a bad position," Flynn said.

Michi nodded. "Right, an' like he said, there's nothing he can do about it. There's a group of them gods who were supposedly recruited back in the war by the Japanese Department of Special Defense Forces. Tayama got hold of most of their control mediums an' so they work for him now even if their own beliefs don't match his. I hear that a couple of them got sent into Shibuya during that conflict."

"I wouldn't want to be forced into submission by one of those gods like Kuebiku wanted," Jonathan said. "But that seems just as bad, to force gods into submission. With the Demon Summoning Program, it seems like it's their choice to join even when you use fusion."

Up at the seventeenth floor, they found an office that had a great many screens above a long computer console. It was an impressively complex set of mystic relics. Michi sat in one of the rolling chairs and took to the console like it was a simple child's toy. "I think this is a full security station. If so, then I can do everything I need to from here. I can even support and cover you when you go down to the factory and school floors."

"None of these pictures seem anything like a school," Jonathan said, looking over the screens.

"That's because this isn't a school," Michi said, causing one of the larger screens to change. It now showed a young man lying on a strange object, like a chair or bed with several arms holding onto a bright light and many other devices. "You guys have heard about the Reds, right?"

"Right, they're some kind of food for demons that the Ashura-kai sells," Walter said. "It pacifies them so normal people can leave the shelters if they choose. But if people eat them, they turn into demons."

Michi nodded. "Right, that's what the Ashura-kai tells about them, except for the turning into demons bit. What they also don't reveal is that they're made from human neurotransmitters that are cultivated here."

That wasn't something that made sense to Jonathan, but then Flynn said, "They're made from human brains."

"What?" Jonathan asked, shocked at that.

Flynn nodded. "The simple explanation is that the supposed students here are given a kind of illness called cancer which causes brain tissue to continually grow; it's normally a lethal disease, but they regularly cut out the growths here and turn them into Reds. The process turns the victims like this one into barely thinking vegetables who cannot do anything for themselves. A mistake in the harvesting can kill their brains almost entirely, and the bodies die some time after that."

"Truly?" Isabeau asked, although Flynn wouldn't be lying to them. It was just so horrific to hear that it'd be unbelievable out of anyone else.

"What the hell kind of monster would come up with that idea?" Walter asked.

"That would be Tayama," Michi said. "And I suppose that's as simple as you can get for explaining this."

"You worked with them despite knowing about this?" Isabeau asked.

"Yes," Michi admitted, then shook his head. "I didn't know about it initially when I joined, only later. If I had protested about it when I still worked with the Ashura-kai, the best thing that could have happened was that I was fired and kicked out of Roppongi itself. I could have also been killed with my family taken into this place. There are some people in the Ashura-kai that don't know about this either, but anybody with real authority or a unique position like mine would know. And when you get into that kind of position, you're more likely to keep quiet so you don't lose it."

Flynn added, "There is some fault to be had for those who did nothing about this, but not as much as those who are actively a part of the Roppongi Hills Project. Please don't blame Michi and others like him for this; the blame should go on those who properly deserve it."

"I understand that, especially now that he's helping to reveal this horror," Jonathan said. The others were quick to agree as well.

"And we can actually shut down this place today, since we got to a security console like this easily," Michi added, observing a screen of text. "We need to do something about the workers and victims; the ones who haven't developed the cancer could safely be rescued and brought back into normal society, but as he said, those with it are incapable of independent life. I've also heard rumors of breeders here, women whose sole purpose is to have as many children as possible for new victims."

"That's disgusting," Isabeau said.

"That's also why I said you shouldn't be on your own in this building," Michi said, declining to explain things further. He didn't have to. "There's also another JDSDF god here acting as a form of security. He emits an addictive scent that pacifies people with delusions; you'll need to pick up some gas masks in the entrance hall so you aren't affected by it, and some uniforms so you don't stand out. If we are to take control of the facility, we need to defeat Yaso Magatsuhi as well as alter Mastema's barrier as Tenkai suggested."

Issachar had already been drawn to a different set of controls. "There's something odd here, maybe the controls the angel used. I'll see what I can do with this." He touched the panel and seemed to be reading something that wasn't there.

"Can you give work orders from here?" Flynn asked. Once Michi nodded, he said, "I believe we can call for a shift change to get people to stop working. And do you need us down there to shut the factory down?"

"I'm looking into that, but it's likely," Michi said, still watching a smaller screen while typing on the keyboard. "It seems like we can order the caretakers to take the children off to one area; supposed to be used in an emergency, but it could be useful while you're tracking down Yaso Magatsuhi."

"It would keep them out of the way while we're taking over the facility to shut down," Flynn said.

"I think you should have control over the barrier now," Issachar said.

Stability was good, Jonathan could agree to that. But to build stability on treating others like crops to harvest, that was unacceptable. There had to be a better way of doing things.

* * *

In the darkness, there was a prismatic light. He watched over the city, observing what went on. But this wasn't a passive observance, no. This was to affect things in the world, to make it better. The future of the world couldn't be left to humans no matter who they were.

There was an obstacle to the pieces in the game, one of many. One angel had two barriers in the city, one of a substantial size. The smaller one had just been taken out of Mastema's control: what it blocked was of limited variance to events. However, the larger barrier locked down a lot of movement and possibilities. The one controlling that barrier controlled how people moved, so…

He linked up the two barriers so that when one was shut off, so was the other.

* * *

One of the caretakers was a man who liked the kids. While he had one of the gas masks on, he made himself noticeable with a yellow smiley face pin. "These kids are always so cheerful. I mean, I know why, same reason they make us wear these," he tapped the gas mask, "but given how dark and dreary everything else is, I'm happy to work with them."

"But you must know what's going to happen to them," Isabeau said, having mixed feelings about this man. He did seem to care about the kids. But then, why go along with this monstrous plan?

He hesitated at that. "Well… of course I do, but I try not to think about it. It's sad whenever one of them is moved to another floor, because they won't be themselves for very long. But you know, this job is actually enviable and secure. It's in a safe location with good pay and benefits. It's also an evil plan that ruins the kids; everyone here has their own way of keeping that out of mind. For me, I think that somebody has to care for these kids once they're separated from their mothers."

It was wrong; anyone should see it was wrong. She knew that the monastery would condemn these people. But, Flynn had said not to put the blame with the workers. Was making the best of a bad situation forgivable? "Where are the mothers?" Isabeau asked.

"I know!" one of the girls in the room said. "They're in another building. But Mom said to be brave and not sad, because we're doing great things for Tokyo. We have fun here!"

There weren't any toys and only a few books that would be readable by children. "And you would be safe here," Isabeau said. It was a good point among many horrible ones.

"A few of their mothers are actually in this building, on another floor," the caretaker said. "Easier to keep everyone hidden, I suppose. Look, I'm fine with you guys taking over and shutting things down, now that it's an option. But this will cause a number of problems. The lack of Reds will make demons more difficult to control."

She didn't think that was much of a problem. "We've been making smartphones with the demon summoning program more available. That allows for more people able to fight them."

He nodded to that. "It could work out. But you'll need to defeat Yaso Magatsuhi and Tenkai to make sure Tayama doesn't retake this place. Tenkai is a big part of the security of Roppongi Hills, but we could find a way to make up for him. However, Yaso is the one who, well, keeps the kids, mothers, and seedbeds content. It's going to be rough on them to come off that addiction. But I want the best for these kids; guess I'll read back over addiction recovery."

A good person in a situation so bad it was unthinkably evil… it shouldn't be possible, but here it was. The world couldn't be as simple as she'd once thought it was.

* * *

Yaso Magatsuhi barreled down the hall, getting away from Jonathan and Issachar. Other demons wandering the halls were knocked aside if they didn't scramble away quick enough. In one of the center halls, Flynn destroyed one of the fallen demons so it wasn't a problem. He heard the battle continue on in the other corner; that would be Isabeau and Walter continuing the battle. Michi had his demons and the ability to lock off elevators, so they'd left him in the security office. To make sure his friends were doing well, Flynn was clearing out other demons and being prepared for if things went bad.

'We're fine,' Jonathan told him in a message.

'You did good,' he replied, since the other two should be able to defeat Yaso Magatsuhi this round. But if the demon tried to flee, it would only run into them again, or him if it tried turning a corner.

A minute later, Walter and Isabeau had Yaso Magatsuhi defeated. They met up at that corner, where a large black stone now sat. "What's with the demon turning into a rock?" Walter asked. "None of them have done this before."

"There was a strange rock like this in Shibuya, that stood out," Jonathan said.

"It's because it's a JDSDF special demon like Tenkai," Flynn explained, waving them over to stay back. "It can be brought back by someone with its medium. The chance to find out the story behind them might not be available for a while, so just trust me that this is the best option."

On focusing his magic, he could find lines where some power remained in Yaso's rock. Flynn could then use those to aim antitchton in a way to completely shatter the rock. It reminded him briefly of when he'd first heard the history behind these demons, from Nanashi. While most details were foggy, he knew it had been when they'd been traversing YHVH's universe at some time when he'd had his own mind. They'd gone back to Tokyo for some forgotten reason, splitting up with Flynn and Isabeau staying near the obelisk.

But what Flynn didn't forget was that Nanashi had offered him a bag of pretzels and told him some things he'd encountered. That included the time he'd encountered Izanami and dealt with some ghosts from the war. There had been a steel in Nanashi's gaze from ordeals that he didn't speak of then, yet he still had an awe for a hero who inspired him. Despite being younger, he noticed Flynn's silent suffering and was trying to raise his spirits for that final set of ordeals. Nanashi had even found Issachar's ghost, something Flynn had never done except for shadows of his own guilt and phantoms of White. That time and others, Flynn had kept that fishhook in his pocket rather than in digital storage, finding some strength in knowing that he had fulfilled that promise.

Those were other times. Issachar was here, subtly nudging him to keep him focused in the moment. Once most of the demons were cleared out, they coordinated with Michi to check on the workers and victims. The news that Yaso Magatsuhi was dead spread quickly, convincing the workers to be cooperative. Some were mystified that they wanted the factory entirely shut down, with the victims moved elsewhere to adapt to new lives if feasible. But Flynn knew that most of the workers were normal people and would care about the others once they stopped being detached from what they were doing. Some of them were even the best suited to take care of the victims once their job duties were changed.

Flynn eventually ended up in one of the rooms with a young man who was barely usable as a seedbed. As usual, he was mumbling through one of the mottoes. His room had controls for life support for him and several others. The seedbeds were in bad enough shape that it was more cruel to save them. The kind of medical technology and knowledge that could cure them had been lost.

"The inertia of history cannot be overcome," the young man on the operating table said, getting Flynn's attention. "Even a new path will eventually come back to the same place. Humans cannot break this cycle."

With the lights in this room, it was harder to notice their presence. But there was a white haze now. "I have no reason to believe you," he said quietly, checking his gauntlet. The time was frozen.

"That is a fantasy you use to deny us," the White said through the seedbed's weak voice. "But whether this is achievable by a human or not doesn't matter to you, not when you're a demigod."

"Not in this timeline," Flynn said, trying not to think about that. Later he could consider it, not now when the White were talking to him.

"You know better. You've spent a great deal of time in a non-human state, time that you remember. With a god in your mind and fused with your body, you grew closer to being a god."

Something touched his mind, making their voice echo inside. Flynn tensed, trying to evict them. But by the time they got in, it was harder to block them out; he knew that all too well.

"You'll need to continue in a non-human state of mind to take control even if you mean to break things, because you can't handle things in a human state of mind. In doing this, you increase the difficulty in keeping your humanity. You will even take the loss of these unfortunate souls as an acceptable sacrifice to your goals."

"That's not what this is," Flynn muttered.

"This is the reality of your absurd goals, that you can't escape your own ruin. The future will most certainly fall back into the endless war. Are you willing to take on becoming a god permanently to stop that? You couldn't handle that without going insane like the other gods. Accepting our plans without doubt is the only guaranteed solution."

"It's not guaranteed or I wouldn't be here now," he said.

"That's your fault for having doubt. But your heart has greater despair than hope. Before long, you will see the proof of this." The White then retreated, allowing time to go forward again.

He needed to focus. While they had implied he was acting dangerously close to being a god, Flynn still called out the silk lotus to help. This takeover had to be finished. He clipped the lotus to his coat, then made sure his communication with Michi was still open. "Sorry, got distracted a moment. What next?"

Michi talked him through the last steps before they could hand things off to the factory staff. They did have to observe to make sure the bodies were handled respectfully, as the staff was not used to treating their seedbeds as fellow humans. Thankfully, most of them were appropriately solemn and regretful. Jonathan said that he and the others had spoken with those employees. Perhaps he should have said lecture instead. Whichever it was, it had worked well.

Although they'd taken turns watching for back-up from the Ashura-kai, none had come. Flynn still contacted Fujiwara to see about arranging some Hunter guards to make sure the factory wasn't retaken. "This is more than we intended, but I'm glad that worked out," he told Michi.

"Right, although I think I should finish out the video here while monitoring the Ashura-kai communications," Michi said. "I'm good for a while. Although, are you not feeling well? You've been emotionless to the point of being a little frightening."

"I've been blocking things out to focus, that's all," he said. But there was something that had crossed his mind. "Actually, do you mind if a couple of us talk with you? There's something else you could help out with, not official but it's still important."

"Sure, just head back up here when you're done."

He should ignore the White for now, and bringing up an entirely different topic should help.

* * *

Reverse Roppongi Hills was not even in the normal world. That had been noticeable from the entrance below the normal building as it had been an upside-down skyscraper within a dark foggy expanse. Being in angel form, Issachar also felt a deep absence outside, a chill that was spiritual rather than physical. He'd never felt that before so he didn't know where they really were.

Inside the building, there was a haze of something else he couldn't explain. It was like a false happiness, or maybe like a drunkenness which he'd seen in other people occasionally. It drowned out any other potential emotions here. That made it jarring to meet the cheerful children, masked workers, and unfortunate seedbeds. Fortunately, they were able to end this monstrous operation. Things should get better.

After taking care of Tenkai and some other business, Flynn called him back to the regular building. He was tense despite the lotus being clipped to his coat pocket. "What's wrong?" Issachar asked.

"This place," he started to say, but then shook his head. "Even when you know what's going on, this place is awful. But I've been thinking over some things, including what you were telling me the other day about why you're sometimes an angel. I really shouldn't have been so surprised at that."

"It's fine, it'd shock anybody," he said.

"The thing is, I should have remembered some other people like that," Flynn said. "Most of them were in a distant life, but even in this one, Michi actually likes dressing up as a woman sometimes. I'm not sure it's the same thing, but he might know something more about it."

"Really, so there might be others like me?" It was still strange, but it would be a relief if that was true.

Flynn nodded. "I said I wanted to talk to him, but I'll leave it up to you to bring that subject up."

The subject Flynn went with first was entirely different, about Michi's job. "It would be easier to handle things from here than from where I was," Michi said. "And I know some other folks who'd be good and trustworthy taking security over this place. I'll get in contact with 'em."

"That's good, I'll trust your judgment on them," Flynn said.

Michi then pointed to one of the screens. "Though there is something you should see. I got a notice from Trojan that the magical barrier between Mikado and Tokyo went down today."

"That's trouble," he said, leaning on the console to read the note.

"I put the barrier here back up and the other barrier was reactivated as well," Michi said. "They're both currently off."

"That's not something I did," Issachar said, sitting down where the old controls were. "This only controls this barrier."

"Mastema made both barriers, so that may have something to do with it," Flynn said. "We're past the point where the other barrier made things more convenient, although I should warn Hope that stronger demons may come up."

Once they had other things sorted out, Issachar said, "Um, this may be strange, but Flynn thought you might be able to help me with something."

"If it's strange, I might be the perfect person to ask," Michi said with a grin, something that did help lift Flynn's mood too. "What's up?"

"Well it has to do with how I'm a woman as an angel," he said. "It's not actually strange to me even though I know it should be because I'm a man. But then I've always been a strange person for Mikado. People like my parents would tell me that I was wrong in feeling like that, but I've learned that other things about me aren't wrong. I don't know about this though."

"If he said he doesn't mind being a woman in Mikado, they'd believe he was possessed with no other indication," Flynn added. "There's nothing indicating that it should even be possible."

"If you feel that way, it's not wrong because it's right for you," Michi said. "But I get how that feels. For a long time, the old society looked down on people who were different in some ways. Things were turning around in the last few decades before the war, though. If you could change gender without this angel business, would you prefer one over the other? Does either form make you feel uncomfortable at times?"

Issachar thought about it a moment, then realized that his initial gut feeling was best. "No, I'm fine either way. It seems like some days I'd rather be a man and some days a woman, and sometimes like today I don't care."

Michi nodded. "Seems like you'd be what they called genderfluid. It helps to think of gender as a scale rather than a binary divide. Like my wife Jun has a lot of masculine qualities; she'll swear like a sailor if there aren't kids around and hates wearing anything feminine. But she sees herself as a woman, just closer to the center of the scale. And me, I like acting and dressing as a woman at times. There's also some folks that would call me too emotional for a man. But I am a man, just with some feminine qualities."

"Huh, so I'd be fluid like moving along the scale with however my moods strike me?" he asked.

"That's exactly it," he said. "It's different, not wrong. Like my father used to say, green's a great color, but the world would be a terribly boring place if everything was green. The world would also be terribly boring if there was only one right way for a person to be."

That made him smile. "Right! Thanks, Michi, that makes me feel a lot better. It might be difficult to explain this to most people in Mikado, but at least I know for certain."

"No problem, I had some confusion about myself when I was about your age," Michi said. "Actually, if you get some time in future, my wife and I could show you some things on how to dress as a woman better."

Maybe he could make himself beautiful too. "It might be a while before we have time since our mission is important," Issachar said. "But I'd love that."

"Great, then we should exchange email contacts so you can let us know when you have the time," he said, enthusiastic about the idea. "We'll find a way you can really express yourself, I'm sure."

"Hopefully you can do that soon," Flynn said, now smiling a little. "We'll have to spend a couple more hours securing this place today, and then we can finally get to Ginza tomorrow."

Something else came to mind. "Actually, would it be okay if I went back to Shibuya for those couple of hours?" Issachar asked. Then he told him about the informal request with the kids and the ghosts that he'd seen as a result.

After thinking it over, Flynn nodded slowly. "I see. Then yes, putting those ghosts to rest before they become a threat is good. I think I should be here, so would you take one of the others with you?"

"Sure, that'd be better," he said.

"I'm sure you can prove that boy right as well," he added. "It even sounds like you, since if we knew about guns as kids, I'm sure you would've made up a story like that."

Issachar laughed. "Yeah, I did have some stories about a samurai hero who wielded two swords, since I thought that had to be twice as good."

"I'm sure any kid in Tokyo would admire you if you can master duel-wielding guns," Michi added, admiring it himself.

Maybe he should move to Tokyo in the future rather than stay in Mikado… of course, that all depended on them succeeding at Flynn's plans first. But after that, maybe this was a better place for him.


	54. Cycles of Misery

**Chapter 54: Cycles of Misery**

Last night, Issachar had come back in tired and fell asleep quickly. As he prepared to head out for breakfast, he kept thinking that it was strange to wake up alone. He had been spending many nights with Flynn lately. Despite that, they hadn't gone beyond a small kiss on occasion. Flynn tended to block out certain thoughts and emotions while they were in Tokyo, or even when out doing official business in Mikado. But once he started relaxing for the night, those anxieties and fears would come right out. Issachar often kept an arm around him while they sat together in those times, sometimes singing as an angel to coax him into calm if even the lotus wasn't helping.

How was Flynn doing? Issachar wouldn't have been surprised to find him asleep in his dorm, just for the company. Flynn had been clearly blocking something heavy out while they were in Roppongi. Maybe he'd calmed down on his own? That would be nice, but he felt concerned that it wasn't the case.

And when would he be okay with being more passionate, even a little more? It was probably wrong to be thinking like that… or it could just be another normal thing that got labeled as sin in Mikado. Issachar could recall some mornings vividly, when Flynn wasn't fully awake and had his hair loose and messy, and wasn't wearing a shirt… Issachar wanted to hold him tight like that, run his hands through his hair, along his chest, find some way to stir up these heady desires and love him like in his dreams. But although Flynn loved him and accepted all of his strangeness, even finding ways to help him accept his own strangeness, he would stop him from being too close.

Maybe that was for the best. It hadn't come from a reliable source, but Issachar still wondered if this might be some trap lying in wait. Was he truly being held to the standards of angels? He didn't want to give Flynn anything more to worry about, especially with a risk of him turning into a fallen angel. But the passion was still there, wanting to be fulfilled even if he kept holding it in.

"Maybe since he didn't need the company last night, he might be open to it this morning, Issachar mumbled to himself, then chuckled at himself. "No, he wants to get things done, so he'd turn that down. Things are getting better, so maybe tonight?" He laughed again, this time to brush away these feelings so he could focus on the day. "When the time's right…"

When he put his gauntlet on, though, Burroughs had an alert for him. "You have a message from Commander Hope, about your parents."

"My parents?" he asked, wondering what this could be about. He'd thought they would be glad to be done with him when he got chosen as a samurai.

But the message indicated that it might not be so. 'A messenger came in yesterday to report that your parents had both fallen gravely ill. Your father has already passed, but your mother may still live and has asked to see her children again, including you. If you decide to go, you should be cautious as they moved out to a new town near Shene Duque, which is where zealots who abide by the old ways and would like to make them stricter have gathered. They do allow outsiders to visit in such cases but expect such visitors to be in line with their ideals, imprisoning those who don't. It's your choice on going out there, but be mindful if you do.'

For a moment, Issachar's mind was blank. What should he do? He didn't feel much of anything on this news. It was his parents and it should be sad to have those he knew well die. But whether they'd realized it or not, they had contributed to making his life miserable for years. They wouldn't understand how he felt so free and happy now, even with the burdens and worries that came with his new understanding. There was no sadness at this news of losing his father and mother, but no relief like he'd felt at the rite in being freed from their expectations.

They hadn't hated him, he realized. They probably didn't mean to make his life tougher. Most likely, they just hadn't known any other way to deal with someone so different. Nobody in Mikado had even known how electric light bulbs worked, but still used them as mystic relics. Similarly, Issachar hadn't known how to describe himself until he learned he could be called something other than different and wrong. He wasn't sure if he could get his mother to accept who he was, but he could give her one more chance and listen to what she had to say.

He wouldn't need his gauntlet, but he left it on anyhow when he went to check on Flynn. He was also dressed and ready for the day when he answered. "How are you doing today?" Issachar asked.

Shrugging, he said, "I'm fine, actually slept through the night for once. And you?"

"I'm not sure how to answer that," he said, glancing to make sure no one else was in the hall. "I missed you this morning, but it's good you didn't need me there."

Flynn smiled at that, but didn't seem that happy. "I missed you like that too," he said quietly. "I didn't realize I'd gotten used to that."

"You can come see me even if you're not having a bad night," Issachar said, taking his hand briefly. But it was early morning and there were others in the dormitory getting ready for the day too. "Actually, I got a notice from Hope that my father died of an illness. My mother might have passed away too, or she might be close. I want to try to visit her, if that's okay."

He nodded, but asked, "Are you sure about that? You never got along with them well."

"I know, but I think we didn't understand each other," he said. "I don't know if I could explain things to her, but I want to make some amends."

"That's good, I hope it goes well," Flynn said.

"But are you sure you're fine?" he asked back. "You seem like you'd be feeling tired and numb."

He sighed. "Guess I couldn't hide that from you."

"I've felt like that for months on end before," Issachar said. "What did you have planned for us today? I hope it's not too complicated, for your sake."

"We were going to meet up with the Ring of Gaea and hopefully capture Lilith," he said. "Getting to Ginza and the Gaean temple shouldn't be hard, but dealing with Lilith," he rubbed his forehead, "I might have to see how I feel later. Or let you see my notes on her. Someone with a sharp mind needs to be ready to argue with her, and you would have an easier time resisting her charm."

"Sure, I can handle it if you need me to," he said. "How about we go down to the Casualry bakery for breakfast this morning? The walk down there and back might help."

After a moment, Flynn nodded. "All right, that sounds good. We should have time for that."

It was a crisp morning, so early into spring that only a few eager flowers were in bloom. Flynn didn't seem interested in that, so Issachar ended up questioning him about the encounter with Lilith. Apparently, they should have arrested her in Ikebukuro, in that one large bookstore which wasn't a domain this time around. She would have been executed publicly in Obelisk Plaza. Being a demon, she would revive some time later and they'd have to track her down again, to Ginza. Since they'd already visited Reverse Roppongi, Flynn didn't think Ginza would be much trouble to them.

When they got back to the terminal, Walter and Isabeau were already there, sitting on a bench waiting on them. "Good morning," Isabeau said. "It was a surprise to find you two not here yet."

"We decided to go down to the Casualry district for breakfast today," Issachar said. "Actually, I'm going to visit my family today, since my father passed away and my mother might do the same soon."

"Sorry to hear about that," Walter said. "You gonna be fine?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. My relationship with them was complicated, so this was just a surprise. Actually, Flynn's having a rougher morning than me, so would you keep a close eye on him?"

"Sure, we won't let him out of our sight now," Walter said, playfully acting like he'd been told that Flynn was up to trouble instead.

"Fine," Flynn said, not even in a mood to joke back.

"Thanks, I'll be joining you guys down in Kasumigaseki soon," Issachar said. "Flynn wanted to tell Fujiwara in person how things went in Shibuya and Roppongi before we talked with the Ring of Gaea."

"We can help with that, and let Jonathan know," Isabeau said. "I hope your meeting with your mother goes well."

Issachar had to track down the messenger from the Shene Duque village, to figure out where it was. Thankfully, the man was still in town, loading up a wagon to take back with him. Issachar rode over to the village with him. He tried to make conversation, but the man was more interested in reciting some teachings repeatedly. Was he depressed too?

With the wagon, it didn't take long to reach the village of Shene Duque. It was oddly quiet. After giving him quick directions, the messenger went to work unloading his wagon with an equally quiet woman; they were the only two that Issachar saw on first glance. There were dirt paths and smaller houses than in Kiccigiorgi. Past those, he could see fields that were prepared for spring seeding. Weren't they late on that? And why wasn't anyone out there? Maybe this sickness had been devastating.

In one of the smaller houses, he found his mother. She was alone, asleep with a fever. Issachar wasn't her only surviving child; where were his siblings? Since they weren't here, he cleaned up the fireplace to start that up again. The icebox was strangely low; harvested ice might be stored elsewhere. But there was enough to wrap some pieces in rags and try to cool down her fever with.

It took some time for her to wake up, in which time he'd tidied up and made some rice porridge. "Hello, mother," he said, sitting by her. "Are you hungry?"

Her answer was mumbled, but seemed to say yes. Issachar helped her eat as much of the porridge as she wanted. Eventually, she was able to speak mostly clear. "Are you the priest here for confessions?"

"No, it's me, Issachar." He shifted the rags so the bits of remaining ice didn't slip out.

She didn't seem to hear him. "I don't want to do confessions… you're just going to tell me I won't be accepted to heaven."

"Huh?" She'd always been good and proper. Unless, had she been intentionally cruel?

"Heard you say it to my husband after his 'fessin," she said. "Because our marriage was an obligation after he couldn't marry the woman he loved, an' was always more in love with her than me."

Issachar left his hand on her forehead. "Mother…"

Although she said she didn't want a confession, she kept talking. "I knew that. He never acted on it, I know that too. We did what we should as a couple, always jus' like priest said. But you said he was bound for hell for that coveter… etness. He was already in hell, idiot, we both were."

"You both were miserable like I was," he said, feeling guilty himself for never realizing that.

Then she surprised him by saying, "I was in love with that girl too. She was too beautiful and kind for the world. An' I wanted to be a miller to use the mystic relics and numbers. Mother said I was too smart for a girl; hate actin' dumb, but you'll say I'm vain if I don't. I did what you priests said, raised my children like you said. They were all miserable too… don't even understand some of 'em. Don't make me confess, you don't need to hear it to say I'm condemned. I know I am."

"Old Mikado was terrible for you too," he said. "But then why did you come here?"

She seemed to realize his question, as she answered, "You said this place would be pure and peaceful, and everyone would be happy. But can't you see? Everyone is miserable and you've condemned everyone who passed away. You're an evil angel who hates all of us."

Didn't she think she was talking with a priest? Or, had one of the false angels taken over that role? Issachar shifted over to being an angel. "That's not who's with you, mother."

Something about that made her look at him. She didn't have much time left. "Hmm?"

He smiled at her, trying not to seem sad. "You're more like me than I ever imagined. Things could have been different; you didn't deserve to live a life like that, full of sorrow and disappointment. If you had learned to read like me, maybe you could have found a way out of that too."

"I'm not evil?" she asked.

"No, not at all. You may have made mistakes, but everyone does. I'm sure you didn't mean to hurt anyone."

"I wanted my children to be better and happier than I was. I did what the priests said, it should have worked."

"It was the only way we were allowed to know," he said. "Mother, do you recognize me now? It's Issachar."

It took her a moment more to recognize that. "Issachar? I was never sure what to do with you."

"It's fine, I understand now," he said. "I was confused about myself, but I figured things out, including how to be happy."

"At least, you're happy. Did you marry?"

That was what people assumed made others happy. "No," he said. "I can't, although I have fallen in love with someone, who feels the same about me."

"Is it Flynn?" she asked. "I don't care now, just…"

Hoping she didn't, he said "Yes, I've loved Flynn for a long time."

She closed her eyes to that. "Flynn's a good boy. He gave you reason to live several times."

"You knew about that?" Issachar asked.

"He asked, sometimes, about how to help you. I didn't know what to say; he did better on his own. You'll be fine with him."

"Right," he said, then brushed some water from the icepack away. "I hope your next life is better."

"Next life? Yes, that'd be good."

Since she was dying, there was something he could do. "Don't fret now. The angels you've met before have been false, but the true God who loves us is still around. I can lead you to Him." Then he sang like he had with Souta and the ghosts of Shibuya. Only one of the latter had listened to him, as the rest were still agitated. His mother was already reassured.

His song did attract the other lingering spirits in this village. As she had said, they were heavy with misery and guilt. But they wanted to hear what he had to say; they wanted to know that they were loved. He felt the things that weighed them down, but continued to sing. They should be at peace.

It was only noon, but he felt worn out when he stopped singing. His mother was gone now. Since he was her only family here, Issachar pulled her blanket over her, then left to find someone to help him take care of her. She wasn't the only death recently. He ended up helping the volunteer gravekeeper dig three graves to take care of burials today. There were no funerals, just a brief prayer from the gravekeeper after they put the deceased in their grave.

By the time they got done, his appearance had brought over a few more people, including the village priest. But the priest as not human. "What kind of angel are you?" the priest asked, suspicious of him.

"I'm an angel of the Great Will," he replied, glad this wasn't the first time he'd faced the question. This angel wouldn't be easily distracted like Chemtrail.

The angel furrowed his brows, like he'd heard that a pig had learned to fly. "How…? What are you doing here? All the souls I was taking care of have vanished."

It took all of his restraint to not punch him immediately. "Taking care of them? They were miserable and unloved! They went nowhere because you had condemned them to that hell! I would rather be in a fire and brimstone hell than stuck forever with nothing but guilt and sorrow."

"That is what they were due," the angel priest said, while the humans around them felt varying degrees of shock at their words. "All humans are born sinners. It's merely a matter of how much further they sink into sin over their lifetime. If they took the teachings of God to heart every moment of their lives, they would not need to suffer. We do our best to lead them because of the love of God."

"There is no love here, only hate," Issachar retorted. "The teachings of your God lead to misery; this place is full of misery. You condemned my father for something he merely thought about, something that was probably normal. If you make your standards of good a perfection that no one can attain, no one will be happy."

"This is God's wisdom," the angel said, although he was starting to be troubled.

That made Issachar sigh. "I see, this has all been a cycle of miserable people making others miserable. You can't remember being happy because your God does not love even you."

Trembling, the angel pulled his arms close to his chest. His image flickered, revealing him as a low-ranked angel. Their audience, which had managed to grow, were watching in a stunned silence. "I… I… no one can comprehend the mysteries of God, especially not a mere angel as I. There is only suffering because the world is not as perfect as God's ideals. We servants must remain faithful…"

"Have you heard from your God?" Issachar asked. "Have you been in His presence?"

"No, but I am faithful," the angel said, his eyes glazing over.

Just as he wondered what he should do, a quiet voice spoke right next to him. 'If you can, bring that angel to me. It is a danger, but this is pitiful.'

"Are you Merkabah?" Issachar asked quietly, having a gut feeling it was her.

'Yes, follow my voice.' Then she started singing in the language of angels, coaxing one like a frightened child.

He reached over to the angel. "How about you come with me?"

"I am faithful," the angel repeated.

"But you're fearful," he pointed out. "We may be able to help. Please?"

At that, the angel took his hand. His grip was trembling. "Y-yes. The light of your soul is warm."

He looked over at the others around them. "You all should consider if you're truly happy here. If the angels don't consider you redeemable, what good does it do to listen to them?"

"You have a point," a man in the crowd said.

"Yes, and thank you for giving these spirits peace," a woman said. "I thought I could feel them crying; it's good to know that's no longer so."

After a quick look at her, Issachar nodded. "You are sensitive to spirits; that's a gift, I hope you can find a way to use it well."

He then led the angel priest out of the village, towards a wide hill past the tilled fields. In a couple weeks time, this hill might be covered in new grasses and flowers. For now, it was still rough ground and dry grasses. At the top, though, they got an unobscured view of a giant cocoon. But if that was a cocoon, the butterfly within would easily obscure the sun.

"What is that?" Issachar asked.

"That's the proper holy land of Shene Duque," the angel said. "The cocoon was used to purify the chosen ones from the great war, the ones who became your ancestors. Why are we here?"

"Merkabah called us here," he said, leading the angel once again. Then that was where the kidnapped children were taken. And purified, that had to be the implantation of the D-gene. There didn't seem to be anything holy about this place to him.

"The great Merkabah is here?" he asked, awed at that. "They're one of those that only take orders directly from God… yes, if anyone's heard from God lately, it could be Merkabah."

Merkabah's voice led them around to the entrance of the cocoon. What was inside was one of the strangest places Issachar had been, even compared to Reverse Roppongi. The cocoon was entirely hollowed out, lined with recesses that resembled honeycomb. The voice led them to one piece of the comb that was closed up. A shadowed figure could be seen within it.

"Angel, I am glad you came," Merkabah said, her voice clearer. "This human's light disturbs you, does it not?"

"He's human?" the angel asked, looking at him. Issachar nodded. "Yes, but I don't know why."

"It is because he cherishes and embodies virtues that the rest of you angels have forgotten, I believe. The God he serves loves the world and humanity; that is also absent from your light, making it harsh and sterile. While it is currently unconfirmed to me, I theorize that means that the God you serve does not love you angels."

"B-but that's impossible," he said, trembling again. It was surprising that he wasn't in tears on hearing that. "We are His loyal servants; all of our adoration is for Him. He has always… loved us…"

Issachar hugged the angel, hoping to encourage him. It startled him instead. "That's terrible. He shouldn't leave you alone in the dark."

"You're so strange," the angel said, pushing away although he gripped Issachar's shoulder tight. He let him go, letting him cling how he wanted.

"His light disturbs you because that is the light you should bear as an angel," Merkabah said. "I do not doubt that you are faithful as that is clearly upon your soul. But if you are willing to take a chance, I may be able to lead you two to his God."

"The Great Will?" the angel asked. "But that's… they're…"

"Indescribable," Merkabah said for him. "I know you have little willpower, but you should have enough to make that choice. Now, Issachar."

"Yes?" To meet his God… that didn't intimidate Issachar, but he wasn't in the best of shape after singing to the forsaken souls.

"Without hesitation, you called upon the suffering souls you've encountered and took on their burdens so they could finally find peace with themselves. That is something you can do in borrowing the powers of an angel, something that calls for a selfless love. You may have only followed your heart, but you have done something miraculous in this."

"I escaped my own despair, so I just want to help others do the same," he said.

"And you would thus know that such help means everything to them," Merkabah said, some of the softness from her song returning. "Yet it is a heavy burden upon you, and would be to any angel. While appreciated, such acts will take a toll upon you. But I am not one for comforting others. Sorry, that is just a result of my role in the world."

"From what Jonathan has told me about you, I understand," Issachar said. Even as a spirit within the cocoon, Merkabah had an aloofness that she was actively putting aside to do this much.

"As such, I would like to send you to the Great Will for some rest you could not ordinarily attain. But first, could your place your hand upon the shield of my cage? I would like to try something."

"All right," he said, placing his hand on the surface of the honeycomb. It felt like solid beeswax.

The shadows drew closer to his hand. But after a moment, Merkabah said, "It only had a chance of working, but I had hoped it might. It seems I would need contact with the ones who imprisoned me, or someone with a closer connection to me. Still, you may have already noticed, but within this cocoon is a space outside of the normal world. I'm still capable of sending you both to the Great Will even captive as I am."

"I know where this place is, so I could tell the others," Issachar said. "Surely one of them could help you."

"I'm relatively safe, so it's not to be a priority. Now, take this angel's hand… close your eyes… your God is calling you, Issachar, take flight after that voice."

There was no voice. But, there was a sensation that filled his body, just as it did when he sang as an angel. The Great Will was within everything; the Great Will was already with him. But if he wanted to prove it to the lost angel, he did have to go somewhere… no, not a where, a… a state of being that his human mind might not comprehend, but as long as he was in an angel's body, he would be fine there. Merkabah's guidance was in pointing out this way that he might not have found himself.

"There's no voice," the angel said while they were moving. Once they got there, though, he stiffened. "Ah… aaahhh…"

Like a song, the Great Will's voice (that was the best word he had for it) embraced them. It immediately reassured the lost angel from being overwhelmed with an ache of loss he hadn't realized was there. "It's fine," Issachar said, starting in on a reassuring song himself.

It wasn't long before the other angel fell asleep. He would be fine; he would be cared for. With that done, the songs then focused on him in an echo of Merkabah's words. He'd been given an unexpected blessing and power. He'd chosen to use that to bring blessings to others without instruction to do so. Since he'd not realized that the comforting of souls was more than mere listening, his soul was growing heavy from the burdens of others. But that was fine, that was good. He had brought those burdens here where they would be absolved.

This place was the light of hope in the deepest sorrows, the second chance that lifted people up. He was sure of that because he'd felt that before just the same as he'd felt despair. This place was love that asked for nothing in return, love that had no expectations, and forgiveness. Knowing that, Issachar sang out the burdens of those he'd given this peace to. They were good people; they could have done wonderful things if given the chance. May their next start in life be one with many blessings.

All those sorrows melted away into this love.

Don't worry. Your heart remains that of a human. Your actions will be judged as a human, not an angel. But thank you for becoming the angel that was needed.

Singing with the Great Will was most like a dream. When he woke up from it, Issachar found himself back in his dorm room. It was just before dawn of the next day, the hush of that time replacing the harmony that had been everything. No, that harmony was still there, just becoming unheard as it normally was. He also felt light and amazingly refreshed, like he was ready for anything that could come his way.

"I should tell Flynn to let me handle Lilith, no matter how he feels," he said to himself as he sat up. Reflexively, he stretched his wings out and found them to be larger than before. They still weren't obstructed by his clothing, which was odd but much better than the alternative. His skills as an angel seemed to have changed as well.

Doing something he hadn't done since he was a child, he sincerely offered a prayer of thanks before making sure he was ready to head back into Tokyo.

* * *

Michi must have done a lot of work on his video beforehand as it got released while Flynn was speaking with Fujiwara. It showed some of their interactions with those in the Ropppongi Hills facilities. As they had been dressed in the worker uniforms, they couldn't be identified from the video as more than a group of four men and one woman. One powerful moment of the video was when Michi added in a part of the ad videos, then showed the child from that part as one of the seedbeds that was too far gone to save.

"Tayama hasn't been challenged this much for a couple of decades," Fujiwara said. "I'm sure he won't take this well. We've taken what precautions we could, including distributing a few working power generators to major towns. His biggest advantage now is owning the building where the main source of electrical power in Tokyo is."

"Can he shut that off?" Flynn asked.

"It would be highly impractical to shut the whole generator down," he said, bringing up a map of the city on a nearby screen. "Restarting it requires specialized knowledge. But he can shut down particular lines. Like if he shut down this line, this base and Ginza would lose power. And if this nearby line is shut down instead, almost all of the eastern half of the city would lose power."

That was something he knew: no matter how unpopular Tayama became, it was difficult to fully knock him out of power because of the Yamato Perpetual Generator. "Would anyone be willing to challenge him for control of the generator?"

"Mm, the Ring of Gaea might try," he said. "It would be nice to take control of the generator, but it's best taken with caution, and taken first try."

After some further discussion, he got notice that Issachar had joined them. He ended the conversation and called his group to the street in order to head to Ginza. Issachar was just outside the terminal room as expected. He was in human form, but he seemed bright and energetic despite things. "Did things go well?" Flynn asked.

"For the most part," he said. "My parents have both passed on now, but they're fine now. I saw to that." He grimaced briefly. "That village outside Shene Duque was terrible; no one was happy there."

"Do they have contact with the angels?" he asked.

He nodded. "There was only a ninth rank angel I met there, but he was acting as the village priest. Although there's a lot to that story; I'll tell you later. Do you still want me to talk to Lilith?"

While he was physically fine, Flynn felt like his thoughts were sluggish. He was having to push himself just to be motivated. With Issachar looking exactly the opposite, Flynn felt relieved at the question. "Sure, that would help a lot. When we get to Ginza, we'll discuss what needs to be said and what she's like."

And knowing what he knew now, Issachar might have a better shot at winning an argument against Lilith.


	55. Two in the Face of Defeat

**Chapter 54: Two In the Face of Defeat**

Hikaru was going to humiliate her if she went back at this stage. Lilith was sure of that; she wouldn't have set Dantelion to expire so fast if she wasn't angry at them. If Hikaru somehow went back to that strange artsy personality, it might be better to speak to her then. That is, if she'd listen. A lot of other demons would also humiliate her if she admitted what was going on.

That left one option, one very unfortunate option. But if she was going to set things back to how they should be, she had to do this. Lilith headed to Tennozu, using the terminal line to bypass Gabriel's barrier. That was easier than slipping past the humans in the shelter to the elevator, but she managed not to be seen.

If she'd been more in a mood to laugh, she would have on finding Gabriel in a Shinto shrine. The angel must feel humiliated to be taking shelter in a pagan shrine. Still, Gabriel had the advantage now. "What are you doing here?" she asked sternly.

"Hey, there's been a bit of an incident in the plans," Lilith said, keeping her worry out of her act. "Particularly in the person hanging onto Lucifer's identity."

"What happened?" Gabriel asked, taking this seriously.

"Well I managed to convince most that they were the demon lord," she said; some of the Hikaru persona had been under her control. "And you told me that the dragon shouldn't have the will to surpass Lucifer's. But that happened, somehow. I met the dragon in control recently and she playfully declared me a traitor. And then when Lucifer reasserted himself, he did the same, except not so playfully. So they're not under my influence anymore."

"It was a surprise that you avoided failure as long as you have," Gabriel said, acting cold. "But that was the one thing I was counting on you to do. What are you going to do about them?"

Trying to act indignant, she said, "That's why I came to you since you told me to watch over him. I don't know what you did to him; if there's any way we can reset him and the dragon, I'll do it."

Gabriel shook her head. "You've failed your duty, so I won't trust you with it again. In the end, you're nothing but a desperate fool who will fail at getting what you truly want. It's your fault in the end that everything has gone so wrong. Handle your problems yourself."

Was there nothing that could be done now? She'd take any form of control, anything to keep her in the game…

There was a meeting with the samurai that she was expecting soon.

* * *

The Reds factory was shut down, taken over by an anonymous group.

Shibuya had sent a notice that they were no longer giving taxes to the Ashura-kai, the last major shelter town to withdraw support.

Four of the JDSDF demons were no longer responding to summons, apparently because their boulders had been shattered.

The Mikado 'ambassador' had artfully turned down a request for trade negotiations, continuing to do them through the Hunter's Association.

The Mikado samurai were talked about across Tokyo as heroes, also turning down any contact with the Ashura-kai unless it benefited other people more.

There was now talk on various networks about destroying the largest domain in Akihabara, which would surely release even more smartphones to the foolish public.

Every day brought another cut into his authority. Tayama was furious, but he was past the point at yelling at everyone. Instead, he was going to do something about this. Taking the mediums of the remaining JDSDF gods, he ordered his penthouse apartment cleared of valuables and goods. He was going to move to a more secure location, to make sure he couldn't lose any more power.

Ichigaya was a place where fights broke out fairly frequently. That damn Yuriko and her Gaeans kept trying to break into the reactor there, so he had to set strong guards and demons there to stop them. So far, that had worked. Now, he was going to consolidate all his loyal forces here. That would make sure no one had a chance to eliminate them. After reminding the guards that they weren't to allow anyone in without his permission, Tayama, some assistants, and a couple of bodyguards headed on in.

Behind him, someone else approached the guards. He gave them a look that made them think that challenging him was extraordinarily foolish. Then he walked by them without being stopped. He had to be a part of the group, the guards both thought without speaking to each other. Believing that was smarter than not, surely.

The base was set up as a maze due to locked doors and blocked stairs; it could be made more secure through setting up domains. But Tayama held all the keys, meaning he could get right to where he wanted to go. There were also demons within the base as a result of the reactor, but his bodyguards were skilled demon summoners. There were no demons in here that could cause them trouble.

The one shadowing them observed any battles that happened, followed after silently. He wasn't bothered at all.

While he could head to the rooms he would take for an office and apartment now, Tayama opted for going directly to the reactor. "We're going to send out an announcement to the idiots in the rest of the city, so get the media center ready," he ordered his assistants. "Except you, start preparing the apartments. As for you guards, double check our security measures in other halls and join the guards up top."

"Yes sir." They all headed off to their assignments, leaving him alone in the reactor room. This was the last remaining centerpiece of his power. While the shops were still useful, this was the service that no one could bear to be without. Any other generator required fuel of some kind, often with risks associated with operating them. With this in his control, no one could afford to completely ignore him.

"Hey, this place is connected to the Abyss, right?" someone asked him.

"Yes," he said automatically, then turned around quickly. There was a young man who was faintly familiar, from his biker fashion sense to his excessive tattoos. "What are you doing here?"

"Following you around since it was easier to get in that way," he said. "I need access to this place since I'm not finding any other access to the Abyss in this world."

After the initial surprise, Tayama finally recalled him. "Oh right, you were that random little devil worshiper."

Naoki smiled in a way that was unnerving. "Please, I told you that I'm not a devil worshiper. Why would I be a worshiper when I'm a devil myself?"

He spoke politely, but his words sent chills through Tayama's blood like he was in the presence of death itself. He knew he had to find some way to take control of the situation again. If he was truly a devil, then a human's wit might be able to trap him. "Who are you really?"

After a flicker of light made him blink, Tayama found himself with a shadowy creature enveloped in an oversized black cloak. "I am the Demifiend, one of Lord Lucifer's generals and Death incarnate. I will be taking control of this reactor now."

There was some hope. "Hey, you can't do this. We have an arrangement with Lucifer, including provisions on the Reds. You could take over their production and distribution if you wanted." That wasn't losing much since the factory was shut down and the seedbeds were dead.

"No, those pills disgust me," the Demifiend said, seeming like he extended his arms. A white spark appeared near his eyes. "You ought to be executed for such evil."

"W-wait, you can't just do that," Tayama protested, desperate to save his life.

But he could, and did.

* * *

Tsujiki Hongwangi was full of portals that warped one all through its winding halls. There were demons everywhere, ready to punish those who took a wrong turn or block those who took the right ones. As they were newcomers, they each had to find their way to the main chamber of the temple before a lit candle they were each given became extinguished. Issachar gave his candle to one of his demons, one he was sure would keep the candle safe out of pride. That let him keep practicing with both guns, which was already feeling easier.

The woman who met them at the end even mentioned that. "We normally look down on gunslingers for not relying on their own strength, but you're one wild fighter for choosing to use two."

"Strength comes in many forms," he said.

"That could be," she said.

They all made it through the trial, as expected. As a result, they were allowed in the main worship room. There were only a handful of people in here, all in the same red clothes and toothy decorations. The room was lit only by candlelight, most clustered around a giant golden statue of a reclining woman. But they weren't given enough time to adjust to the lighting before they were dropped through a trapfloor without any warning. This left them in a concrete hallway littered with rubble.

"What was that for?" Walter asked, angered now.

"They must be desperate because they usually boast first," Flynn said quietly.

A pair of voices then came from overhead, telling them that they were in the Hall of Ethics. They posed a question with two possible answers, telling them that they should head through one of the two doors to give their answers. The answers seemed equally good, or equally bad. He wasn't sure which to pick.

"There's good and bad to either answer," Jonathan said, putting his hand to his chin.

"There's three questions to this trial," Flynn said, still keeping his voice low so only they overheard it. "Whatever question they ask or answer we give, the doors lead to the same place. After all the time I've done this, I've concluded that these questions are better left to idle conversations. We're going this way." He then pushed a seemingly random block in the wall. This revealed a hidden door to another hallway.

"That is not a legitimate choice!" the female speaker said, muffled as they went through the other hall. "You'll have to fight…"

Whatever she meant to say, they didn't actually have to fight in that hallway. There was a puzzle panel with some sliding wood bars and wires. Flynn already knew the answer and solved it in a few seconds. With that, another hidden door opened up and led them into a grand room full of shadows. A group of eight pillars surrounded the one lit area in the center of the room. A woman was waiting on them there, with short hair and a short skirt. From what the others had said, this was Lilith.

"That was a trial to allow you to see yourself more clearly," she said as they came into the square of pillars. "It counts even when you cheat like that; you were only given two answers to give, not three."

Only two choices… Issachar nodded. "Right. Thinking there are only two sides to an issue, or only two choices to make, is a naive way of looking at things."

"That's not what I meant," she said. "But you got through, so welcome to our temple. Since you think yourselves clever, I'll go ahead and admit that yes, I am Lilith, one of those who showed up at Obelisk Plaza that day. However, I still hold Gabriel as entirely responsible for what happened. I would appreciate your help in these matters."

"That depends on what you ask for because we still hold you accountable for conspiring with her," Issachar said. The others knew Flynn was leaving this mostly to him, but they would speak up if they felt like it.

"You'll find it advantageous to work for me," Lilith said, beckoning to them. A pink mist surrounded them, smelling of powder and roses.

"Ugh, what're you…?" Jonathan said as Walter and Flynn also seemed to be gagging at the mist. This had to be the charm magic Flynn had told him about, something that often left them all but Isabeau senseless. The three others soon collapsed onto the floor. Oddly, Issachar felt just fine.

"What did you do to them?" Isabeau asked, crouching down to check on Walter.

"They will help me and they will be happy about it," Lilith answered, although she was looking at him.

"No, you'll be controlling them with magic, leaving them not as themselves," Issachar said. "That's a false happiness."

"It's despicable!" Isabeau said, getting back to her feet. "We'll just dispatch you and free them then."

Lilith rolled her eyes. "Please, you're just a jealous wife; you don't matter."

"I'm not jealous, I'm furious," Isabeau said, having drawn her sword now. Issachar had his guns ready as well; either of them could handle support or direct attacking, so he would let her do the latter.

Unfortunately, Lilith was quick enough to bring up a barrier around herself, not letting them attack her. "You're a wife, so you're naturally jealous of any woman that gets your man's attention. That's how things have always been. It also means you're either a petty shrew or so blandly loyal that your husband is your whole world. You won't amount to anything now that you're married."

Frowning, Isabeau replied, "I see. You were right, Issachar, she's a naive fool who only believes in stereotypes. She must not have contributed to the demon plague because she had nothing to contribute."

"What?" Lilith said, tightening her fists. Her barrier flickered but remained.

Isabeau stepped forward, ready to take advantage of when her barrier did drop. "And that foolishness has led your group to suicidally collapse under its narrow views. Either this Ring of Gaea was always doomed by your leadership or you're a mere puppet who thinks you're in control." She hadn't been instructed as he had, but she was doing very well.

"None of that is true!" Lilith claimed, shaking in rage. Her human form got ripped apart as her thorny black form emerged instead. "I've done plenty to change the world above and below the Firmament! The demon transformations wouldn't have happened if you all hadn't been tempted to move past the ridiculous standards that the angels held you to. I gave you wisdom and knowledge in access to books because that was the biggest way to open your eyes to the possibilities in embracing sin. If the God of Law claims your souls, you'll already be condemned sinners by His narrow views, so you may as well enjoy what life has to offer you before you enter Hell upon death.

"And the Ring of Gaea hasn't collapsed! As long as one survives, the Ring will continue on. It's not the humans but the demons that make the Ring. It doesn't matter who is strong enough to survive and who falls dead in being weak; they'll all fall in death someday because they're just mortals. But I give them the chance to be larger than life with the brief time they have. They'll be forgotten someday just like any mortal, but my wisdom and leadership allows them to be happy and proud. When they're gone and forgotten, I will gather more to instruct and the Ring will continue on."

Isabeau gave a small laugh at that. "I've recorded that confession, so there's nothing keeping us from executing you here and now."

"I have it recorded too," Issachar said, watching her barrier. When it flickered, he fired one gun at it. The barrier shattered as a result. "We'll just defeat her and discharm the others."

"N-no, this can't be!" Lilith whipped her thorny limbs at them and the battle began.

Isabeau sent a burst of lightning at Lilith, then used the brightness from that to get close enough for her sword. Issachar brought out some demons who could use healing, buffs, and debuffs so that he could focus on firing at Lilith's limbs. While it was tricky, it kept the demon from grabbing hold of Isabeau and restraining her. Lilith was still enraged, trying to physically assault Isabeau. As the fight wore on, though, it became clear to all of them that she was losing. She tried a couple of spells, but couldn't focus on casting.

Eventually, she got desperate enough that she vanished, reappearing behind him and grabbing his shoulders. The room blurred in an instant, reforming into a smaller room that seemed more like someone lived there. There was a small table to the side with an unlit incense burner and two chairs. More noticeably, there was a large bed in the room with pale curtains on tall posts and pink sheets.

The pink mist returned too. "Why don't you put those away?" Lilith said, trying to be alluring despite being near death. She took his hand and tried to put his gun away for him. "You don't need them here."

Pulling his hands away, he turned to face her. "The battle isn't over yet," he said.

She had transformed again, this time into a human with short black hair and nothing covering her body. It was startling since he'd not seen a woman naked before. "You don't have to fight me. Why don't you work with me, and have a good time while you're at it?"

"No, we came to stop you and I won't be convinced otherwise," Issachar said. "You don't care about humans, so there's no reason to listen to you any longer."

Her eyes twitched, narrowed, then attempted to look sad. "Wh-why, what's the matter with you? Are you Adam?"

"No, I'm Issachar," he said.

"Few other men resist me so much," she said, then screamed and turned back into a demon. "What's so wrong with everything?! Why am I failing so much? I should be greater than all of you humans; you should fall for me without fail. Why is everything so wrong?!"

"Demons shouldn't be ruling the world," Issachar said, then finished her off with one shot. As she disappeared into smoke, he checked around the room in case of other problems. "Now where am I?"

Unfortunately, the door was locked. Not knowing how the others were, he sent a message to Isabeau telling her that he was fine aside from being locked in a room somewhere. She reported that the others were awake now, groggy from trying to resist the charm magic within their dreams. Issachar decided to search the room in case the key out was around. But there were no keys, nothing useful to their mission. In fact, he wasn't sure what to make of things until something made it obvious that this room only had one purpose.

He'd gone back to check over the door again when someone called from the other side. "Hey! Anyone in here?"

"Yes," he called back. "I can't find the key out of here."

"Keep away from the door then," he replied. The door was heavily pounded on a few times before it broke entirely off its hinges. The man who came in was bare footed and bare-chested. "You take care of that demon bitch then?"

Issachar nodded, thinking that Flynn was more handsome despite this man being pretty good competition. "Sure, I wasn't about to let her take advantage of me."

"Good," he said. "Sorry we didn't realize she was taking advantage of us. But she thought she could broadcast her encounter with you all to the rest of us, with the expectation that she would win. Turns out she was just rotten, so we're better off without her."

"Right, we've met some good folks in your group, so I'm sure that's true." He left the room and found that he hadn't left the temple. It could take a bit of time to get back to the others.

"You think you could instruct us on how you're strong enough to defeat our leader?" the Gaean man asked, following him out.

Training these people? Feeling his face get warm, he said, "Uh, I'm still considered an apprentice, actually. And I don't think it's my strength that defeated her, but my skill, some knowledge, and some luck." As well as being immune to her charm, apparently, but that would be luck too since he hadn't realized that would be the case.

"You're no apprentice, you're a hero," he said enthusiastically, clapping him on the back.

A samurai hero just like in the stories he used to dream up with Flynn. They still had their tougher target to track down and challenge, but this was already a good accomplishment.

* * *

'Isabeau- Sorry about contacting you suddenly, but I just wanted to say, you're being awesome! Toki got a message from the Ring of Gaea that their leader Yuriko claimed that she was about to defeat you guys by making you join them, along with a link to the broadcast. So we got to watch you guys fight her and you were just incredible! I love how you shot down all of her arguments and then fought her with much more grace even though you were rightfully mad at her.

Well, that was all I really wanted to say. Toki's being brooding and quiet; I guess she looked up to Yuriko and seeing her true colors was a shock. And we still haven't heard from Hallelujah, so he must really be in trouble. But whoever keeps contacting Nanashi with news claims that he's still alive, so hopefully we find him soon. I just thought you were really cool and somebody should tell you so after all the nasty stuff Lilith said. -Asahi'

'Asahi- Thank you for your kind message. It was my duty to bring these demons to justice and the false Gabriel is the one who caused us the most problems. But Lilith did make things personal to me when she tried to capture my husband and our friends. She said they'd be happy, but they're all unsettled right now by what happened. We're actually going to head back to Mikado soon even though we've only been here a few hours today, more for their sake than mine and Issachar's.

Now that we've taken care of Lilith, we're going to join you in searching for Hallelujah. We're not sure how to get to Tennozu, which is where we believe the false Gabriel is. Finding Hallelujah might help us find the other demon we're looking for. In the meantime, you could try encouraging Toki. If one discounts how Lilith was a demon, it's still unfortunate to find that a powerful woman who could have been a great example was so insincere. I had no example of a woman who worked to be more than just a wife and mother until I read a few books. I might have admired how Yuriko was the leader here before I met her in person.

Hopefully we can find your friend soon, and find him well. -Isabeau'

'Isabeau- you should be the heroine that sets an example for girls everywhere! And yeah, I hope we find him soon. In the meantime, I'll talk to Toki and cheer her up. -Asahi'

"What was that?" Walter asked when she looked away from her gauntlet.

"Just Asahi replying to me," she said. "I can message her later if need be."

"Sure," Flynn said, by the terminal's operating panel. "I'm going to send us up around noon, so you all have the rest of the day off. I'll report in to Hope and see if we can't take tomorrow off too."

"Good," Isabeau said, although that was mostly for Flynn's sake. He was definitely having a bad day.

Aquila Plaza was busy when they came out of the terminal. A group of samurai and civilians were training there. From talking with a few resting at the side, they learned that the angels had picked up on their bullying of villages across Mikado since the zealot village was abandoned after Issachar's actions. There were a lot of samurai right now, but they still needed support from civilian volunteers to keep places secure.

It was worrisome, but she needed to be taking care of Walter right now. "What do you want to do for the rest of today?" she asked him as they headed out of the plaza.

"Well I was thinking of going on a walk with you outside of town," he said, then took her hand and moved closer. "And once we got far enough out of town, I could show you what she was trying to show me."

Before she could stop herself, Isabeau laughed at that. And then blushed because when Walter had woken up, he'd immediately apologized and thoughtlessly said that Lilith had made him dream some very dirty things in trying to seduce him. The one thing he'd said was something that lingered in her mind in wondering what such a thing would be like.

He grinned at that. "I wouldn't mind taking a risk of being seen by people, but angels are a different matter. Don't really want to take on battles any more today. But we could still try things out at home."

They shouldn't be talking of such things, especially outside in the streets. But they were married, and he had resisted a magic-induced seductive dream for her. Why should it be wrong for her to make that dream true for him? "All right, if we could have dinner by candlelight later on," she told him.

"Anything you want, my beauty," he whispered to her, making them chuckle between themselves.

* * *

Hope had told him to let his group have an extra day off before Flynn even brought that up. And his reason behind that was that Hope noticed that he'd let all of the others have a day or a few off through their mission, but he had not taken time off in Mikado himself. While Flynn agreed to that, he wasn't looking forward to it. The others could tell him to relax all they wanted, but relaxing meant giving his mind time to wander. Already, that was not helping.

Someone else had invaded his mind now. Lilith's dreams were clearer than the lilims', a heady rush of emotions that he hadn't asked for. However, Walter and Jonathan weren't as disturbed as he was. They might have seen it as just a dream left heavy on their minds. Maybe once those passions burned off, they'd realize what really happened and be horrified. Flynn should hope that they remained ignorant of that, but that wasn't as strong as hoping that they did and fully realized a portion of his horror.

He was being a terrible person. Of course, he couldn't say that. Issachar was in his dorm with him, reading next to him on the couch. Flynn hadn't asked him to be here, but he'd come over anyhow. If Flynn started speaking his mind, Issachar would fret and fuss over him. Which might not be so bad, except that Issachar had his own burdens, including a great deal of worry over him already.

Although, Issachar seemed so light and assured now, like he knew everything would work out. Flynn wished he could feel like that… he should feel like that. Things were going well, yes, despite what happened today. Isabeau had provoked Lilith into speaking the truth far more effectively than he could have even if his mind was sharp; that was breaking the belief the Gaeans had in following the examples of demons. But things could still go terribly wrong; Gabriel had been suspiciously quiet aside from most likely kidnapping Hallelujah. If he could just feel confidant again like Issachar was now, then things would be better. At least, everyone wouldn't be worrying over him then.

But it was good that they were all alive, that they worried even if they couldn't understand. It would be nice to get Issachar to be calming to him again, and then finally give in and let this dream passion come out to the person who deserved it most. Strange… he was never in this kind of mood before. But he had seen the signs of disappointment that Issachar hid at times, like when he got defensive over some insecure thought. But he deserved to have his happiness fulfilled. If nothing else, Flynn should give him that before things changed.

What would change? He was going to survive this, although he still wasn't sure if he'd fall apart completely or find a way to continue on. But if he didn't… that was a silly thought, as the others were the ones who needed protection from being killed, not himself. But what if… no, he would be fine. He would be fine. He had to be. But he should make sure that Issachar was happy.

Issachar shifted his book, which cased his gaze to shift… and he noticed he was being watched and looked back. "Oh, sorry, I hope I didn't surprise you. You were meditating heavily on the lotus again, so I tried to be quiet."

Flynn realized that he must have been staring at Issachar instead, maybe for a couple of minutes. "It's fine, sorry for startling you," he said.

"It's okay," he said, rubbing the back of his neck and letting the book drop in his lap. He was actually an adorable person, though most people might miss that about him. "But, um, there's something I should tell you."

"What?" Flynn asked, hoping that he might get talkative over something. He just wanted to watch him for the moment, like seeing him anew. Only a moment, then maybe to see more of him.

"Well they've started putting two people in some dorms because the amount of young samurai that haven't been able to get their own home," Issachar said, then gestured over to where some new boxes were in the room. "I told them we'd be fine sharing a dorm for now, and they didn't think anything of that, of course. We'll be moving in a second bed tomorrow since I told them you shouldn't be disturbed today, so, ah, I hope you don't mind."

"I like that idea," he said, putting an arm around him and setting the lotus aside. "Better than waking up alone now."

Smiling, he leaned into him. He was already happy, but it didn't feel like enough. "That's good. I want to keep taking care of you; you gave me hope and I want to give it back to you." His concern shaded his smile then. "I want to, since it feels like it's slipping from your grasp. Is that right? Or am I just imagining things?"

"I don't want to think about that now," Flynn said. What he wanted to do was hazy. "I don't know… what to think."

"Can the charm status linger with someone like Lilith?" Issachar asked. "You seem odd."

"It's not my feelings, something forced on me," he said. "I'm tired of people messing with my mind. But, I haven't had someone I loved before. Maybe it is that magic lingering, or maybe it is something I want. I can't tell, can't even trust my feelings."

Briefly looking sad, Issachar put his arm around him too. "Um, I don't want to make you do something you're not sure of. But, I'll use my powers as an angel to shield you, make sure no one can mess with your mind. If you want, I can try to seduce you too."

Flynn wasn't sure of his own feelings, but it was clear that Issachar wanted that. He hadn't been affected by Lilith and he had severed himself from the White. Knowing that, he could trust his feelings. "Good, let's forget about everything else for today."


	56. Deserted Streets

**Chapter 56: Deserted Streets**

After a few days, the truck was prepared. Hallelujah wasn't sure what was prepared; Gabriel would only say that it was God's plan after her initial explanation. A few of the locals had done work with the supplies he and Aniel had gotten. However, they wouldn't reveal what they'd done either. The basket of manna was their first reliable source of food in a long time. To keep that, they weren't speaking.

He felt nervous, for many reasons. He'd driven these small trucks before, but only in the warehouses and the streets between them. It would be with someone who knew more about how the vehicles worked and could fix things if something went wrong. This time, he was supposed to drive the truck on the major streets of Tokyo. There shouldn't be other vehicles on the road since fuel was precious and many streets were damaged or blocked. Still, it'd be the longest drive he'd ever done. And, Gabriel would be with him.

This was very important to her, but she didn't know how to drive. Some of the locals also knew how to drive, but they were still recovering their strength. As a result, Hallelujah was the best person available for the job. And he'd finally get a chance to speak with her alone. This could be a great trip.

A few minutes ago, Gabriel had told him to make sure the truck itself was ready. Hallelujah did what he knew how to do: the battery was fully charged, the electric engine gave no warning signs, the tires had good pressure. On the truckbed where her chemical whatever was stored, there were a bunch of magical symbols that he could see. He couldn't read them, so he didn't know what they'd do. The magic was keeping him from figuring out what was there.

He had to wait a couple minutes for Gabriel and Aniel to come back out of the Tennozu shelter, where they had gone to speak to the locals one last time. Once they were in hearing, Aniel said, "I'll go distract Mastema, since he's not interested in capturing me. May your mission go well."

"It will because it must," Gabriel said, walking over to the truck since she was using her human form. "We'll go once Aniel signals us."

"All right, I've got the truck ready," Hallelujah said, getting in to start it up.

They were going to do something big; he just hoped that he could make good use of this time.

* * *

Lilith was not coming back. That was fine, since she'd suffered several pitiful failures lately. With her connections to the Ring of Gaea, Hikaru had been able to watch Lilith's confrontation with the Messiah and his friends. It was just like her to fumble when faced with a strong-willed woman and an atypical man. Now they would have to sneak some other demon back into control of Gaea. Hikaru had already sent a couple to get in and carry news to those there.

With her connections to the Ashura-kai, she heard that Tayama was consolidating his forces in Ichigaya. It was a logical move, but might also be cowardly. That depended on how aggressively he moved after settling in. However, Tayama didn't seem concerned about Kagome Tower. Hikaru disagreed with that. If those angels got freed, the side of Law would be that much more powerful. It would also make this war much more exciting, since so far it had just been a game of pulling back together after the initial surprises.

Tayama was about to put out his own broadcast about recent events. That would be a good sign of how he felt he was doing. While waiting on that to start, she asked Belial, "What're you thinking about?"

"Are you sure you can trust Krishna with that mission you gave him?" he asked.

"No, but that mission isn't important," Hikaru said dismissively. "What is important is seeing what he does with it. That'll let us know for sure how close he is to shifting alignment." They also needed to figure out who could get close to the heroes to tempt them to Chaos. Their desires had shifted from what they should be; someone who could accurately read human auras should contact them first.

"I think you should be relying on those you're certain of instead of working with such risks," Belial said.

"But risks are half the fun," Hikaru said, smiling. "Really, why should we be the ones playing safely? We're already playing both sides in Tokyo politics; we could be playing even more sides and it won't matter if any side but YHVH's wins."

"There's only two sides, really," Belial said. "Anything else is just the interpretations of humans."

"It's to our advantage to keep things complicated, remember that," she said. "Hold on, Tayama's going to address Tokyo."

Since it was the Ashura-kai, an alert about the address was sent to anyone who could receive it and the broadcast itself overrode any other network program. But it wasn't Tayama who appeared on screen. It was a cloaked figure that she'd recently met. "This broadcast was going to be done by Tayama, but he is currently deceased as you can see." He brought up the severed head of Tayama so that it was clearly identifiable.

Hikaru smiled at that. "Well well, this war is getting more entertaining."

He kept the head visible as he continued. "He believed that he was entitled to rule this city despite a number of missteps caused by selfish greed. As many of you have withdrawn your support of the Ashura-kai, he was going to throw a childish tantrum and turn off power to all but himself and his sycophants. That will not occur, at least not yet.

"I am the Demifiend and I have been angered at Tayama's actions like many of you. I've also been watching for an opportunity to come here to the Yamato Perpetual Reactor. You need not know all my reasons, but there is something that I will do that you should be aware of. At this moment, your world is a mundane one. Magic is only accessible through the power of gods, angels, and demons, or through the intervention of specialized technology. That will no longer be the case as I intend to awaken this world to magic. This move will end up benefiting everyone. Demons and angels will be able to thrive off natural magic, thus will not be driven to aggression born of hunger. Along with that, more humans will be capable of magic under their own power. You will have to figure out how to manage that, although I'm sure any number of demons would be happy to teach you.

"I will also be taking over leadership of the Ashura-kai as I have eliminated the previous leader." He finally set Tayama's head down. "All shelters have withdrawn support of the Ashura-kai, but you may wish to reconsider that. I will keep the power lines open for you, but I can do other things as well. Observe."

The video feed then changed to showing security footage from Ueno's shelter. There were a small group of people talking in part of the hallway, ignoring this broadcast. Because of that, they were alarmed when a bronze-skinned cyclops appeared in the hall with them. The cyclops bellowed and shook a fist, scaring the humans off.

As the cyclops settled down to pace the hall, the Demifiend spoke over the security feed. "I have not ordered this demon to attack, but this proves that your security measures are imperfect. If you wish to keep demons out of your shelters entirely, I can set up protective wards over your structures that will keep all demons and angels from entering. However, you will need to pay the Ashura-kai protection and services fees for me to do so. If you don't pay, then you'll just have to live with your imperfect securities. Give your answers to your usual contacts.

"As for those of you in the Ashura-kai, you will shortly receive instructions on how things will change. You may leave the group if you wish, but you will find no support from us. This is how things will be and there is no going back." The broadcast ended there.

"He's pretty good," Hikaru said. Tayama hadn't been planning this move for long, so the Demifiend must have pounced on the chance. And he came across as reasonable, so the humans would feel siding with demons was still their best choice.

"He's from a different world, so what does changing this world's character do for him?" Belial asked.

That was a good question. But he was a fiend; it wouldn't be hard to assert control over him. "Why don't we go ask him?"

* * *

When he'd been walking over with Aniel, there had been demons to watch out for. Driving out of Tennozu, though, was spooky. There weren't any other vehicles, as expected. There were also no demons trying to get in their way. Without them around, it was easier to notice the dark empty buildings surrounding the highway. Hallelujah was used to that, but it made him think of how things might have been, with many people in those buildings and many cars on this road. This city was so empty that it was chilling.

And Gabriel was being quiet, not helping any. She didn't like questions of this mission… what did he say? "This must have been a very different drive in the old days," he said.

"Slower and more obnoxious from what I understand," she said. "A lot of technology was obnoxious, distracting from what was important. Since many useless questions could be answered easily with technology, people demanded quick answers for meaningful questions that require patience and faith to grasp the answers. Faith became ridiculed even though those following God need not understand everything. Questions lead to selfishness and uncertainty, among many other woes that plagued human society."

It was better to not ask questions? That didn't seem right, and difficult to accomplish. Being in a situation where he didn't know things was uncomfortable, like right now. He was trying to have faith in Gabriel's plan (or rather, God's plan because that's what she believed in). But she had admitted this was warfare and there was a chance that people could die as a result. Hallelujah would like to know, in order to know if he really wanted to be involved. But she insisted on faith.

"When you have real faith in God, you have no worries about the world," Gabriel continued. "Everything is in God's hands. Whether you win or lose, whatever happens to you, it ultimately doesn't matter. God's plans will triumph in the end; that knowledge gives one the strength to endure through any trial. You act and think in accordance to God's teachings; that ensures a good and peaceful life. It's all very simple, yet humans have trouble doing this. As a result, those who have real faith and do as they should become known as saints."

Saints were supposed to be extraordinary people. But the life of a saint was supposed to be the standard for everyone? Actually, it would be nice if everyone did live as a saint. There wouldn't be evil aside from demons in the world. And if the angels were in power, there might not be demons. Yet, there were so many people that didn't act anything like a saint.

"That sounds wonderful, but it seems very difficult," hallelujah said.

"It only seems difficult because you live in a wicked world," Gabriel said.

* * *

Today had been a whirlwind.

They'd gotten notice last night that they were going to be sworn in as full samurai, that their families were going to attend (even them as village Casualry), and that they'd get new formal uniforms for it. The uniforms were white, but had enough gold touches in the trim and buttons to not be inadvertently disturbing. Of course, Flynn looked really good in it, at least until you saw how dead and dull his eyes looked. When they'd had some extra time, he dropped down in the couch and didn't do anything until Issachar told him they had to go out to the castle. He wondered if some things yesterday had been a mistake.

At the ceremony, the king had sworn Flynn in as a captain due to his leadership. Through the morning, Issachar had a quiet conversation with the others aside through their gauntlets. They all agreed that it was because the king didn't realize how bad Flynn's condition was. Hope seemed unsure of the extra honor himself, but if he did have his doubts, he ignored them and went along with the king. And Flynn acted like nothing was wrong once they left the dormitory.

He also seemed fine through the royal banquet in their honor. Their families ate together, which Issachar appreciated for many reasons, including that he could keep an eye on Flynn. But he ended up talking with his siblings about their parents for much of that meal and the afternoon ride back to Kiccigiorgi. As he'd begun to suspect, they'd learned to read too and figured out that their lives were not happy. That led them to forsaking their parents when they decided to join the Shene Duque zealots. Issachar didn't give them the details of what their mother had told him, but he did get them to understand that they weren't happy either and were regretful for their passive acceptance of that.

Then Kiccigiorgi seemed a lot different when they arrived. Maybe some of it was himself being different. However, Issachar was sure that the village had changed too. It was far more lively than the Shene Duque village, with excited kids who came up to them with questions and awe. The adults were busy, but they made time to greet them and say how proud they were of them as local boys given such honor. While he had worried about how this return would go, everyone seemed happy and the brief visit went better than expected.

Except when they went to leave, as Flynn had disappeared somewhere. After making sure he wasn't with his family, Issachar asked the driver of the wagon, "Would you wait a few minutes? I have a good idea where he might have gone, but it'll take a bit to get there."

After some thought, the driver said, "I'll give you til the church bell rings the hour, since I want to avoid driving back in the dark if possible."

"Thanks, I hope it's not that long," Issachar said. That was about twenty minutes by the time on his gauntlet, so he hurried off into the woods.

The path to their old spot was overgrown now, thick with summer growth; odd that other kids hadn't found it. The old shed was there, although the fallen tree had rotted away. At the other end of the clearing, Flynn was looking further into the forest. There were a couple of paths that way. Perhaps they led different ways after being left untouched for seven years.

"Hoy, we need to get going," Issachar said since Flynn didn't react to him approaching. "It'll be late when we get back."

Bringing up a closed fist, Flynn said, "Should I throw this in the marsh?"

"Your captain's pin?" he guessed. Flynn nodded, but that was it. "No."

Flynn turned to him. "You know I don't deserve this. I'm sure the others feel the same; even Hope didn't look happy about it. In fact, I feel like I did before I chose the White's plan. I don't know why; things are going well, but I have to keep telling myself that when I feel like I'm slipping back."

Issachar took his arm. "But that's why you shouldn't, if you're thinking so negatively that your perspective is warped. You could regret things later."

Trembling, he hung his head. Issachar hugged him, feeling that was what he needed. Flynn soon had his face against his neck, not in tears but almost so.

"Did the White talk to you recently?" he asked.

"Directly in my mind, in Roppongi," he said.

He might have been fine if they hadn't, shaken by Lilith's enchantment but not bad. "Their plans don't work," Issachar reminded him. "You've come far in your goal. Do you want to start this all over again?"

"No."

Issachar rubbed his back. "You can do this; I have that photo to remind us to win this by our terms. Our goal was to become samurai, without a thought to what we'd do after. Now, our goal is to make a better future for everyone. We can work on things a step at a time. And right now, we need to get back to the capitol on time. You can tell me where we're going next on the ride back."

"All right, sorry for the trouble." He remained quiet on the way back, only giving a brief apology to the driver for heading off alone. Since it had been a large group, they'd ridden a large wagon drawn by four horses. Flynn took a seat near the back and waited until they were on the road to ask, "What do you think is next?"

"We have to find that boy Hallelujah, right?" he asked. "Because it sounds like he's in big trouble."

"There is that," he said. "We might be able to check on Tennozu looking for him, especially if you can manipulate that angelic barrier too. But then, none of you are ready to face Gabriel. I can defeat her, but you all and Hallelujah would be at risk."

"We don't want you on your own," Issachar warned him, putting a hand on his arm. The driver was paying attention to the horses and this wouldn't seem too suspicious.

He nodded. "Sure, but you might have to keep an eye on me."

"Then what should be happening?"

"What should be happening is that we captured Lilith instead of executing her on the spot," Flynn said. "She would be executed in Mikado, but that means nothing to a demon. Then Gabriel in disguise would ask us to free some prisoners in a tower near Shinjuku. But that's a terrible mistake. Tayama would then ask us to kill Yuriko by kidnapping an older samurai; that's why I was fine with the new barrier between Mikado and Tokyo. Yuriko would send us to Roppongi and afterwards tell us that if we worked with her, she'd help us make a world where anyone could make their fortune. Of course, that was a lie because the demons would make or break the fortune of humans, not us.

"But that appealed to Walter as he was, while Jonathan was adamant about completing our mission to kill Lilith. That killed our group, basically, as Isabeau was indecisive. She had a good reason to be, since the Literature she read taught her to doubt an issue presented as clear-cut black and white. It was my decision of who to join then that would sway how things progressed, not the pivotal decision but still important.

"At that point, the focus of conflict would center around the Yamato Perpetual Reactor, the device that powers all of Tokyo and also provides a potential opening to the Abyss. Walter would go fight Tayama and his demons in order to open that up and allow demons to roam the world freely. Jonathan would go to stop him. And there, we would face a challenge from the White; they will try to show us how the world is irredeemable."

"We did things out of order," Issachar said, wondering what they'd have to do with the reactor. Some of this he'd heard before, some of it was new. "But wait, Tokyo gets its power from the Abyss?"

"From what I understand, yes," Flynn said, seeming calm. But his eyes were unfocused, not paying attention to their surroundings. "Getting another source of power even for those left would be a major effort taking years. The reactor needs to stay despite the risk. You all should see what the White has prepared for us. But if I go in like this…"

"That won't be good," he said.

Then he handed over the pin. "Take this, along with command of the group."

Issachar hesitated on it. "R-really? But I haven't had the extra training like you, and you know the plans and everything about them."

"I don't trust myself right now, especially in the coming confrontation with the White," he insisted. "You've already severed your connection to them. And this state of the world is already different than what I am familiar with. If I advise you, you can make better decisions than me. You did fine with Lilith."

"That was Isabeau's doing," he said.

"But you were in charge and trusted her to go ahead," Flynn said. "Part of being a leader is knowing how to delegate duties to others. You know everyone in the group well; you should be fine. If I can keep active with you all, I won't be worried as much because I'll be there if things get out of hand." Then he quietly added, "I'm still a Godslayer because I've killed God in many times. There's not much out there that can take me out in battle. It's those who can cripple me without violence that are the greatest threat to me, and you've protected me from them already. But there are those that would crush you in battle without a second thought. That's when you'll need me."

Then Flynn was still showing them the way forward. Doing this should take some of the pressure off him, although it then left the responsibility of making the right decisions to Issachar. It seemed worth it, so he accepted the pin. "All right, I won't let you down."

"Thank you," he said, closing his eyes. "I guess… I'm still a demigod too…"

"What?" Issachar asked, startled at that admission. Wasn't he worried about him staying human?

He didn't seem to notice as he continued on, "…if I block out so much to tell you that, because it's part of the bigger picture. Cheating at the game of gods to ruin it for them, I have to play at their level. Have to play at human level too or else I'd lose touch with what I really want, lose sight of what's important. But without a god's certainty and authority, I realize how vulnerable I am, how I worked through all the pain and grief not thinking much about it… those nightmares come back to remind me how easily they could happen again. The past few days, it hammers in my mind, is this really worth it anymore?"

"It is worth doing," Issachar said with some soothing magic; he'd shifted to being an angel even though it was a risk out here. "Just rest for the ride; I'll be protecting you."

As he nodded, it was clear to Issachar that the White were still attacking Flynn despite him thinking that they'd left him alone. Issachar felt like if he could get into Flynn's dreams, he might be able to help him lessen that impact. But he knew that Flynn would refuse to do that right now. Even their trust in each other wasn't enough to overcome having his mind's security compromised twice recently.

Flynn was soon lying down by him, his head in his lap. Issachar held onto his hand, having his other hand over Flynn's hair to remind him that he was safe. Thankfully, they were left alone riding down the quiet road, letting Flynn calm down enough that he might be fine for tomorrow.

* * *

"Do you realize what he's asked you to do?" the young girl asked him.

Wasn't he still in the wagon? "Was there something he didn't explain?"

"He may not have realized it, but he trusted you with a great responsibility. Your decisions from now on will not only affect you and your friends. Your decisions will create this world's future, for everyone."

"That's the plan, so what's changed?"

"A lot. You're in a better position than he was because of his efforts, so it may be better overall. Still, I'm worried about what will happen to him. Take good care of Flynn, and good luck, Issachar."

* * *

"My Mom's hobby was making clothes for her doll from the scraps of her regular tailor job," Hallelujah said, wanting to keep some conversation going. "It was kind of a weird doll, with white skin and pink hair. But she took good care of it, at least until the time she disappeared. It had fallen off a shelf and broke, I think, but it was the only other thing out of place."

"Hmm." Gabriel seemed to be looking ahead. Was she listening?

Maybe he was being boring. Or maybe this was bad. Hoping that it wasn't either, he kept talking. "I thought about keeping it for her, but the guy who came to pick me up told me not to. They were talking about putting me in school, but their tests led me to joining them immediately instead. Not sure why…"

"Perhaps because you're a curiosity in being a half demon," she said.

Then she was listening. "Um, yeah, maybe," he said, feeling more embarrassed.

"Do you know your demon father?" she asked.

"No, but Mom said his name was Samyaza," he said.

"Truly?" she asked, finally glancing at him.

He nodded. "Sometimes she wished she could meet him again, and sometimes she wished she'd never met him. She was like that about a lot of things, one extreme or another." Even about himself.

"You seem short for one of his children," Gabriel said, looking away again.

"Um, I don't get called short often," Hallelujah said.

"In the old days, his children were giants," she said. "Eight feet tall was short for them."

"Really?" he asked, finding that incredible. The tallest human he knew was nearly seven feet tall.

After a moment, she started reminiscing. "Not all of the fallen angels rebelled with Lucifer, before humanity was created. Samyaza was one of those fallen to his own sins. He was the leader of a small group that worked together on Earth protecting humans from demons. Among them, they discussed many things, including how attractive human women were.

"Now angels deliberately have no sex or gender because it's unnecessary to us. But it is a choice, primarily for its usefulness to our work. I didn't hear whether they were tempted by Lucifer or their own foolishness, but Samyaza and his group decided to take the form of human men to seduce women. It may have been excusable if they were doing so to be romantically involved with one women. But that wasn't the case with those angels. As they refused to give up their promiscuous ways, they were condemned as demons."

"I see," Hallelujah said, feeling disappointed. Not that he was expecting much, since his father was a demon and had never contacted him.

It didn't help that Gabriel added, "It's most likely that your mother was just another conquest to him, so put him out of mind and don't trust him if he does show up."

Maybe she wasn't what he thought she was, although that was good advice.

* * *

Pale Rider was now guarding the Ichigaya base where the Yamato Perpetual Reactor was located. The base itself had changed due to being the center of a now magical world, taking the form of a dark castle instead of an austere military base. With thorny spires and a gate that seemed like it would devour anyone in front of it, this place was a much better visual as an entrance to the Abyss. The new structures were visibly moving around too, slithering in place and seemingly breathing.

Once Pale told them that the Demifiend would meet them there in a moment, Hikaru whispered to Belial, "This guy has a good sense of drama, you can't deny that."

"True," he admitted. "He's already changed the nature of this world; I can feel that being here."

The Demifiend didn't bother to open the front door, instead appearing before them. "What brings you here?"

Hikaru smiled at him. "Nice job on taking this place! It had to have been a now or never moment you jumped on to get it."

"For the most part," he said. "Why are you really here?"

"Hey, what's with the attitude?" she jokingly asked. "You want to make this place our base of operations, right? It's…"

"No," he said.

This was strange. Slipping some magic to compel him, Hikaru said, "But you've got this place set up magnificently already. The humans will know for sure that we rule them when they see this, if they haven't learned from your broadcast to them."

"We won't rule," the Demifiend said, unwavering on his defiance. "I control this location. You won't be stepping foot in here without a truly compelling argument."

"Aw come on, you know who I am," she said, trying harder.

He nodded. "I know that you are not Lucifer."

"What?" she asked, tense and about to spark into a fury.

"You called her so from the beginning, so you should already know the truth," Belial said.

"I did so to test her," he explained. "She failed. However, she does hold the identity of Lucifer. Return that, either to me or the true Lucifer, and then I may be willing to work with you."

"That's ridiculous," Hikaru said sharply. "I can prove to you that I am Lucifer."

"By taking on your true form?" the Demifiend asked, acting like he knew it was a dare she couldn't do.

"I don't need to," she said, stepping up to him. Her hair shifted and her eyes glowed as she asserted her power. "I am Lucifer and that's that."

He still wasn't impressed. "You can try to be as intimidating as you like, but that still doesn't make you Lucifer."

"You must be blind to deny that," she said and then punched him.

Or tried to. The Demifiend caught her fist and stopped the attack dead. Before she could react to that, he slammed the edge of his hand into her neck and killed her on the spot.

Behind her, Belial was appalled at the Demifiend's audacity. His current assignment was to protect Hikaru, so he grabbed her without a second thought. There was a white glint between the Demifiend's eyes right before a powerful attack that he barely got out of with Hikaru's spirit. As he ran off with her, she reformed into another humanoid form. But this time, she had long black hair and a strange silver dress.

Belial assumed it was some back-up form that he hadn't seen before and kept fleeing. Lucifer would sort things out later, he trusted in that.

* * *

"Wait here a moment, I'll be back," Gabriel said, then vanished from the passenger seat.

"So what are we doing here?" Hallelujah asked now that she was gone. She said there would be a warning, right? It would likely go out over the local network. He took out his phone to check.

Still no signal. But, they were near Shinjuku where one of the prominent shelters was. There should be a strong cell signal in this area. The battery was low, but it should still get messages. Why hadn't anyone tried to contact him? Even the message he'd written was waiting to be sent.

Chiron then plopped into his lap and grabbed his coat. He pointed out of the truck urgently.

"She told me to wait," Hallelujah said, although he did undo the seatbelt. "She should be back soon."

The fox spirit lowered his ears, then glared at him. "No, get out now."

"Huh?" Chiron had never used human words before. This had to be important. Getting out of the truck first, he asked, "What's the matter?"

Instead of replying, Chiron dashed off as soon as the door was open. Hallelujah chased after him as best he could before something knocked him out with a deafening light.


	57. The Destruction of Kagome Tower

**Chapter 57: Destruction of Kagome Tower**

When they met up at the terminal in the morning, Issachar was wearing the captain's pin. "I'm going to be taking charge of missions unofficially, but Flynn will still be coming with us," he said.

"Is something the matter with you?" Walter asked Flynn. It seemed Jonathan and Isabeau nearly asked him that too.

He shouldn't be a burden to them. But then, they were already worried. "Yes, but I'll be fine once we get going. The main threat is that the White should challenge us soon. It will be better then for Issachar to be in charge."

Issachar then explained their mission for today: helping Nikkari and his students locate Hallelujah, which might lead them to head for Tennozu in southeast Tokyo. When they got to Shinjuku, Nikkari still had no news on their search. But there was plenty of other news to be had. Naoki had taken over the Ichigaya base and the Ashura-kai, killing Tayama in doing so. He also announced that magic would become stronger in this world; what was he trying to do? The Ring of Gaea publicly denounced Yuriko for misleading them, possibly the high point of the news. And a strange warning had gone out that the Shinjuku parks should be avoided with no reason given.

At this point, nothing was normal. "That warning about the parks is suspicious," Flynn said.

"That should be looked into, but did you notice that Nanashi isn't here?" Issachar said. "Nikkari said he'd been training on his own around the government plaza, while he and Toki were helping Asahi. While he said Nanashi is good for a kid, I sent Jonathan to go check on him. Oh, and Naverre and Gaston are in the area; I asked what they were up to since we kept a short day last time we were here."

"Are they doing negotiations with people here?" he asked. Probably adding Shinjuku to the towns Mikado was trading with.

"Yes, Naverre took his brother around to some of the shelter portals in case they kept working together, and then they got to talking with someone here. The message didn't say where in Shinjuku they were, so I'm waiting on them to answer that."

"If we go to Tennozu, they're not ready for that," Flynn thought aloud, concerned about it. "And Gaston could be stubborn about sticking with us."

"I was thinking that we could introduce him to Nanashi, Toki, and Asahi, perhaps Hallelujah if he's here," Issachar said. "He's closer to their age. Plus, he got to be a samurai by talking with the master samurai and training under them. He might be convinced that doing the same with Nikkari will benefit him."

"That could work." It could be trouble convincing Gaston because his whole family was stubborn. But they didn't even get an answer to where the other two were as a loud explosion shook the bar they were in. Glasses rattled and a few things broke. The parks… "We need to get going, now."

* * *

Knocking on the side of the post caused the light to flicker back on. "Yeah, these sun lamps could use some serious attention," the man said. "But we can't waste anything we can get our hands on. Manufacturing is limited and the Ashura-kai made sure to lock up all such knowledge."

"Their leaders must have honestly not cared about the future," Naverre said. "Or others. Making more of these sun lamps and other things would have improved life here."

"They didn't care about this farm either," Gaston said, glancing around.

He shrugged. "The capitalists of the old world were like that. If it didn't make them more money, they didn't want to bother with it. I think the Firmament made that much worse because it used to be that nobody could argue against the Ashura-kai doing whatever they wanted to consolidate their power and wealth. Though I don't know what they mean to do now with a demon in charge."

"I think that's going to have to be handled carefully because that Demifiend seems ruthless," Naverre agreed. He would have to ask Flynn what he thought of that.

"But really, where is everybody?" Gaston asked. "With how they were, you'd think there'd at least be some guards around keeping anyone from stealing produce."

"That is strange," Naverre said. Some kind of mystic relic that the man had called a warehouse truck had passed by not that long ago, which he didn't think was too odd.

"I thought for sure this was a working hour," the man said.

While Naverre was considering his next question, a tremendous explosion knocked them all off their feet. His bones trembled at the force; a glisten of something made his skin crawl. For a moment, he wasn't sure if he had died or not. Then thick dust scratched up his lungs and made it difficult to breathe. He tried to cover his mouth and nose, waving the dust away with his other hand. But a wave of air rolled off something that sounded like nothing he'd heard before. A rock slide, perhaps?

The wave did blow some of the dust away. Getting up to look at the source, he immediately noticed that the lone tower that had been here was gone. He was bruised up and bleeding, and his ears were ringing with echoes of that explosion. His healing spell started to clear that up, so he carefully got up to cast Diarama over the two others. Had they missed some notice of this destruction? There had been a message they ignored because they were busy discussing trade matters.

They still had trouble talking by the time Gaston got up, but his brother then pointed out something at the tower: a strange prismatic image.

* * *

When the tower collapsed, those with certain kinds of sight might have seen the lights of souls emerge. Most were demons who quickly blinked out to the Abyss. A couple were humans who didn't heed the warning as it was their job to be guards at the tower. And three souls had an angelic light to them.

Gabriel hurried in to snatch the angels before they got lost. Destroying this place required some arcane knowledge to disrupt the hellish shield protecting it, something only an angel could add to the large bomb made from human technology. Of course, that burst of arcane power destroyed her form of Gabby; it was no longer necessary, as opposed to if that burst hit her natural form. And it had destroyed their physical bodies.

"Sorry about that, but we can heal you up," she said, then laughed in relief. "You're back with me, finally! I've been waiting alone for so long, constantly fighting a losing battle against those sinful humans. But you're back, we can make progress. All in the name of God. He gave me this plan, I heard from Him a little, so He's still watching us… of course He is, He will always be with us. But with you recovered, He may let us back in His presence."

 _Of course, you only had to ask._

Shocked on hearing that, Gabriel looked up to see someone descending in front of her. He had a form of perfection, flanked by a multitude of multicolored wings and bearing an unearthly prismatic light. But, that wasn't right. "You? You were sealed away, in another dimension!"

That seemed to be of no concern. "I got freed and then called to this world in several branches of time. Then I came to your need, Gabriel, so that we may retake this world together."

She brought the souls of her peers closer; this light was of the wrong quality. "No! You're not God! Are you ever going to stop pretending to be Him? You can't bring about Heaven on Earth, Demiurge."

"I am God," he said. "The true God, not like the pretender YHVH who has been deceiving you."

"You're the deceiver." How could she have been duped by him? A long time ago, on another world, her three peers had been tricked by Demiurge. She had been as well for a while, but eventually saw through the deception first. She should have realized something wasn't right with his voice.

Of course, he ignored that. "Not only has he been deceiving you, but he has also ignored you for hundreds of centuries across many worlds. You were so desperate for contact from him that you took my voice alone as proof that I was your God. YHVH did not even attempt to clear up your mistake when I gave you permission to use this idea of yours."

"This wasn't my idea!" she said, her whole body shaking in anger and pain. "I am God's servant; I follow His will and only His will. Anything I do is ultimately His plan, even if I don't hear from Him. This is how it has always been."

"Even when you fail over and over again to convert worlds to belief in him?" Demiurge asked. "Even with this plan that depended on killing your peers and your young helper over there?"

"What?" someone nearby said.

That freak didn't die? This was supposed to be an ideal plan, losing some unclean souls and freeing the others in return. The corruptions would all be purified out of this world eventually, but these ones should have died now.

But this was God's plan… it had to be God's plan… she may have made mistakes, which might keep God away from her longer… no, that couldn't be possible, He had to contact her again…

* * *

He woke up lying face down in dirt. After sitting up and spitting some out, Hallelujah recalled that something had happened. He looked at his hands, which were paper white with a few small cracks here and there. What was he doing like this? He never used his demon form unless he had to, or sometimes when certain people asked him. But other than being a demon, he seemed fine.

No. He could tell instinctively that if he was in human form, he'd be comatose right now. Maybe even dead. There was nothing left of the truck he'd driven up here, not even scraps of metal. There was also a large pile of rubble where a tower had once been. Added to that, there was dust hanging like mist in the recently disturbed air. Anyone who'd spend too much time in this would get ill; that was in the nature of the air, which he could sense much easier now. Chironnpu had gotten killed too, although his summoning mark remained; he could be revived.

Gabriel was kneeling in front of the tower, holding three angelic souls within her brown vines. With her, there was a demon of incredible power; his soul was like a black light, bringing out colors not normally seen. Before long, it was clear that they were arguing over if the demon was God or not. This Demiurge was extremely powerful with a presence that filled the area, but it still didn't seem quite like the singular all-powerful God that Gabriel spoke of.

The demon did mention that Gabriel's plan was supposed to have killed him. If Chiron hadn't insisted, he would have been vaporized past the point of reviving even like this. "What?" Hallelujah asked, horrified at the realization.

"They are unworthy of entering the Kingdom of God!" Gabriel snapped hatefully. It was enough to make him shudder; he hadn't felt such potent hate before. "He's just a fool with a crush, and no chance of being anything more than a fool. But they will be used to build the kingdom for those rare few who are worthy. Or not, God may decide that this whole world is no longer worthy of His attention."

"You meant that you've nearly decided that," Demiurge said, not caring that he was hurting her with his words. "You're just waiting on something you can excuse as being your failure of a god's plan."

"He is the true God!" Gabriel shrieked. "You're the delusional one, just like Lilith and this freak of sin that thinks he's worthy of being anything more than a sacrifice. This world is so ugly and filthy, and I don't want anything to do with either of you!" She then screamed and attacked Demiurge with an icy bolt.

She was using him. But, that was what demons did, not angels. Angels were also supposed to not be hateful, unless they were fallen ones. And he'd helped her do this; at least two humans had died, he could tell that. Others might die because of this dust. It'd make things difficult for the farm workers here and it could settle into the produce and ruin it. All in order to free three other angels who might be as terrible as her, by killing them for some unfathomable reason. He'd been a terrible fool to trust her so blindly.

"That won't work," Demiurge said, raising a hand and turning the bolt back on her. Then he blasted himself apart in a burst of wind that blew the rest of the remaining dust out of the way. However, Hallelujah sensed that he'd merely made himself invisible save for scattered bits of light. "You are so desperate for guidance that you've become deranged. You'll even work with those you despise because you can't find your own path."

"I do God's will, mine doesn't matter!" Not finding Demiurge immediately, she flew up and dove at him instead.

Hallelujah got out of the way in time for her to crash right into the ground. "You said I was important," he said, angry at her, angry at himself… he should probably be angry at this Demiurge too, just because he was here.

"You got me here, and then you should have perished so you are no longer a blight to existence!" Then she snapped off her own arm and slammed it into him, knocking him back to the ground.

"She made a mistake in being fooled by a different deception," Demiurge said, causing her to shriek again and throw her arm at his voice. "You don't matter, not even as a blight."

His face got hot, his thoughts blazing through his mind. Did everyone think he was a freak or didn't matter? He was a fool, but she was a cruel manipulative bastard who deserved this wretched form. "You both are a blight on Earth!" Hallelujah shouted.

Then his anger took form, erupting out of him to envelope her in powerful flames. Hallelujah immediately felt dizzy from the magic; he'd never used a spell like that before. Stumbling back, he might have made himself an open target if it hadn't been for two men running up to guard him. They wore blue coats like the Mikado samurai, using scarves to cover their faces from the dust that had been around. "Now don't be bullying this kid," one of them said with a rough voice while the other attacked Gabriel with his spear.

Gabriel screamed something incomprehensible and lashed out with an attack that hit all of them, mostly herself. As Hallelujah got his bearings, he saw that the mask that acted as her face had cracked nearly in half. He only recognized one of the samurai, Naverre; the other seemed younger but like him. They were giving a valiant effort, but didn't seem to be doing much to Gabriel. That is, until Demiurge used a blinding attack that damaged Gabriel, followed up by one that restored Hallelujah's energy. He didn't know the spell he'd used out of anger, but that let him use some buffs on the two samurai.

With him supporting them, Naverre joined his fellow in attacking Gabriel. But if it hadn't been for Demiurge occasionally healing them, they still wouldn't have gotten anywhere with the battle. Only the fake God could significantly hurt Gabriel, although she was ruining herself with nearly every attack. That changed when two more of the samurai joined them. One of them moved around so he could fire with his two guns at Gabriel.

The other, Flynn, called out, "Back off!" as he ran in with a long katana in his hands. Naverre and the other backed off quickly; Hallelujah didn't want to be in the way of that sword, so he backed off too. That allowed Flynn to cast a lightning spell more powerful than the fire spell Hallelujah had used. Demiurge was not affected in the slightest, but Gabriel turned out to be weak to it. With a swift blow of his katana, Flynn had her defeated.

Making himself visible again, Demiurge approached them. "You've proven yourself worthy to be one of my agents," he said, indicating Flynn. "The rest of you could be trained up for the role if you would like, except the half-demon."

"No," Flynn said firmly.

"I am the true God," he claimed. "Your only salvation will be through me."

"No," he repeated, tensing up like he'd been told something terrible.

"You're a very powerful demon, but I don't think you're God," Hallelujah said.

"Even if you were God, I wouldn't want to follow you based on what you were saying earlier," Naverre's companion said, also with a rough voice.

"I could also be your damnation," Demiurge said, trying to intimidate them with magic.

It didn't work on Flynn. "Naverre, Gaston, Hallelujah, drop back to the civilian over there. Issachar, you support me."

"Got it," the one with the two guns said.

Meanwhile, Naverre waved him back over to where a man clearly from Tokyo was lying on the ground. He must have taken the explosion harder than the other two. Naverre checked on him, but shrugged. "He's still alive, thankfully."

"I'm sorry," Hallelujah said.

"For what?" Naverre asked.

"Well I was part of this," he said.

"Sure, we heard them talking about it," Naverre said. "But that was a false angel who has been despicable in everything I've heard about her. Now she's taken advantage of you and would have killed you given the chance. That is an awful thing to do no matter what the situation."

"Are you really a half-demon?" Gaston asked. "I thought you just had peculiar hair dye and makeup, like others I've met down here."

"Yes, but I usually don't look like this," Hallelujah said, absentmindedly tugging at his hair. "I don't like using my demon form; no choice now, though."

"Well you're only half, so that isn't bad," Gaston said, seeming thoughtful. "And I agree with Naverre, she was awful to you. You can do better than her."

"That wouldn't take a lot, just being a decent person," Naverre said.

"I guess," Hallelujah said. Although he still felt awful about it all. No wonder she didn't want to be questioned, since she was doing terrible things. He thought she'd been a dream, but she was really a nightmare. Actually, what happened with the people of Tennozu?

A powerful clash of energies distracted him, drawing his attention to the battle between Demiurge, Flynn, and Issachar. Flynn was using a spell that was near identical to one that Demiurge had used against Gabriel. The difference was that his was actually more powerful than the self-proclaimed God's version. With that, he might have been able to take on Demiurge on his own. His demons were equally powerful: Fiend Trumpeter, Fury Shiva, and Tyrant Beelzebub. Added to that, Issachar now had large white wings and a presence more angelic than Gabriel or Aniel had.

"Huh, he's an angel?" Hallelujah asked, watching as he added a barrage of gunfire to an opening in the battle.

"Yes and no," Naverre said, patting his cheek where a demonic marking was. "Anyone who has this marking from Mikado once had the potential curse of turning into a demon against their will. I didn't transform before the curse was negated, so my marking here is incomplete. But those who did transform, like Issachar, have the full marking and can change at will now. Trust me, he's nothing like Gabriel, since he transformed out of love. It's a sweet story, but not one I am free to tell."

"Weren't you transformed to be like that?" Gaston asked.

He shook his head. "No, I was born half-demon. I don't even know that story." Even though Gabriel had proved herself untrustworthy, from what she said and what little he recalled, it probably wasn't a good story.

"Well then they really have no reason to treat you poorly for that," Naverre said. "You might want to talk with Flynn and Issachar over there about what happened with Gabriel, but we won't put any blame on you. And if somebody does, I'd stick up for you."

"Really, you're okay with me?" Hallelujah asked, not sure why. He'd had people treat him as a curiosity to be studied and a freak to be looked down on, once they'd known the truth about him.

Naverre nodded. "Really. Some time ago, I was asked to be open-minded towards people I was going to meet, people who were be bound to be different than those I knew. So far, that's worked out brilliantly. I've met interesting people and heard fascinating stories from them." He coughed then. "Pardon me… anyhow, I think you could be the same, especially if we have to stick around here because of that dust. Trying to breathe in that was almost as bad as the explosion itself."

"Right," Gaston said. "Actually, this is only my second day in Tokyo, so everything's still strange and new to me. But you don't seem bad."

Hallelujah rubbed his head. "You guys are a lot nicer than what people have said about those from above the Firmament." Then he noticed some others approaching, still out of normal range of sight. "Ah, oh crap, some people have just entered the park. Um, I don't know if I should stick around; I can't go back to my human form right now."

"From where?" Gaston asked, glancing back to the entrance; they must have come in that way too. "I can't see over there, though maybe by some of those lights…"

In the meantime, Naverre brought up his demonica and called some clothing out of storage. "Here, you think you can swap your jacket for this?"

Hallelujah took it, unsure on what else to do. A part of him did want to run away. But, these guys were being friendly to him. He also wondered if Nanashi, Asahi, and Toki might accept him too. Maybe not Nikkari, he wasn't sure about him. "A hoodie? I could try." He pulled his jacket off to try it on.

"I've been trying a few other styles of clothing," Naverre explained. "That one doesn't seem quite like me, but it would cover your hair and shade your face some, making things not quite as obvious. And maybe the right kind of eyepatch could further disguise things, and some gloves… we might have to try some things once we get to a safe area."

The hood completely covered up his pink hair, although Hallelujah had no way to see if it hid his demonic eyes and cracked skin. By the time the other group of Hunters reached them, they were more concerned about the unconscious man and the other two for their injuries. Naverre claimed that he'd come up later to explain away Hallelujah's lack of injuries, which he just nodded along to. It worked until the medic had some time to check on him. "Are you a demon?" he asked quietly.

"No, just a half-demon," he said, nervous again about how it'd be taken.

"Be sure to tell the doctor so he doesn't make any mistakes," the medic said, then did some quick checks on him.

After all this time being afraid of too many people finding out about him, there were total strangers who didn't seem to have a problem with it? It seemed so strange after those who did know warned him that he'd be ostracized for what he was. They should haven't a reason to lie to him like Gabriel had. Had he ever been important to her? Even as a remote possibility? Or was he just an easy person to take advantage of?

"Hoy, did something bad happen past the tower collapsing?" someone asked him without warning.

He tensed, but it turned out to be Issachar; Demiurge was gone and Flynn was nearby, distracted with some flower in his hand. And, there was something strange to Issachar's aura in being near him. Feeling less defensive, Halleujah said, "Um yeah. It's, um…" but there were still a lot of people around.

"You want to tell me on the walk back to the shelter, without everyone else around?" he asked. "I'll keep it secret if you want." When Hallelujah nodded to that, Issachar put a hand on his shoulder, then glanced over. "Naverre? I know you need to check in with the doctor here, but could you keep Flynn with you? It's like, that time when we were here earlier, just don't leave him alone this time."

"Sure, it's no trouble," he said, then tried to get Flynn's attention.

Hallelujah took another look at Flynn before heading off with Issachar. "Um, Flynn really doesn't look good, at least to my demon senses. But he's also dangerous."

"I know," Issachar said, deeply concerned about in a way that made it clear why Naverre didn't want to tell that one story. "But we still need him around, for times like this partly. Anyhow, you're Hallelujah, right? I'm Issachar. Your friends have been worried about you, as have we. What happened?"

Maybe the strange thing about his aura was that it made him feel totally safe, Hallelujah thought. He hadn't been able to help Naverre and Gaston overhearing what they had. Now, he felt like he wanted to talk about it all. "Um, well, I hate it now, but I thought it was love at first sight when I first met Gabriel. She came out of nowhere and told me that I was important, and she looked so beautiful too. But, she just told me that I was supposed to die in this attack; I was nothing more than a sacrifice to her and she was completely deranged once that Demiurge showed up. She was the first person I had a crush on too, and then she used me to make this happen. I'm sorry, I should have backed out sooner."

"That may be so, but she dealt with you cruelly," Issachar said. "She wouldn't admit to being wrong even as it had driven her mad, but your regret is genuine. You can work to make something great of yourself that benefits others, absolving your regrets that way. I don't think you should be blamed for this."

"Um, Naverre and Gaston said the same kind of thing, but you haven't even heard as much as they did," Hallelujah said, then rubbed his eyes so he didn't start crying. "Thanks."

"You can tell me as much as you're comfortable talking about," he said, his voice so reassuring that it felt safe to tell him about everything that might matter. "You'll be telling the God I serve as well; it's just the nature of things. But He is one who still loves humanity, including you."

They ended up talking for a long time.

* * *

Shinjuku had been shoring up their defenses, which lead to some good jobs for Hunters. Today, Toki and Asahi were fighting demons on the streets above a shortcut grate down to the shelter. It was a point where demons had been getting in for a while. Strangely, it was the cyclops that the Demifiend had sent in that let the mechanics here secure that grate better. The cyclops wasn't bothering any of the humans, but it did smash a number of the demons that were in the shelter to make that area safer.

Asahi kept talking to her between battles. "Did you ever know that Yuriko was a demon before?" she asked this time.

"No," Toki said, wondering if she'd been trying to ask that for a while. "How would I know? I didn't think about much when I was working under her. But it's not too surprising."

"Really? Why's that?"

"Her teachings centered on us working with demons to become as strong or stronger than them," she explained. "So for her to be a demon isn't surprising. It is disappointing that she did not believe in what she taught."

Asahi nodded to that. "Yeah, it was like the group mattered to her but not anyone in particular in it."

"Except herself," Toki said. "Her teachings included that it was best to rely on your own power, to make yourself strong enough that you did not need others. She did that for herself, but I wonder if she set up the Ring so that others were relying on her. And then she was defeated by two demon summoners who were a part of a group, not people who relied only on themselves."

After a moment of thought, Asahi said, "Well, not everyone can do their best working all alone. And, well, I hope you're not thinking of going off to train by yourself entirely. There's a couple of girls back home I'm friends with, but they're older than me. I like having you around as a friend closer to my age, and a girl too."

"If I really want to embrace the ideals I was given, I should train by myself," Toki said. "But being with a group does have its advantages. Friends like you, for one. I don't have any friends in the Ring of Gaea."

She smiled at that. "Well you've got several friends now."

Having thought of something, Toki pointed behind Asahi. "Just watch out."

Asahi yelped and spun around; there was nothing out of the ordinary behind her. Before she could stop herself, Toki snickered at that. Asahi turned back around with a frown on her face. "Hey! Don't scare me."

"We do need to keep alert even if it seems quiet," she said. "And if I was serious, I would've drawn my weapon."

"Well how am I supposed to see behind myself?" she said, looking to the sides to see if there were demons around.

"You can hone the sense for knowing what's around you," Toki said, considering how she'd been trained for that. However, the mask had helped greatly with tuning such senses, so she wasn't sure how to teach someone without a mask. "Maybe."

"It could be neat to have a sense for spooky things," she said, considering it.

As Toki was still thinking it over, Nikkari called over to them. "Hey girls, I just got word that Hallelujah's been found."

"Great!" Asahi said excitedly. "How is he? Where is he?"

The old man smiled at her. "Hang on, we still have to finish this job. He is here in Shinjuku. Remember that blast we heard a while ago? A tower collapsed in a park nearby; he was found with some others who got caught in the blast. They're being looked over by a doctor now. We'll head over once we're done."

When they got around to meeting him about half an hour later, Toki immediately noticed that his aura had shifted towards something demonic. Not a full demon, but he definitely had demonic powers. He looked fairly human, although the hoodie he was wearing might be obscuring a more obvious sign.

"Hallelujah!" Asahi called, immediately hugging him since he wasn't over with the other victims.

Startled, Hallelujah nearly jumped back into a chair, only stopped by her grabbing him. "Aah, Asahi?"

"You're okay!" she said, not heeding his reaction. "That's great, we were all so worried about you! Did you really get kidnapped by angels?"

He flinched at that too; something was up. Toki still wasn't sure how she was expected to act now, but she could do what she wanted. So she hugged Hallelujah too, even though Asahi still had hold of him. "H-hey!" he protested again.

Laughing, Asahi called, "Group hug!"

Nikkari chuckled a moment, then said, "Come on, let him go already. It is good to see you again, Hallelujah."

"Yes, it's good that you did not die," Toki added, letting go of him before Asahi.

"Uh, yeah, sort of," he said.

"What do you mean sort of?" Asahi said, letting him go too. "You're alive and that's good."

After taking a deep breath, Hallelujah pulled down his hood, showing that he did have pink hair now, as well as inhumanly pale skin. "Well, my father is actually a demon, so I'm a half-demon. I'd rather be a human, so I hardly use this demon form. But I got caught close to the explosion too. If I wasn't half demon, I'd be almost dead. But, um…"

"Since you were born like this, it's no fault of your own," Nikkari said.

"Right, that's nothing to be ashamed of," Toki said. Asahi nodded after a moment.

"Thanks, the doctor was saying that too," Hallelujah said, although the way his shoulders relaxed showed that he was relieved they said so. "He said that another half-demon child had been born here a few years ago, was known as a sweet child. Unfortunately, she died before she turned five. The doctor thinks it's unusual that I've avoided such a death."

"So I've heard," Nikkari said.

He put his hood back up, possibly not comfortable with others knowing. "I'm sorry about running off without warning. It's just, Gabriel spoke to me again and tricked me into working for her. I thought I was important to her, but she was going to kill me to make her plan work. I still feel terrible for helping her."

"I was told that the samurai defeated her, so she shouldn't be a problem," Nikkari said.

"I doubt that," Toki said.

"Why?" Asahi asked. "They beat her, so she's gone."

"Those like angels and demons are spiritual beings, not physical," she explained. "If you kill them, you've only destroyed their body. They can come back if they want."

Hallelujah nodded. "Yeah, I saw her soul flee the area, along with three others that got killed in the destruction of the tower. They're going to be trouble, but Flynn and his friends seem ready for that possibility."

"Hmm, you do have a point," Nikkari said, reconsidering that.

"That's not fair," Asahi said, although she looked scared of the possibility.

"Excuse me." Someone came into the room, apparently one of the samurai. But she… he? Whoever it was, they had large white angel wings on their back and a warm aura. "Oh good, you're all here. Have you heard from Nanashi recently?"

"You're Issachar, right?" Nikkari asked. "I forwarded your message to him, but he hasn't replied."

"He was training in another area," Toki said, wondering what this was about.

"I know, and we sent one of our group to check on him," Issachar said. "And Jonathan just sent a message that he's found him, but they've stumbled into an enchanted area that they're both lost in. If your demon senses are like mine, then we should be able to find them and get them out quicker than they could figure the exit out on their own."

"Maybe, let's give it a shot," Hallelujah said.


	58. Black Forest

_Note: This chapter may be disturbing to some readers (it was to the writer...)_

 **Chapter 58: Black Forest**

When he'd entered this plaza, Nanashi had thought it wouldn't be hard to navigate. There were strange tall trees that were entirely black, the leaves glossy from reflecting streetlights. But there were only a few of them clustered in a group. In contrast, the rubble and abandoned cars might block off some paths around the staircases. Some of the demons here didn't match the records he'd gotten for this area, so Nanashi fought them with his demons to add reports on them.

He'd finished up a report on a jar full of snakes when he looked up and found himself surrounded by the black trees. But there were far more trees than he'd seen before, along with darkly colored bushes, grasses, even flowers. The ground had changed as well, to dirt and pebbles rather than cracked concrete. An eerie light filled the air, unlike the streetlights that had been around before.

"Burroughs, where are we?" he asked the AI in the demonica.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "The magic resembles a demon domain, but a few parameters are different. The Mapper app doesn't appear to be functioning for this area, so I can't point out where we got in or how to get out. Sorry."

"Well the exit can't be far," Nanashi said, looking for something to use as a landmark.

It didn't take long for him to realize that it wouldn't be easy to leave. Demons liked to drop down from the trees or jump out from around the large trunks. While he was focused on the battle, the forest would change around him. The trees filled the space around the path thickly; the path wound around and kept him from seeing too far in any one direction. There was also nothing he could find for a landmark. All the plants looked the same to him.

"Hey kid, you want out of here?"

"Hmm?" Nanashi glanced to where the voice seemed to come from. The leaves were rustling around him from a breeze that hadn't been there before. Was the forest talking to him?

"You may have come in here on accident, but you won't leave by accident, I can assure you of that."

There still didn't seem to be anyone around; the voice came from the middle of the air, right at the edge of the path. "Who are you?" he asked, looking at the spot.

"I could be an ally if you so choose," the voice said as Nanashi started to make out a faint form there. "My name is Dagda, a god of the old world. This forest was started by another god and has been running off his remaining power. Recently, the world has shifted from the mundane world it had grown to be back into a magical one. That has amplified this forest and allowed it to take on its own life. That makes it a place where ordinary senses will get you nowhere."

Dagda was the god that Flynn had warned him about. But he was stuck. "I see."

"I rather like the solitude here," Dagda said, still faint but visible. Something about him did seem fitting to the forest. "I could just take you straight out of here. But there's something I want to do that you might be able to help me with. When I look at your spirit, I can see promise in you. I can awaken your soul to magic, allowing you to use it and find a way out of here. Your other option is just wandering around being unable to leave. What do you want?"

"What do you want in exchange?" Nanashi asked. He might really want to be left alone, which made the offer to just get him out make sense.

He made a snort like he was smirking. "Good, you've got a sharp mind and some healthy doubt. That will serve you well. As you can no doubt see, I've lost my physical form. That wouldn't bother me except that it limits what I can do in the world. While the restoration of magic to the world has improved things, something more drastic needs to be done to free humanity and the world from the chains that currently bound it to a torturous cycle. I can put you on a path to truly change the world for the better, which would fulfill my wishes. We can help each other to make a better future."

To change the world for the better… and he was admitting that he couldn't do much. "What kind of drastic plan are you talking about?" he asked. "I don't want to agree to something blindly."

"I can't explain everything because we'll be killing the tyrant who set themselves up as the most powerful god in the universe," Dagda said.

Nanashi stared at him a moment. "You want me to kill someone like that?"

Seeming entirely serious, Dagda nodded. "YHVH is the leader of the angels who orchestrated the war that caused Tokyo to be buried like this. He has made a covenant that forces the souls of all humanity to belong to Him even though His religion was not followed by all of the world's people. However, He is not entirely invulnerable. The world's current condition allows us to do this, although it will still be a rough path."

"But why me?" Nanashi asked. "I have some talent as a Hunter according to several people, but that's far beyond my current responsibilities."

"Why it's you is something you may have to see for yourself," he said. "How about I awaken your magic so you can leave here? But I won't instruct you on how to use it until you agree to work with me. It'll do neither of us any good if you remain stuck here."

And the others might be worried about him now; Nanashi wasn't sure how long he'd been stuck in here. Also, being able to use magic sounded fun. Other Hunters made use of it with the help of their phones; he could use the demonica, but being able to use spells on his own could be handy. "All right, but how would I contact you if I decide to learn from you?"

"I'll let you send a message to me with your demonica," Dagda said, snapping his fingers. A ring of strange glowing symbols circled around Dagda's hand in response. "After all, I am the one who sent you here to find your friend."

"So where is he?" Nanashi asked.

"You'll come across him soon." He spun the glowing symbols around his fingers, then tossed it at him like a ring. Nanashi made an attempt to catch it.

Once it hit his hand, though, it seared through his skin with a burning colder than ice. That power filled his body. For a moment, he could feel all of the trees around him even though his vision was blurry. They felt wrong; trees were supposed to be green and brown, not black and black. That knowledge matched what felt wrong, but that was as much as Nanashi could think about it. And Dagda… he matched the forest.

There was someone approaching who didn't match the forest, though. Someone who strongly felt like something… Nanashi was reminded of days spent in the Association bar, in particular the old barkeeper who listened to everyone and encouraged those who were feeling down. What did that mean? Nanashi blinked, causing his sight to adjust back to the black forest. One of the samurai was with him now.

"Hello, there you are," Jonathan said. "I heard you were over here, but this place has changed. How are things going?"

"I'm not having trouble with the demons, but I am lost," Nanashi said. "I'm guessing you got lost too."

Glancing at the trees, he nodded. "Yes, me too. I'm not used to forests, but it was strange to realize I was in here. The trees didn't seem as thick, or numerous."

"It's a magic forest now," he said. "I don't know if we'll be able to stay together, but we should get out."

"Let's try to stick together, this is definitely not a friendly place."

Dagda's spirit wasn't visible anymore, but Nanashi had a feeling he was watching.

* * *

One of Abe's friends had been into collecting old technology. And not just the stuff that was current to the war before the Firmament, no. He had things like a television without color and some pinball tables. Right now, Hallelujah was reminded of a record player that man had, including a stack of vinyls large and small. One of the records he'd played had a scratch on the surface, causing it to keep skipping and looping on one fragment of song.

Hallelujah's thoughts seemed to be skipping too, caught in a loop. He'd done something stupid and now a few people were dead as a result. He was stuck as a demon for that, a karmic punishment. And when Gabriel and those other angels revived, things were bound to get worse. But, she'd used him and intended on throwing him away. She discouraged him from questioning her plan and gave him just enough attention to keep his hopes up. Even if she was crazy, she had to have noticed that he had a crush on her. But she had despised him because of something he couldn't help. Although, his foolish actions and hopes might be reason enough for others to despise him. And his thoughts would just keep skipping back and forth, unable to settle on anything but the fact that he felt miserable.

But he should focus on other matters now. Nanashi needed help and seemed to be in this patch of trees. "This is a weird space," he said. "It's like a domain, but the entrance is somewhere in those trees."

"Then the demons inside will likely be tougher than the usual ones," Nikkari said. "We'll go in to see about mapping the place quicker, but we need to be cautious."

"Sure thing," Asahi said.

Unfortunately, their phones could not map out the forest. And once they got in, finding paths by sight didn't help either. Hallelujah could feel a shift in the air when they got distracted in battles, when the forest would change. After several battles, he realized what should have been obvious after two or three.

"Hey, does anybody have a Cleansing Water?" he asked the group.

"To stop the demons from attacking us?" Nikkari asked, bringing out a small vial.

"This is helping us improve our battles," Toki said.

"Yes, but we came in here to help Nanashi and Jonathan get out," he reminded them. "This forest changes its paths every time we get into a fight. So the best way to get through here is to keep the battles from starting."

"That makes sense," Issachar said.

While he thought the Cleansing Water smelled almost nauseating, none of the others seemed affected by it. Hallelujah took care not to breathe too deeply while it was sprayed on him and the others. Thankfully, it worked just as he thought. They could pay attention to the paths, which kept the forest from altering them. That should make it easier to find them. However, he was used to sensing the presence of demons, not humans.

He did eventually sense a few demons on the path ahead. That led them to where Nanashi and Jonathan were, looking off into the trees. "We're fine, just trying to find the way out," Jonathan said after they'd greeted each other. "We did come across this strange orb and were wondering if something could be done with it."

"It seems like it would affect the forest," Nanashi said. There was something different to him now, but Hallelujah wasn't sure what. It was a feeling that he usually got off demons talented in magic.

"We could try hitting it with magic," Hallelujah said, bringing out his bow. "I don't think we want to burn the forest down, but what else could affect it?"

"Try ice first," Issachar suggested. "That would be the best in my opinion, at least while we're still inside."

"Got it," he said, setting a bufu stone into the bow. Once he hit the fungus-like growth, it immediately turned white. The air turned sharply cold as all the trees iced over. Leaves and snowflakes began to fall around them.

Nanashi, Issachar, and Jonathan all glanced at their demonicas. The last of them said, "Ah good, the Mapper app is finally working."

"I guess that means the forest is locked into place while it's frozen," Issachar said, checking into it further. "Actually, it's recorded this forest in squares for some reason."

"Can we pool the maps we've gathered to make a full one?" Jonathan said. "Although I don't know if it'd help when the forest unfreezes."

After a moment, Issachar nodded. "It seems like this forest is actually on the small side, made up of blocks of land it can shuffle around. If we gather the Mapper data, then go cover any unmapped squares, other people might be able to figure out how to get around easier. We should get that for the Association bartender so that he can pass it around to those in the area."

The demonicas and the phones were able to communicate, allowing them to split up to gather the last pieces of the map before the forest unfroze. Except, Hallelujah's phone still wouldn't connect with any of the rest. The network was clearly working for them; what was wrong with his phone? Maybe someone here in Shinjuku knew how to repair it.

* * *

Burroughs already counted the defeat of Gabriel as their mission accomplished. However, Flynn was certain that wasn't the end of her. Her spirit had probably fled to Shene Duque along with the three other heralds. There, they could easily revive themselves. He could see some sense in Gabriel's actions. She could not enter Kagome Tower herself without getting caught. Meanwhile, Michael, Rapheal, and Uriel were all caged with masks that negated their identities. They could not escape the tower themselves. Completely demolishing the tower, including their bodies and the masks, was indeed one way for her to solve that problem. It was uncharacteristic of Gabriel, but she was desperate.

As for Demiurge… it might be Flynn's own fault for his presence. He had called on him with a summoning stone once in some distant timeline. It was random and he hadn't cared who he got as long as it was someone who could potentially distract from Trojan's actions at the time. Because he got Demiurge, he drew the narcissistic god's attention to what he was doing. Demiurge must have continued watching until this time when he saw an opportunity to move in and make his own claim to this world. Flynn could hope that this was the end of Demiurge's involvement, but he couldn't discount his continued attempts either. Maybe finding that way he'd been sealed before…

But when to do that with everything else he had to get done?

'It's too much for you to handle. Not that it's a surprise since you tackled a problem far beyond one person's scope and won't accept any victory that isn't on your own terms. You were always doomed to lose something with that kind of goal in mind.'

"Get out of my mind," Flynn muttered, glancing around. He'd followed the others back to Shinjuku, the group that included Naverre and Gaston… right? But what he saw now were hazy images in white, passing by as if he were floating… or no, like someone else had his body.

His heart should be racing; he could have choked up in a panic on realizing that he'd lost control. But the one in control was utterly numb, beyond caring about anything due to the uselessness of doing anything on a cosmic scale. 'You should know better, like I do, that anything that seems to be an improvement won't last. Accept that. There's also someone who'd like to speak with you here. You should, but we know you won't, so we'll do this together.'

There was one person who immediately came to mind from that statement. "No, this is insane!" Flynn said. "Let me go!"

'You can't escape despair by shouting at it, at us. You should know that very well.'

They did eventually let him go… in the middle of a strange black forest, face to face with the very person he'd thought of. He should deal with him calmly. But, calm seemed completely out of reach now.

* * *

He was being tested, that much was obvious. Krishna didn't care about that as this was a good chance to speak to Flynn. While Belial had sent a spy after him, he'd already slipped out of the spy's notice. And given that Flynn was going into an enchanted forest, the demon spy shouldn't be able to follow them any further.

Shesha was still near him, curled around his shoulders. _You really shouldn't listen to that Hikaru, even if she is fake. She's still acting as Lucifer._

"It'll be fine," Krishna said as they entered the black forest. "You remember what I called on you for? I have a way to make it work again."

 _That would be good, but you're acting strange._

"Times change, and maybe I need to change," he said. The world had already changed, strangely enough. That would need to be looked into, but it seemed like magic was different. In this forest, that was very obvious. A place like this wouldn't have existed on a mundane world.

Flynn seemed to have some purpose to being in the forest. He walked ahead with no hesitation at forks, completely ignoring any demons that tried to provoke him into a fight. Of course, he would be able to easily dispatch any of them. Still, it was a curious thing, particularly when he stopped in one apparent dead end.

There didn't appear to be anything special about this spot. Maybe it wasn't where he was expecting as he turned around and paused on seeing him there. "Hello, Flynn, are you up to speaking with me today?" he asked with a smile.

"No, what are you doing here?" he asked in a tense voice. It might have been sharp if he wasn't suddenly afraid.

This was a good chance, since he had to need help. "I was wondering that about you myself," Krishna said, being friendly. "And I thought you wanted me to gain information on Hikaru and Lucifer. I've been waiting for a good chance, just like this, to discuss that with you alone. Your boyfriend seemed awful jealous of me last time we tried to talk."

Flynn didn't reply, closing his eyes instead. He was trying to have courage. Why did he have to try? He was the most powerful human around. But this was a situation where Krishna already had control. How? But that could be figured out later. This was a chance to take advantage of.

"The Lucifer personality seems to have taken back control," Krishna said. "She's just rolling with things from what I can tell. But she's keeping me close, aside from sending me to check on you. She doesn't trust me, but the spy following me was simple to lose. Still, I think we have good chance to take control of Tokyo for ourselves, without her interfering. I would like to work with you towards the salvation of humanity."

"No, that doesn't work," he said.

"It will work if you truly believe in me," he said. Flynn had backed into a tree, so he came closer. It was within striking range if he drew his sword, but Krishna found it compelling to keep prodding at this vulnerability. "You already believe in me, so let me be your god."

"I don't believe in you like that," he said, refusing to even look at him. Something was holding him back from lashing out.

Which was just fine. "You don't?" Krishna asked, pretending he hadn't realized it already as he took Flynn's hand.

As expected, Flynn threw him off. "Get away from me. You've done more harm than good for me; I will never believe in you as a god."

"I haven't done anything to you," he said. True, but he knew what he would do. It was an acceptable cost for his goals, as humanity would be far better off in his vision for them. Forging a bond with his soul that would allow them to fuse into a version of Vishnu who could correct everything… that was the solution, although more had to be done to forge Flynn into a true Kalki.

"It doesn't work," Flynn said, his words forced as he was shaking. Krishna didn't think he was being threatening. Were the memories enough? Or… no, there was a distinctive being trying to overtake him at this time as well, the White.

Maybe the means to overtake him was to stop them from their attack. "You're clever, so I'm sure we can work things out," Krishna said, taking his arm. Not yet, but he could quickly pin him to the tree like this. "And if you would just call me your god, I could stop you from fighting within and without. I'll save you, then we'll save humanity. Just let me into your heart…"

"No!" Flynn said, flickers of magic trying to form. His thoughts were too frantic to make anything coherent out of that.

He was about to get a better hold of him, but then Shesha slithered down Krishna's arm and pulled back. _Stop this, Krishna. You're being cruel against someone who doesn't deserve it._

Krishna glared at him and was about to ask why he cared. But then Flynn spoke up first. "You must have crossed some line because I've never seen Shesha speak against you before. But then you would dismiss him when…" whatever he started to say made him completely stop.

"What?" Krishna asked, a strange mix of dread and anger filling him. "You, you heard Shesha, just now?"

Flynn nodded weakly. Still keeping a firm grip, Shesha looked over to him. _That is strange. Only Vishnu, his avatars, or other snakes should understand me in this form. You're clearly not a snake, nor Vishnu himself._

"Then I'm really…" Flynn said, the cracks in his soul and mind close to snapping.

This would be the perfect time to take hold of those cracks and take control of him. Then build up his reputation… it could be an easy road from here. But if he was serious… something had gone wrong, he should be crushed thoroughly so that no sign of that wrongness could be found. "Don't be a fool, human," Krishna said, tightening his grip.

A thundering hiss filled his mind and Krishna found himself thrown to the other side of this opening. Although powerful, that wasn't Flynn. It was Shesha, taking a fiery form and coiling around Flynn. _You're the one who should stop being a fool. I don't know what is going on, but I'm not going to let you hurt him further._

"Why the hell are you taking his side?!" Krishna snapped, getting back to his feet. "I called you down to assist me; I found a way for you to fulfill your purpose while still protecting humanity. He's just some common boy who got caught up as a cosmic plaything."

Shesha bared his fangs, brightening the light he put off. _You've chosen a dark path now. You must have forgotten who you truly are. I don't know if this is some secret plan or a bizarre mistake, but I know enough to know what to do: I will protect him from you._

"Like you have any room to speak when you've declared your purpose is the end of the world," Krishna said. But even as angry as he was at this betrayal, he knew better than to attack Shesha outright. "I will make my vision come true, with or without you both; you'll end up regretting this."

As he left, Krishna knew he had to make this work now. He had to succeed. If he failed at this point, then his fate would be much worse than what he endured while sealed up here in Tokyo.

* * *

As far as Shesha knew, Vishnu didn't have any plans to step down to a human's life in this time. There shouldn't be a new avatar. But Flynn here had a lot of the right signs, including the scent of his soul; he sought to protect others and had a great deal of honor. He was also suffering a great deal, which Krishna had aimed right for in a sadistic way that he'd not shown before. It was clear to Shesha who he should side with here.

But what now? With Krishna driven off, Flynn sunk down to the ground and buried his face in his hands. His greater enemy seemed to be within; the White would be much more difficult to drive off. Shesha shrank back down, coiling around Flynn's arm. When he wasn't shaken off for that, Shesha then rubbed his head against one of Flynn's hands.

"Shesha?" Flynn set his hands on his knees, looking at him. The whites of his eyes seemed brighter than a normal human's. "What… why…?"

 _I don't know myself, but I feel this is what Vishnu would rather have me do._ He shifted his hold to keep balanced, holding on just snugly enough to not slip off his arm. _Krishna did call me into the world to become a Cosmic Egg, a way for everything to be remade into a new form. Do you want that?_

Flynn shook his head. "No, those methods are too cruel even if they were to work. Those who hope for a brighter future in this world deserve what they hope for. Even if, even if it'll destroy me… no, I can't…" he shivered and started crying. "This was, so we could be together, as the friends I wanted to keep…"

The thing about being a human was that one's worldview was often much smaller than that of a god's. But, Shesha had heard from Vishnu many times before that such things were still significant. _If that is what you want, I will help you make that true, in a way that doesn't destroy you._

On the flick of his tongue, Shesha could feel how strongly Flynn wanted to believe in that, along with his fears that it couldn't be done. "Can you really do that?" Flynn asked weakly.

Shesha was about to assert that he could, but something took Flynn's hand, drew his gun, and pointed that at his own head. "Can you really do that?" the other asked darkly.

Hissing, Shesha looked into Flynn's eyes to prepare himself. _Evil spirit, begone from my master._

"You can't do that here," the spirit said with Flynn's voice. Flynn's fear was evident in his eyes, at least briefly. "I am his own despair; no exorcism would dispel me. I can pull this trigger to end his life, and end this branch of time along with him. It has happened before and you could do nothing about that."

 _That would be utter madness._

The spirit did nod to that. "True, it won't fully end everything at this time. But I will soon have the proof that he cannot make his foolish hopes come true. You would just get in the way and I'm not afraid to end things temporarily to convince him of the need of a permanent end. Or perhaps returning him to madness is the best plan because he will choose oblivion over that easily. I will kill him if you interfere further, snake, so get lost."

This was strange, much too strange. Shesha wasn't sure what to do. But, there was someone who had a better shot at figuring things out. _Very well, I will leave you. But I have heard what he truly wishes for, a peaceful future with his friends, and without those who torment him like you even if you are his despair. I will bring that wish to one who could can help him far better than I. And if you do get foolish enough to end him early, know that you have proven nothing and will never find the oblivion you seek._

As Shesha left, he was certain that there would be some way to save Flynn even if he didn't understand it all. There had to be a way as the world wasn't that cruel. After all, he was destined to be the end of the world centuries ago, but had not yet become that because of the actions and words of one being.

* * *

There were thirty-six of the forest blocks, at least by the Mapper app. With the data combined, only six were left uncovered. But each of the six had paths towards them. They split up to cover them, Jonathan going with Issachar to reach the two furthest from the exits. That made more sense, to get Nikkari and his students out sooner in case the forest unfroze itself quickly.

"Do you think this forest could be destroyed if that orb was struck by fire?" Jonathan asked. Even if Kuebiko was gone, his forest presented a threat.

After giving it some thought, Issachar shook his head. "I doubt it. See, there were tales from the old folk in Kiccigiorgi that sometimes the forest next to our village burned in places, because of lightning or maybe someone being careless with fire. But there's never been a fire that ended the forest for good. They say that the seeds of some trees are awakened by fires, so when the forest burns down, the seeds can finally emerge from the ground. Maybe it's just an old folk's tale, but it sounds believable."

"It does," he agreed.

'Master, Flynn appears to be in the square ahead,' Burroughs suddenly said. 'He doesn't appear to be in good condition either.'

"What?" Jonathan said, alarmed at that.

"Huh, but I left him with Naverre," Issachar said.

'I'm getting a signal from his gauntlet there, so it is him,' Burroughs said. 'But I didn't detect him until we entered this square.'

Issachar hurried ahead, Jonathan jogging along just after him. "Did something happen while I was here?" he asked.

"Yeah, we had to fight Gabriel and some demon who thought he was God," Issachar said. "We technically won, but Gabriel got away and now has three allies with her. Since I didn't think this would be real trouble, I left him behind with Naverre and Gaston to cool down."

When they got to the dead end square, Flynn was starting to leave it. "Did you guys get stuck here too?" he asked.

"I did, but we've got the forest frozen for now," Jonathan said. "But what are you doing here?"

"Yeah, you were back in the shelter when I came out here," Issachar added.

"I'm not sure," Flynn said, looking aside. "I don't know how I got here. But, I feel like something big is going to happen soon."

And on their way out, something did happen.


	59. The Stolen Identity

**Chapter 59: The Stolen Identity**

Hikaru woke up in an unfamiliar place, with an unfamiliar red-haired man watching over her. No, wait, that was a demon. "Hey, what do you think you're doing? Pervert."

"You told me to guard you," the man said, puzzled at her question.

Sitting up and putting her hands in her lap, she said, "Maybe, but guarding doesn't mean standing over a sleeping girl and staring at her. Look, this room has one door. You could've stood guard outside there and let me sleep."

"I pulled you out of a dangerous situation, one we didn't expect," he said. "Although I thought that Demifiend was suspicious. He killed your last form."

"Well that was just an illusion," Hikaru said, looking over herself. It still wasn't her true form, but it was what she'd used in a dream for talking. "Still, I didn't ask you to leer over me."

"That's not what I was doing," he said, shaking his head.

"Well then who are you?"

There was a moment when they just looked at each other, the man in disbelief. "Did you really forget yourself this time?"

"It never mattered to me until recently," she said. "So who are you?"

"I'm Belial, one of your loyal generals," he said. "You called on me specifically to help."

Hikaru chuckled. "I don't have an army. But, hmm, it might be the other demon living with me."

"Then that was true," Belial said, uncertain again.

"I don't like her cause she's on the side of chaotic stupid," she said. "I bet she got us in trouble because she tried to solve an argument by punching that Demifiend guy you mentioned. Was that it?"

"Perhaps," he said, although it was pretty clear that he didn't want to admit to that.

She shrugged. "I mean, sometimes you can solve problems quicker that way, or stop somebody from being stupid. But you can't do it recklessly. She'll probably claim that getting us knocked out was part of some convoluted plan when it wasn't anything she planned, just to take credit for things. Now where are we?"

"Shibuya," he said, then got interrupted by a knocking at the door.

Wanting to see how serious he was about being a bodyguard, Hikaru called, "Come on in!"

It was someone she recognized, although he'd changed since she'd last seen him. Krishna had been of a neutral alignment, but now he was lightly into a dark alignment. "Hello, I came back in to report on my mission," he said with a confidant smile.

"It must have been the other one who sent you off, but I'll hear what you have to say as long as you don't mind repeating it later," she said, then looked over at Belial. "Well? I don't want a perv around when I'm not in the mood to mess with them, so go stand guard outside."

Frowning, Belial retorted, "I am not a pervert and you are not my lord. I don't have to listen to you."

Swinging back with a pout, she said, "Aw, come on. If the other Hikaru is your lord, then you still have to be my bodyguard if she asked you to be hers. We're sharing the same body, so if you don't want to fail her, you have to treat me as your ward too."

Belial sighed, then said, "Fine, I'll guard you but I'm not leaving this room."

"Okay, so what's going on?" she asked Krishna.

"Well you seem to be aware now that you have a double personality," Krishna said. "Your other identity is that of Lucifer."

"Is that true?" she asked, glancing at Belial.

"Yes, you are Lucifer," he said.

"Actually, that might not be true," Krishna said, taking a seat by her on the couch after silently asking for permission. "For you see, there's a story going around that someone has stolen Lucifer's identity and the real Lucifer is missing."

"Wow, that's an impressive feat," Hikaru said. "It might be before I remember, but I'm pretty sure that theft wasn't done by me."

"You are Lucifer so of course it wasn't you," Belial said.

She shrugged at that. "Maybe, but I don't think that's it. It's just a hunch, though."

"I would agree with her, that she's not Lucifer," Krishna said. "But if she's not Lucifer, she has to be someone else. Do you know your name, other than the cover of Hikaru?"

"No, and I suspect I don't actually have a name," she said. "Call me Hikaru, Black, Lucy, whatever, it doesn't really matter."

"But knowing your true identity does matter," Krishna said. "And I got a lead into that while I was around asking questions. You see," he leaned closer to her, "I am almost certain that you are Heart of Chaos."

Hearing that made her thoughts snap into high gear; she was doing far less than she could. "Oh yeah, that makes sense," she said "But, I don't think you should've said that."

* * *

Hardly any time had passed between when Gabriel finally calmed down from seeing Demiurge to when she felt feverish in being giddy. At least she was just a spirit now, hiding within Shene Duque with her fellows. They were starting to clear their minds of the fogginess they'd had, so she chatted about all the things that had been happening. "It seems they had a village near here for believers while I was gone, even though many of them were unworthy of Heaven in their sinful states. Maybe all of them because it's completely abandoned now, the fields left fallow. Hah, isn't this ridiculous? The few Chosen Ones that we purified have become completely unworthy, so any effort in this world is worthless!"

"We can't give up on God's plan for this world," Uriel said, seeming sleepy. "Not unless He has as well. We shifted out billions to find the few promising souls; we can do that again. It'd be easier without billions."

"You should rest too," Michael added.

"I'm not tired," she said. "And somebody should be alert. I couldn't sleep if I tried; I can try to keep quiet." That was probably best, but there was more to tell.

Unfortunately, words rippled through the air. Someone had spoken a name set apart and it had been recognized. "Heart of Chaos has awakened?" Uriel asked. "What about Heart of Law?"

Another ripple followed. "We're supposed to call her Merkabah, not that," Gabriel said. "Now others are aware of them both."

"Hmm, sorry," Uriel said hazily. Raphael hadn't even woken up yet.

"The existence of one implies the existence of the other, so it should be workable," Michael said. "Once we subvert her will in order to correct her potential rebellion, we will be unstoppable."

"We have to correct for the lack of the Spirit of Goodwill too," Gabriel said. "He's fallen out of line for a representative of Law, much like Merkabah here."

"From what you said, it may be worth forcing them all to cooperate," Michael said. "We must make God's plan work. For now, you should rest to recover yourself as well. No one is going to disturb us here."

While Michael continued convincing Gabriel to rest, the fifth angel in there contemplated what she'd overheard. Heart of Law… it made sense, but then why did they think she had fallen out of line? She was a personification of Law; they shouldn't need to override her will if they served the God of Law. However, there were a lot of questionable things that she saw as being out of line, including how they were willing to force her to work for them.

There was a chance. Issachar hadn't been able to free her, but someone else should be capable. She focused on sending a message down to those in Tokyo. 'I apologize for asking when I've stated that I'm fine before, but the situation has changed. I need your help to escape this place. Please come back to Mikado immediately.'

She had to keep hope that this would work.

* * *

Walter's angel was a virtue now. The angel was still cooperative in battle, but he didn't speak as much. But while Walter was doing some requests in Shinjuku, the virtue spoke up. "Why do you help these people? Mikado was the land of those chosen by God, so these people are not chosen."

"That's probably some political crap, so I don't care about it," Walter said. "These people need help cause the demons are surrounding them, not locked down in one place like they had been in Mikado. And we're supposed to be here looking for that kid; seems like they found him, so that's good." Since he was in the business district of Shinjuku, he'd have to wait until later to hear all about what was going on.

"Then you believe anyone is worthy of being helped, even if they may betray you?" the virtue asked.

"Are you being serious?" he asked, looking over him. But as he was a strange clear figure of an angel now, he gave no signs of mood or anything. "That's a rather large jump from what I was saying."

"They cannot be trusted because they weren't chosen by God," he said. "It is inevitable that someone here will betray you."

Walter frowned at that. "That's a terrible way to look at people. Technically, I'm not one of those chosen people you speak of; that was some ancestor of mine centuries back. If you can't trust these people, then how can you trust me?"

"The only one we can trust in is the only one we can have faith in: God. Everyone else may betray you for their own benefit. That is why we angels only follow the will of God, not our own."

"It still sounds rotten not to trust anyone," he said. "Not even yourself, huh? You couldn't have friends, or even a community that way."

"Mikado did have a society based upon trust in God," the virtue said. "You trust in God and follow His word. Society works out perfectly that way, but loss of that faith to any amount will lead to society breaking down."

"But shouldn't society be stronger than to fall apart from one fault?" Walter asked.

"It shouldn't fall apart because faith in God should be absolute," he said. "When it is, faith is the strongest foundation you can build a life upon. Any failure of faith is a failure on part of the person who failed to believe."

"That's still rotten to look at people that way," he said, then sighed. "Well this is clearly going nowhere."

"Indeed."

Fortunately, a voice came in to break the awkward moment. It was a call for help. Walter looked upward. "What? Merkabah's in trouble."

"How would someone like Merkabah be in trouble?" the virtue asked. "But we should go help them."

"Right," he agreed, sending a message to Flynn and Issachar about this. Jonathan would surely hear about it.

As Isabeau had come over here with him, he ran down the street looking for her. She came out of one of the stores as she had taken a salvaging mission. On seeing him, she smiled briefly, but quickly turned serious. "What's the matter?"

"We have to get to Mikado quick," he said. "Merkabah's in trouble; she wouldn't ask for help if it wasn't serious."

"All right, we should see what we can do," Isabeau said, trusting his word.

As he was the one in charge now, Issachar replied then. 'Jonathan, Walter, Isabeau, you three head on up to Mikado to help Merkabah: she's imprisoned in Shene Duque. I didn't run into any resistance entering, but you should be careful around there. Flynn has something he wants to try in Ginza while you all do that; he thinks that his presence in Mikado will make the angels more alert to the rescue. I'll be with him and he says that it'll be obvious if his plan works. Good luck.'

What did he want to do in Ginza? Although they did need to be careful, the fact that Flynn was trusting them to go ahead without him meant that it couldn't be too dangerous to attempt. Once they acknowledged the new mission, he and Isabeau hurried off to meet up with Jonathan at the terminal.

* * *

Belial was going to be a problem. But now that Krishna had set things in motion, he had to be alert to his opportunity. "It'll be fine," he said to Hikaru's warning that her real identity shouldn't have been spoken. "We're just going to be engaged in a different game from before, what with Heart of Law acknowledged as well."

"When she gets in motion, everybody's going to be in trouble," she said, playful again like she couldn't wait to see what was going to happen.

"Was that what that was?" Belial said, tense from this information being revealed. "But wait, if you just have Lucifer's identity, what happened to him?"

Hikaru shrugged. "How should I know? Whoever did this to me made me think I was Lucifer, so of course they weren't going to leave knowledge of what happened to him with me."

Belial then drew his spear with a snarl. "No, you have to know! What happened to Lucifer?"

Getting up and starting to move between them, Krishna put his hands up. "Hang on now, you agreed…"

As expected, Belial started to impale him. Hikaru retaliated before he even moved, piercing him through with an ice spell so potent that it left frost all over the furniture. That caused him to shatter. "Geez, Krishna, what were you thinking?" she asked. "You're not a pure fighter like he is."

"Well, my honor to keep harm from ladies sometimes interferes with my common sense," he replied, turning back to smile at her. Charm didn't have to rely on magic, after all. "Though that makes me wonder why you would ask to have a bodyguard when you can do that?"

Shrugging again, she retorted, "Well sometimes my honor for keeping others out of harm interferes with recognizing that they're being idiots. Hmph, well, it could be fun, but we're going to have trouble with the forces of Hell now."

Sitting back by her, he suggested, "Can't you use Lucifer's identity to get them to obey you? You could claim that was a test for Belial or something."

"Or I could go find forces of Chaos that aren't stupid about it," she said. "Although of what I can think of, Lucifer himself wasn't actually all that stupid most of the time, just full of himself and very willing to be cruel. Finding those who are sensible about Chaos isn't that easy."

"Then what are you going to do about his identity?" Krishna asked. "There must be something, even just a portion of his spirit, that identifies you as him."

Hikaru nodded and put her hands to her chest. "Of course there is some spiritual thing I have. I'll just keep it hidden away and safe until I find some way to return it to its actual owner." She grinned for a moment. "I mean, there's definitely some fun pranks I could do now that I know about it. But I don't want to be a leader of demons, or anybody for that matter. Why should I burden myself with that kind of responsibility? Or burden others with doing what I want instead of leaving them to do as they please?"

And it wouldn't be easy to convince the personality that believed she was Lucifer to loosen her grip on that either. Maybe angle it so that she saw holding onto that identity as a responsibility? She seemed to not like that. As he was choosing his words, Krishna felt like someone was close to him, yet unseen.

 _We agree with your plans in ending this world. This will be a good step for you. But she is clever and recognizes that it's more advantageous for her to hide what she has. We'll help you with this. All we ask in exchange is for you to proceed as you will._

"We could go looking for Lucifer," Hikaru said, then yawned and stretched. "Sorry. We could go, but I doubt you would want that."

"Why do you say that?" Krishna asked, trying to keep her attention off whatever the entity speaking with him was doing. It would be good to know who they were, if they spoke to him again at a good time.

She giggled as some kind of glow emerged from her chest, where she had her hands before. "Well you proved yourself such a dandy in complaining about our poison swamp adventure that I can't imagine that you'd be up for a more daring adventure into the Abyss. Or wherever he ended up." Then she noticed the glow. "Oh, is that what you want now? Good, then do you know where we should start looking?"

Whether the identity could answer for itself or not, it materialized into a shimmering black meteorite. A fallen star, of course. While she was distracted in bringing her hands up under it, Krishna started a teleportation spell, then snatched the glowing meteorite and warped away before she could even yell at him.

He'd gone to an abandoned street where there shouldn't be anyone around. That let him look over the identity stone he'd taken. To normal sight, it might be an unusual stone but nothing more past that. But he could see a fragment of a dark soul, full of guile and hatred, power and pride. The power of this fragment wasn't as much as the original Lucifer. Used in the right fashion, though, it could be far more useful than any amount of power.

He had a brief moment of hesitation. This did risk putting himself as a pawn of his greatest enemy, just as Hikaru had been. And it was a major change from who he'd been. But if his plans didn't work as himself, perhaps this could make up the difference.

Clasping his hands tight over the stone, Krishna took the identity as his own mask.

* * *

Since only Flynn's gauntlet had the time converter, Jonathan and the others arrived in Mikado a couple of hours before dawn. It let them hurry through the capitol without anyone being in their way. Shene Duque was a holy land, so a special gate out of the city was used only for pilgrims who had earned the privilege to go there. While there was a guard on duty, he saw that they were samurai and opened the gate for them without being asked. Jonathan recalled when this gate hadn't been closed most days; that was when they'd thought the angels were on their side.

Now the angels were blocking their progress to the holy land. There was a steady wind too, along with large banks of clouds poised to roll right overhead. After taking care of the fifth battle so far and moving on, Jonathan thought aloud, "Is it really enough to call us sinners just for being on the road at this hour? This is an emergency and we couldn't choose the time."

"It is ridiculous," Isabeau agreed, shifting her scarf. It was cool, not cold enough to show their breath but cooler than Tokyo had been. "But they've been declaring more and more things sins, to the point where the word isn't as strong as it once was."

"Right," Walter said. "But, these angels are acting weird."

"The other samurai have told us that the angels will attack with little provocation," Jonathan said. It was not what he'd been taught about angels, but these weren't real angels.

"Well yeah, but I mean compared to how I've dealt with them before," he said. "Remember when I was here recovering from that head injury? I had Kazfiel and a couple other angels come up to me and try to convince me that they were right. They were being stubborn and not listening back then too, but they at least had some life to them. More than once, those conversations ended up with the angel being exasperated and sighing. But these ones today, they seem dead and emotionless."

Thinking back over the encounters, Jonathan nodded. "I see now… yes, they seem strange."

'It's because their wills are being subjugated,' Merkabah said from her prison. 'Normally it's not something to be concerned about from an angel's perspective because that happens when God works through you. But that's not the case now. Gabriel and her fellows have retreated here and are now exerting their will over the others.'

"They're enslaving their fellow angels?" Jonathan asked, nearly stopping in being shocked at this. Shene Duque wasn't that far ahead now.

'Yes, and they would have done so to all beings in Mikado if it hadn't been for Flynn neutralizing their power over you.' Then something shifted to Merkabah's telepathy, breaking up her usual calm with caution. 'I really shouldn't speak much right now. Please, Walter, Isabeau, find some way to distract the guard patrolling the top of the hill so that Jonathan can sneak in here. We should move quickly, before they notice.'

"Sure, we'll get you out," Jonathan said. It felt like things had gone entirely upside-down, having to rescue one angel from others.

In their next battle, an angel dressed in priestly attire showed up and finished off the one they were fighting with an agi spell. "Don't be afraid," he said with a warm smile. "I was sent by the Great Will to assist you, in part because of how your friend Issachar helped me."

"You're more lively than the others," Walter said. "All right, did you get a good look around this holy place? We're supposed to distract some guards."

The angel nodded. "There is only one guard over Shene Duque at this hour; he can see in all directions, but once we get him in battle, his attention can't be everywhere."

"All right, I'll hang back on the slope of this hill," Jonathan said. "Good luck."

"You might need it more," Walter said. "I'll send you a signal when we get in battle. Be careful."

Jonathan went partway up the slope, waiting there for the signal. He wondered again what Flynn and Issachar were doing. The former felt something key was in Ginza, possibly related to the time difference between the two lands. Did he mean to eliminate it? That would be great for them; it was disconcerting to see his family grow in a matter of days when they saw years pass. Although, what would that do for Naverre's trade business? That worked mostly by the difference.

Whatever, he'd prefer the time difference to be eliminated. It didn't even take a couple of minutes for the others to accomplish their part, as Burroughs said, 'Walter and the others have the guard's attention. Good luck, master.'

"Thanks," Jonathan said, heading up to the top of the hill. Seeing the giant cocoon in the crater was eerie, like he'd been here before. Ignoring that for now, he ran down to get in before the guard noticed.

Seeing the cocoon was eerie; seeing the inside of it made him shiver even though no one was visibly there with him. It put into mind nightmarish feelings of sacrifice and captivity. Perhaps something here was what Flynn was trying to save him from? Whatever it was, he didn't want to spend more time in here than he needed.

High up in this cavernous place, there were four smaller cocoons hanging outside of the honeycomb structures. But the person he was after was within a ground level comb. Jonathan went over and put his hand on the surface. "Merkabah…"

"As I thought," she said quietly. "Put your other hand on the cell too."

He nodded and did as told. The cell's surface got warm and melted off his hands. As it did, shadows moved before Merkabah's hands clasped his. The honeycomb material fell away, allowing her out of her cell. She nodded, then tugged on his hand to indicate that they should leave. Jonathan agreed with that.

Once they were out, he said, "Walter and Isabeau were fighting the guard over there so I can get in."

"We should assist them," she said, starting up the ridge. "What of the others?"

"Flynn and Issachar are still in Tokyo for one of Flynn's plans," he explained as they went up. "They didn't explain what, but it could be important."

"Something has changed," she said. "We'll figure it out shortly."

Once they got to the top of the ridge, it was easy to see the angel the others were fighting. It had four faces and arms, with rotating wings under its waist. Clasping her hands together, Merkabah lifted the swords off her back and barreled into the guard angel, destroying it instantly. "Whoa, thanks for that," Walter said.

"Yes, thanks to you all for getting me out," Merkabah said, setting her swords back in place. "Gabriel destroyed the prison that her three closest allies were in, bringing them back here. They're the ones who wanted to take my will away, and most likely were the ones who imprisoned me in the first place."

"I thought Flynn defeated Gabriel," Walter said. "Least I heard, they battled and he won."

"Yes, but she can revive herself from that kind of destruction with some time. It won't even be as long because they still have Shene Duque. Anyhow, they slipped something important to me." She bowed her head. "I am properly known as Heart of Law, and my dragon peer is known as Heart of Chaos. Although I'd rather still go by Merkabah for now, and she doesn't care what she's called."

"That seems most fitting," Jonathan said. "But we should inform Issachar that we freed you and head back to the capitol. We might be able to help them."

"We definitely don't want to be out here when this storm breaks," Isabeau added, glancing at the skies.

"That would be best," Merkabah agreed.

* * *

By Ginza's fountain, Issachar and Flynn found Fujiwara and Skins talking with some Ring of Gaea members. "Oh, hello there," Fujiwara said. "We were just having a chat as neighbors. What are you two doing here?"

Issachar didn't actually know, since they had hurried out of the black forest to get here. Flynn's answer didn't explain much more to him. "Something has come up, so I want to speak with Masakado again."

Whoever that was, it shocked everyone else there. "What, you've already spoken with Lord Masakado?" one of the Gaean men asked. "I know he's around here, but no one I know of has heard from him since the Firmament went up."

"You know where he is?" Skins asked.

"At the big crossroads over there," Flynn said, pointing down one of the halls. "We were here yesterday for the first time, but it felt I'd been there before. That led me to the large boulder where I heard him. He said to come back if something happened, which did."

"That's interesting," Fujiwara said. "He's one of the gods that needs a medium to interact with, although you aren't the first that's spoken to him in this time. Hmm." He looked over at Skins.

Seeming to be of the same mind, Skins nodded and offered the huge sheathed sword that he usually carried on his back. "Here, this is his medium. Try drawing the sword. Just be warned, it's not easy; I'm no slouch and I haven't been able to take it."

Flynn nodded, accepting the sheath. It was a massive sword, even longer than the one that he brought out for dangerous opponents like Gabriel and Demiurge. While the size and weight of the sword alone would be enough to make it hard to wield, Skins seemed like he should have the strength for it. Flynn definitely did as he easily pulled the blade partway out with one hand, holding the sheath in the other.

That was enough to impress the others, making them gasp and stare at the sword. Fujiwara smiled at that. "Well well, I had a hunch about you, and it seems to be right. I don't know if he mentioned it, but Masakado is the protector of Tokyo. Only those who can match him in spirit can draw that sword. Since you can, I'm sure we can trust you with it."

"Thank you," Flynn said, putting the sword back in its sheath. The sheath then shrank down to something that could fit a longsword, something he could easily place alongside his other sword sheath on his belt. "I hope to protect both of our homes. But we do need to meet up with him quickly."

"Well good luck," Skins said.

"We should talk again, when you get a chance," Fujiwara said, waving them off.

As they headed down the hall, Issachar asked, "Hoy, so is this Masakado another god? And you're going to call on him?"

Flynn nodded. "He is a god, but he'd a different one. As Fujiwara said, he's the protector of Tokyo. He was once a normal human, a general that rebelled against a corrupt government. But his deeds grew into legends, thus he became recognized as a god after death. He hasn't forgotten that he started as a human; we can trust him."

"That's good," Issachar said. But as they were climbing the stairs to street level, another explosion sounded nearby. "What now?" he asked, hurrying up the last stairs quicker.

Flynn didn't say anything, but hurried out too. Issachar had seen Masakado's boulder earlier; it was impossible to miss since it was much larger than Yaso's boulder. And it wasn't there when they emerged into the crossroads. Instead, a pile of black rubble was rising into the air, paling into white and forming a flat towering obelisk. Flynn stopped a few feet in front of it and looked into it.

"That seems ominous," Issachar said, stopping next to him.

Putting a hand on his head, Flynn said, "This is the wrong time, and the wrong transformation."

"But what happened to Masakado?" Issachar asked. "Can you still summon him?"

"We should see," he said, drawing the sword out fully. While the sheath had grown smaller, the sword returned to its original size as soon as it was drawn. "Masakado, are you still here?"

A faint grumble replied, like someone who wasn't fully awake. Then he appeared, a disembodied head with black hair in rope-like bundles. "Hmm? Oh, Flynn, you've returned. Do you know what just happened?"

Flynn shook his head and returned the sword. "We heard your boulder explode, but we were coming up the stairs and didn't see what caused it."

"Are you okay?" Issachar asked, not sure how to figure that out for someone who was just a head.

"It broke my concentration," Masakado said. "I was watching over this city to keep it safe. But, that's gone now. I don't think I can set that ward up any time soon."

"The Guardian Eye is gone?" Flynn asked, checking his gauntlet. "Then, so is the time difference."

"There is a greater supply of food, but this could be a slow-growing danger to the people," Masakado said, concerned about this.

Issachar got an alert on his gauntlet then. "The others were successful," he told Flynn.

He nodded. "Good, then we can do this. Masakado, I want to remove the Firmament."

"You can do that?" Issachar asked, surprised. To move this whole hollow mountain, with Mikado on it… "Is that safe?"

"It could present some difficulty," Masakado said. "Since you don't know, in a past life, Flynn was my summoner. Both the angels and the demons had their own plans to end the terrible war twenty-five years ago; we didn't agree with either side. But then powerful weapons were unleashed to kill off all of humanity, save those the angels had chosen. There wasn't much time, so we had to take a drastic step. Flynn sacrificed his life and I sacrificed my body in order to create the Firmament using both. It would take both of us to remove it."

"But I want to do this with some assistance," Flynn said. "This is so we don't have to sacrifice Mikado for Tokyo's sake, or Tokyo for Mikado's sake."

"If we could save both, that would be for the best," Masakado said. "How do you intend to do that?"

Putting a hand on his chest, he said, "You know that I carry the Spirit of Hope. And two of our friends hold the Spirit of Spite and the Spirit of Goodwill. We are connected to each other and to the recently awakened Heart of Chaos and Heart of Law. The five of us working with you should be able to lift Mikado whole off Tokyo and set it beside the city without harming anyone."

"I did see that before I got disrupted," he said. "With those two helping, yes, it should be possible. And should… you are Issachar, correct? A human angel of the Great Will."

He nodded. "Yes, that's me."

Masakado gave it a bit more thought. "The Great Will generally doesn't act directly. But perhaps, should you support us in prayer, it may even be possible to do this right now. If all of us involved seek to save the peoples of Mikado and Tokyo, not one over the other, then none should be harmed by this move."

"This is the best chance, when the angels and demons are both unprepared for the two Hearts to be active," Flynn said, his inner strength showing again. Briefly, Issachar wondered what made him change so quickly. Perhaps it was like the confrontation in Obelisk Plaza; he saw this as an important enough move to ignore all else.

"Sure, I'll support you," Issachar said, certain that the others involved should want that now.

"Very well, let's do this," Masakado said.

Flynn raised a hand in the air and made a golden pentagram appear there, much like the marking on Issachar's face. "Then I'll let them know."


	60. To Move a Mountain

**Chapter 60: To Move A Mountain**

The priestly angel followed them back to the road. "Excuse me, Walter?" he said, coming to fly near him.

"Yeah, what is it?" he asked, glancing over. They were still out in the open. But with Merkabah with them, it seemed like the angels weren't going to assault them. The storm still seemed like it was going to break soon; dawn's rays lit up the turbulent clouds with rolling reds.

Smiling, he said, "When I was working in this land, I heard that you were studying the Scriptures." Then he seemed worried. "But you know, those are the teachings of the angels who acted as tyrants over your people. There are some true words of God in there, but they get drowned out by the sheer amount of words aimed to trod down mankind."

"I was starting to think that myself," he said. "Foundations seemed pretty good in parts, and so did some of the religious Literature I've found. But I'm just starting, so I don't know what would be the real word of God and what wouldn't be."

Joining in, Isabeau said, "I'm not sure even those who've studied Scriptures for years, like my father, would know that for certain."

"You've just started, so it may be easier for you to break away from the lies," the angel said. "Actually, I have a request to make of you. I am told that among the Literature that was summoned into Mikado, a book of religious essays by the prophet Yuji had appeared somewhere. I'd like you to find that book and study it."

"A prophet, huh?" Walter asked, considering it. "Never heard of this Yuji before."

"I haven't either," Isabeau said, curious about it.

"You wouldn't because he was from another world," the angel said. "In that world, he was known to certain people as the last teacher and prophet of the true God. The book is called 'Fallen Blind, Deaf, and Dumb', and there should be a marking of a scorpion on it."

"A scorpion?" Walter asked. "That seem odd for a religious book."

The angel nodded. "It had personal significance to him, one of the essays should be about it. I was not made aware of where the book is or who may have it, other than they aren't aware of the significance of what they possess. Actually, why don't you try acquiring it by the Scriptures that you believe are from the true God?"

"What, so basically don't be an ass about it?" he asked. Nearby, Jonathan laughed. "Well it's true, a number of them boil down to that."

"That could be," Jonathan said, still amused at it.

"So will you look for it?" the angel asked.

Walter nodded as something else occurred to him. "Sure, shouldn't be too hard. Actually, since you're here, could you talk to the angel I've been summoning? He hasn't changed like the other angels, but that just means he's really stubborn."

"Absolute faith means it's really difficult to change," the angel said. "But I was convinced to look into something myself, so your angel might be convinced as well."

When he called out the virtue, a large magic circle appeared beneath them. "What is going on?" the virtue asked, looking around at all of them.

"I dunno, that just showed up," Walter said, looking down at the bright gold marking.

"It's some kind of connector," Merkabah said, scrutinizing it.

Then they heard Flynn, despite him still being in Tokyo. 'Since you've freed Merkabah, we're going to move Mikado off of Tokyo.'

"Moving Mikado?" Walter asked, shocked at the idea.

"I see," Merkabah said. "The connector means we're working together, and that should be possible."

"That could happen through faith in God," the virtue said.

"The true God," the priestly angel said.

'As the power that caused the time difference has been broken, this is our best chance. I've given Merkabah and Hikaru the plan for this. But the most important factor to keep in mind is that we want to save both Mikado and Tokyo, as well as the people of both. The plans everyone else has for this world involve sacrificing one to save the other; that's unacceptable. I hope that what I've shown you convinces you of that.'

"To save both…" Merkabah said, closing her eyes.

"I believe that's what we should do," Jonathan said. "We cannot simply take the word of the false angels. From talking with the people of Tokyo, I don't believe that they deserve to live underground indefinitely."

"That's true," Walter said. "And those in Mikado have been improving our kingdom; I'm sure that'll get better if we're better connected to Tokyo. There's no reason for any sacrifice."

"Especially not of so many people," Isabeau said.

"But…" the virtue started to say, before the priestly angel startled him by putting a hand over his mouth.

"I would need more time to make an accurate assessment of that myself," Merkabah said, opening her eyes. "Thus it would be nonsensical to do something that eliminates either group at this time. Besides, if you all feel so strongly about this, I will have faith in you. You two angels stay out of the way."

"Certainly," the priestly angel said while not letting Walter's angel interrupt.

"As for you three, stay within the pentagram and let us join hands." She held out both of hers.

Walter took Isabeau's hand and Merkabah's. He had faith in Flynn's plan. And when this worked, maybe Flynn would be more positive again.

* * *

Although she searched for Lucifer's identity, Hikaru wasn't able to find Krishna after several warps around the city. She paused when she landed on the top of Tokyo Tower. "Man, this is gonna suck," she said, clenching a fist.

She should have been more careful the moment she saw that Krishna had shifted towards a dark alignment. She thought she had been; she didn't mean for the identity to materialize. And when it did, she got distracted and Krishna had snatched it before she could clear her mind. While she would of just done some pranks with the identity, Krishna could take it seriously and steal influence over the forces of Hell. He was intelligent and charismatic enough to impersonate Lucifer extremely well.

On the other hand, it meant that she wasn't saddled with an extra personality now. She could just ignore it and do more sidewalk art; Lucifer's personality wasn't her responsibility. But then, she knew the heroes, especially Flynn, would be alarmed to hear that Krishna was now the substitute Lucifer. Heart of Law would probably berate her for ignoring the situation too.

"Guess I should keep looking," she muttered, starting up a name divination. If he took the identity as his own (as he likely would), searching by either Krishna or Lucifer should point him out.

Then a gold pentagram appeared underneath her feet, followed by a telepathic message from Flynn. He was capable of that? But more importantly… he wanted to remove Mikado from over Tokyo without harming either place. Despite that taking a miracle, he knew exactly how to pull it off. The seven of them involved just needed to want to save everyone.

Looking up from her perch on the tower, Hikaru grinned. "Hell yeah, let's show everyone the sun! Everyone should have the chance to live life to their fullest potential."

Her part of this plan was going to be fun too. Hopping onto the guard rail, she jumped off the tower and transformed into her normal self, that of a black dragon. She gave out a resounding roar that all of Tokyo should hear, just to let them know that something big was happening. Then she flew off north. She would have to be patient and wait for the right moment, but that was worth it.

* * *

This would be a miracle… but as she took the lead for the effort, Merkabah felt an immense power running through them all. It wasn't just the power, though, it was a feeling of unity, that they were at their greatest together, not apart. Herself as pure Law, a being of order and logic; Hikaru as pure Chaos, a being of chance and emotion. But they were not to be divided, rather to be balanced so both sides were acknowledged.

Jonathan… mercy, kindness, a desire to do good things simply because they were good, yet the desire to do good could overcome mercy and kindness to reject anything potentially bad. He should be logical and mildly aloof, being set apart as the Hero of Law. However, Flynn had guided him to find passion and compassion, shifting him back to the normal state of a human being.

Walter… determination, intuition, a desire to prove one's worth despite any challenges, yet that could easily go too far into a hot-headed impulsive anger. He should be quick tempered and independent, being set apart as the Hero of Chaos. However, Flynn had guided him to find thoughtfulness and patience (at least the start of it), also shifting him back to a normal state for a human.

Isabeau… to be honest, she was something of an outsider. She didn't hold a distinctive gift of the supernatural; all of her power was her own, which made her fall short of those around her. But she was set apart, as the girl expected to support the central hero with a high chance of being the one he loved. But the fulcrum loved someone else and Isabeau wanted to stand on her own merits with her peers. She was a normal human being in every way, and this too was important to the task at hand.

Flynn… determination and mercy, and hope in its purest form, one who would also watch, judge, and set the future on its course. His hope had endured past all expectations, to where he walked this road many times before seeking what he truly wanted for the world. And yet, even the most extraordinary of souls had their limits. His soul was weary beyond belief, yet he pushed on to achieve this dream. They should make it come true for him.

And lastly, one who shouldn't be here but now was, Issachar… he was… truly? He was also hope in its purest form. He was now the fulcrum of this conflict, this generation's Messiah, not Flynn. Not that long ago, Issachar had been told of his role; he didn't realize what it truly meant for him. Neither did Flynn realize that he'd willingly passed over the role to his lover.

Perhaps they shouldn't be told, nor this spoken of. Flynn would be reminded of times he'd lost the role to Nanashi, which would be detrimental to his mental state. Issachar would realize that, which could distract him from doing what he should be doing as a Messiah. And since the goal was to break the game of cosmic war enough that those in control stopped messing with this world, keeping everyone from realizing where the true balance was was a good means to make things as obnoxious as possible for the players.

And what they were doing now was to change the playing field entirely by changing the landscape. All seven of them hoped to save those below and those above. They also had faith this would work. With their wills united, Merkabah closed her eyes and felt their spirits expand to encompass the whole of the Firmament. Down below, Hikaru took her side of this power and crashed through the northern wall, taking out a wide section. The Firmament trembled, but Masakado's will helped them to hold the rest together.

By the allowance of the Great Will, the seven of them and Masakado then tore the Firmament out from the Earth. The mountain was pulled south, intact save for the northern wall that Hikaru took out to allow it to pass over the skyscrapers of Tokyo without disturbing them. It was taken gently so as not to disturb the waking population of Mikado too much, also not to take them too high into the atmosphere. Once the Firmament passed Tokyo entirely, Mikado was set down into where the bay of Tokyo had been. The miracle couldn't end with just that: the earth and seas were shifted rapidly, allowing Mikado to rest on firm ground as well.

And thus, Tokyo was uncovered to the sight of the rising sun while Mikado remained whole.

Albeit Mikado was now on sea level and there would be some brief ill feelings among the beings there for the sudden drop of altitude.

And the rolling storm clouds quickly stopped the sun's light from reaching the streets of Tokyo.

And… something else seemed to be happening… something that felt ominous.

* * *

When the dragon roared, Maitreya quickly slipped out of the temple to see what was going on. It was a welcome break from claiming authority in the Ring of Gaea since Lilith fell from power. This whole past day, he'd been attempting to prove repeatedly that he was not a demon and that he was worthy. Both points were true: he was a Buddha, not a demon, and his quality as a Buddha meant that he was naturally worthy. But alas, it was a rare person who could see clearly enough another's true nature.

He wasn't the only person who went outside, naturally, since the Gaeans were more likely to prove their courage beyond any sensibility. While the others were astounded at the Firmament suddenly removing itself neatly to the south of Tokyo rather than over it, Maitreya took note of the turbulent dawn sky. This would be a nasty storm to greet Tokyo's new freedom. Was that perhaps a cosmic sign of something? It could simply be nature being nature, as it often was. With some meditation, he could assess what position the celestial bodies were in and from there confirm if this storm was an omen or not.

He was about to do so when he felt a familiar signal. Krishna was trying to get his attention. Turning to the Gaeans, Matraiya said, "This is surely some miracle, but this looming storm shall be a danger. It would be foolish to stay out in it; we ought to return inside and make sure the coming rain can't get indoors."

Fortunately, they saw the sense in this and agreed to go back inside. Maitreya hung back so he could allow Krishna inside without calling much attention to his peer. Although once he caught sight of him, it was clear that Krishna was going to attract attention anyhow. His curly locks of hair were now golden instead of green, his eyes a mismatched blue and red. He'd changed nothing else about himself, and yet the force of his personality just in striding up there to join them had a different character.

Adjusting a nearby teleporter, he brought Krishna into a room he'd taken for himself. "We unfortunately won't get much time because I'm trying to reorganize the Ring right now, but a brief discussion will be fine," Maitreya said.

"That's fine, I just wanted to check in with you," Krishna said. "You shouldn't be disrupted by Lilith; she's given up on this world and won't be returning any time soon."

That was good; Maitreya smiled. "I had suspected as much. But how would you know about that?"

He smiled back, although it was somehow unsettling. "Come on, Maitreya, you should be able to tell. Look at me and tell me who I am."

"You're Krishna, obviously," he said. But even as he said it, he got a flash of insight from those eyes. "Krishna, and Lucifer? What happened?"

"Since you want a short meeting, the short answer is that someone stole Lucifer's identity and I stole that from them," Krishna said. "The Lucifer that everyone thought was in Tokyo wasn't actually him, but I learned some interesting things from her before I took this chance."

"We'll definitely have to set up a proper meeting to discuss things with this," Maitreya said. "Hmm, this is most interesting. In all my experiences, I've not yet seen someone impersonate the devil to the point of stealing his very identity. It seems like a dangerous game." Because while Lucifer's identity could be quite useful, it was also a great risk of retribution from YHVH as well as the forces of Hell.

"True," Krishna admitted. "But with this new move, I can overcome the faults I found in Salvation and make it work this time. The humans still aren't prepared for being saved. But now that I'll be mistaken as the leader of the forces of Chaos, I can buy us plenty of time to educate the humans and break YHVH's covenant thoroughly. We do need to defeat the angelic forces that will be everywhere now, but that shouldn't be a problem."

"Don't get too caught up in their game, as this is quite serious for us," he said.

"I won't, don't worry about me. We do have a small problem in that Shesha is refusing to work with me now, but I have plans for that too. It'll just be less direct. Since you're busy taking over the Ring, I'll come back later. But have you heard from Odin and Thor recently?"

"No, I'm afraid not," he said. "I haven't even heard word of them from humans, which is odd because you'd think two gods vanquishing demons would get attention. Instead, all the gossip has been about the young samurai from Mikado."

Krishna shrugged at that. "That's still to our advantage. I should be able to find them; good luck with your work here."

"Thank you, and you be careful," he said. Although once he was gone, Maitreya sighed. "Poor Krishna, you are going to lose yourself to this gamble. It could very well win us this struggle, yes, but the risks are much too high. Hmm, I suppose the key factor in this is figuring out where the real Lucifer is. I wonder…"

But it was an idea that would have to be pursued later. Maitreya left to find one of the last sages he needed to talk to. In being here, he knew which members were likely candidates of taking leadership. He'd also spotted some new demons trying to be mistaken for human as well. He would have to undermine them all while making it obvious to the rest that he was clearly the best choice. And since Lilith had been overcome by strengths she denied, it should be entirely possible to do this non-violently.

If it did call for violence, he was perfectly capable of overcoming them that way too.

* * *

Once she stopped chattering, Gabriel had fallen asleep quickly. Michael tried to keep alert in the meantime, but that was difficult. His mind drifted back to the birdcage, being imprisoned somewhere, apparently a tower. How much time had he spent like that? Gabriel was saying both a thousand years and twenty-five years, not clarifying either. She didn't clarify much, although it was clear that being without them had been terrible to her.

He hadn't noticed time in the birdcage. He hadn't noticed much of anything past it. While there were demons patrolling around outside it, watching him like a dangerous prisoner, he wasn't able to be concerned about them. Sometimes he wondered who he was, why he was there, what had happened, what would happen. But mostly, there was nothing but emptiness.

Emptiness of purpose, emptiness of identity, emptiness of thought, emptiness of everything… now that he knew himself again, now that his thoughts were trying to come back, it was horrifying enough to make his soul tremble. There hadn't even been the presence of God with him. But, there had been no thought in him, no feeling. Not even this horror meant anything to him when the mask wiped out everything about his self.

But he was free of that. It had taken completely demolishing the tower along with his old body. Why so drastic? Surely there could have been a way to send some agent in to free them, maybe even a human with enough capability… but this was Gabriel's doing, so it had to be a part of God's plan. Right, God must have given them back their freedom. But, why let them be captured in such a terrible fashion?

Michael stopped himself there. That question didn't matter. He had faith in God; it was all in God's hands, he didn't have to worry. There must be some reason behind it. Surely, there had to be. It must be some test, or a demonstration. His imprisonment had ended, after all. God would surely let them know what they were to do next. Everything would be worth it when God's ideal world came to be, eternally be without any threat of ending.

"God, please let us know what to do next," he prayed.

There was silence.

Much like in the birdcage.

A strange fear bubbled up in him. "Please, let us know what Your will is. Bring us back into Your presence. I apologize if we have disappointed You somehow, or if we have failed You. We are your loyal servants, eternally loyal and faithful. Just, please, we have suffered greatly, please call us back to your side and let us be sure that it is all well. Of course it is all well, Your will shall rule every universe. We're just, so alone and… fearful…"

But God was always with them. That was something Michael knew; it was something he had faith in. But then, why were times like this always so hard? And times he got tricked by others so fulfilling? No, that was false fulfillment. It was some kind of delusion that he should forget about.

"I'm sorry, God," he said. "It's… it's something I don't know how to say, but something I feel… if I were just with You again, truly You again, then everything would be fine. I don't know why You keep us apart. It must be right. I should be strong enough to not be like this. Once I recover, I should be fine. I just feel like… being with You again now would be better. Except You're always right, so if this is Your plan, we'll… I should rest to carry it out, I'm sorry. I will always be waiting for the time You bring us back home."

He nearly forced himself asleep to escape these dismal thoughts. However, quaking from below the great cocoon disrupted him. The air pressure increased as well. What was going on? Then the spirit of the guard angel he had assigned here came close. "Excuse me, but…"

"What's going on?" he asked, trying not to seem hazy and weak.

"I was defeated," the guard said. "Merkabah left Shene Duque while I was fighting off some potential intruders. I do not know why, but she defeated me. Then something tore out the Firmament Mikado rests on and set it down to the south of Tokyo."

Merkabah… no, Heart of Law was gone. This could be a disaster… but there had to be a reason behind everything. Even behind Mikado and Tokyo suddenly sitting side by side. Answers came to him clearly. "I need to rest, so in my place, call upon the angels in the world to find Merkabah. Bring her back to talk to us when we have recovered. In the meantime, we're in a bad location now. Have a multitude move Shene Duque out from between Mikado and Tokyo. Not too far away, but enough that the mortals and demons should have difficulty reaching it. Set up obstacles if you must, whatever it takes, whatever God orders. We'll make it through this, as always."

"Yes sir." The guard then departed to do as ordered.

"This must be Your will," Michael said. "Please guide me to make the correct moves. We will make this world unquestionably Yours."

And then, perhaps, God would manifest in the world and be with him… be with them again. Be with everyone as things should be.

* * *

Belial found himself being called back into the world abruptly. This situation was a mess, but still, he came simply to see who was calling. To his surprise, it turned out to be actually Lucifer, not even using a female guise this time. "My lord, you're back!" Belial said, saluting him.

"Yes, glad to see you again," Lucifer said. He had curly hair this time, but it was definitely him. "Very glad, because I need someone I can trust right now. I'm not sure what's going on; I woke up in here with my mind totally blank. There was some dragon girl, but she took off quickly."

They were back in the office Hikaru had first called on him in. Good, he'd managed to keep this. "She was pretending to be you, likely the one who stole your identity. What happened to you?"

"I don't know, I think my memories are messed up," he said. "What's going on? And where are we?"

"We're in Tokyo, in the neighborhood of Shinjuku," Belial said. He was going to have to explain things again. But at least this truly was Lucifer this time.

There was a brief doubt, if this was somehow yet another impostor. But that was ridiculous; one impostor was silly enough. This had to be Lucifer.

* * *

The plan worked smoothly, although it left Tokyo facing a thunderstorm for the first time in two and a half decades. Still, Issachar was pleased with this. This should improve things for Tokyo. Although given where Shene Duque was, that put the angels' cocoon in the center of everything. The angels could take advantage of that, or they could surround the angels. They'd have to be prepared for anything.

Masakado nearly closed his eyes, weary now. "It is done. I hope everyone is prepared. Tokyo is still divided and now we're going to have the angels and demons fighting over both lands."

"You're the protector of Tokyo, right?" Issachar asked. "Fujiwara told us that just now."

"Yes, but I'm in no state to help now," Masakado said.

"Tokyo should be united, along with Mikado since we're now neighbors," Flynn said. "But you'll have to be summoned again in your natural form for that, right? Instead of that JDSDF form."

Masakado considered that. "Hmm, the form itself isn't bad, but the control medium is a problem and I would not want to go through that summoning again. Actually, Flynn, I've heard that you've lived this life repeatedly."

"Yes, where'd you hear that?" Flynn asked.

"I spoke with Krishna some time ago and he let me know. I do not trust him, but he had some interesting information. For instance, he asked me if there was a false Lucifer in Tokyo. It was a bizarre question, but since I had my eyes open, I could tell that there was a false Lucifer. The true Lucifer is not in Tokyo. He also told me you were stuck in this life."

"I hope this is the last time, since it's going the best," he said. "One thing that would assure that is restoring you as the guardian of Tokyo. I hope you'll consider protecting Mikado as well."

"They were once people of Tokyo," Masakado said. "You are children of Mikado, so if you restore me, I will watch over your land as well."

"Then how do we restore you?" Issachar asked.

After a moment of quiet, Masakado answered, "I used to have a shrine in this city, but it's been damaged by demons. Please restore that. More importantly, you need to unite the people and give them hope for a better future. Removing the Firmament is a big step towards that, but new challenges and old will have to be faced. Flynn, take this; it shall guide your way and gather the people's hopes into a spark that will revive me."

As he spoke, Masakado made an ornate black cup appear in the air. It had geometric etchings lined with gold, seeming like something a king would use. It floated towards Flynn, who nodded and took the cup with both hands. Immediately, the black and gold of the cup all drained to white, along with Flynn's hands creeping up his arms.

"Flynn?" Issachar asked, alarmed at that sign.

"Wait, that…" Masakado started to say. Then he shattered into dust like he had been defeated without a blow.

"New challenges are stacked on top of the old," Flynn said, strangely calm at this. "They will find the weight unbearable; the anarchy will keep all in confusion. The plan for this time works, but it's ultimately pointless. You'll be a nuisance, Masakado, so you won't be allowed to interfere."

"You're the White," Issachar said. How had he missed that? Their influence had been there. But, he'd been acting on this chance much like he had at Obelisk Plaza. It seemed like Flynn had gotten his spirit back. But he hadn't.

White Flynn looked him straight in the eyes, no color to his face now. "You know me. Despair is the other side of hope; his spirit has fully broken and I emerged from within. Anything you do to me, you'll do to him."

Issachar's fists were clenched, but so was his throat. He was right. The White didn't depend on Flynn's body, but Flynn did. What could he do? He had to save Flynn. But, how to do that without harming him… going into his dreams was treacherous because other people doing that led to this. And besides, Flynn was the one who know that spell, not him.

Raising the cup up between them, the White said, "This is proof… that his spirit has again flipped from hope to despair." His fingers twitched and he dropped the cup. Clattering on the ground, it remained white and whole. "He's lost what inner strength he had to be the hero of humanity; we will lead him to be your savior after all."

They didn't need a savior chosen by the White. Still lost on how to respond, Issachar picked the cup up off the street. This treasure was supposed to make things better, not worse. He took it in both hands and it immediately reverted to its original state. That assured him that there had to be some way to solve this.

Although the White's expression was still, their pause hinted that they were taken aback by that. "Give that back," they demanded.

"No, not to you," Issachar said, keeping it close to himself. "We don't need you."

The White moved a hand to the sword's handle like they would use that against them. But Flynn's hand stopped before they could take hold of it. "No," he said quietly, closing his eyes as color tried to come back to his face.

"Flynn, don't give in to them," he said, stepping closer to him. Then it seemed the White were entirely there, then Flynn again. "I'll save you from them, somehow."

"There's so many voices asking me to give up on the world," Flynn said as though it were a painful sorrow. "They drown out everything. I… I don't want…"

The white monument beside them shimmered, swallowing up all the sound around them into silence. Issachar noticed that, but kept watching Flynn, hoping that he was going to say that he didn't want to give up. Before he could, though, he faded into the whiteness and everything was white. Everything, save for Issachar himself, the cup, and faint shadows of despair.


	61. This Chapter Contains Nudity

**Chapter 61: This Chapter Contains Nudity**

She wasn't old enough to have recollections of the sky, but Nozomi had heard plenty from those older than her about it. They'd talk about skies of pure blue, overcast gray, gorgeous dawns and dusks. However, she hadn't heard talk about this mix of deep reds, bright reds, and dark grays, with streaks of black mixed in. The sky rumbled too, like a newly awakened grouch that hadn't expected company. She'd already had her camera out to take pictures of buildings as usual. But now her lens was aimed at the sky and this startling new sight.

"Um, Nozomi?" A nepaea that had long been her friend floated closer. She could have been fused away into a stronger demon, but it never felt right. "We might wanna go."

"Hang on, we can't miss this chance," Nozomi said, still watching the clouds. "I got lucky with those shots of the Firmament moving, and this is still amazing."

"But the rain is coming," Nepaea said.

"We'll be all right," she said, trying to find a good angle for some contrasting clouds.

"It's coming soon," she said, worried.

"We're not far from town."

"Um…" Nepaea hummed and hawed, then summoned a giant leaf on a thick stem. "Hah! Got an umbrella!"

Once she had the picture, Nozomi put her camera down. "What's that?"

"An umbrella, for the rain," Nepaea said, offering it to her.

"It's cute," Nozomi said with a smile, taking it.

And then a deluge of rain dropped on top of them, more than Nepaea's leaf umbrella could handle. Even though they ran for the nearest shelter, they both got completely drenched.

* * *

They only got to be outside for a little while as a storm was over Tokyo. But one of the Shinjuku Hunters let them into an upper room with intact windows to look at the rain. The water started out spattered against the glass, but quickly turned to wavy sheets that blurred out the outside. While it was still dark outside, the rain was proof that they would see the sun in coming days.

"This is cool, I didn't think there'd be so much rain at once," Asahi said, touching the glass briefly. "Cold rain too."

"We may have come out to monsoon season," Nikkari said. "We'll have to ask the Mikado folks what time of year it is."

"And what year it is," Nanashi said. A cold rain with thunder… it reminded him of something.

He was standing by the glass window of a stone building. A fire crackled in a large fireplace in another part of the hall, but it was cool here where the cold rain poured down outside. With him, a pretty woman watched the window in fascination. That was… his wife? And he was older too.

"Is this why you build enclosed things, to keep from getting wet?" she asked, honestly curious about that.

She was important enough to him that he was patient with her, answering, "One reason we do. In a couple of months, winter will come and it will get very cold. We'll want to stay mostly inside then, and dress warmly."

Leaning close enough to make her breath appear on the glass, she said, "I thought perhaps that the buildings you all create were an insult to God, because He is the Creator of all; His Creation is perfect. But, this must be a good allowance of God for us to create safe warm places."

"You could say that," he said, not wanting to upset her by saying that this was no allowance or request from God. Rather, he'd convinced the angels (after a long discussion) that they needed some level of civilization as this was no perfect paradise with ideal comfortable weather year round.

"Blessed be God who gave you the wisdom to build things for warmth and safety," she said.

"Of course," he said, thinking that the angels' idea of innocence was also much worse than they assumed. Hopefully, his sister managed to be somewhere inside during this rain too.

"Hey guys, you doing better?" Asahi asked, bringing Nanashi out of his memories. He turned and saw that Naverre, Gaston, and Hallelujah had all come in.

"Yes, surprisingly," Naverre said.

"I didn't know you could do those things with demons," Gaston added, rubbing his chest. "But it sure cleared up the cough."

"If it works, it works," Nanashi said.

Naverre came closer to the windows too. "Huh, so Mikado did move. We got word from the samurai headquarters that there was an earthquake early in the morning."

"Are they okay in Mikado after being moved?" Nanashi asked.

"Seems so," Naverre said. "The Commander was telling the samurai in Mikado to keep people from panicking; I sent him a message that I got that alert, which is unusual."

"Does your message say what day it is?" Nikkari asked. "We were curious."

"Oh, yes," he said, double-checking his message. "It's… March 13th."

"Hmm, so not a monsoon, just an early spring storm," he said.

"I hope Mikado's okay," Nanashi said. "What about your phone, Hallelujah?"

He shook his head. "They don't have anybody here that's good with phones. We might have to go by Akihabara. Although, they did say they detected some kind of demon in my phone. That's probably it."

"Really?" Nanashi used his demonica to try scanning the phone Hallelujah had out.

"It didn't seem possessed, just not getting messages," Hallelujah said, doing something on the touchscreen. "It still works, though I haven't tried making a call. Don't know if I want to."

"I'm sorry, Master, but an error has occurred with the demon scan," Burroughs said. "The program can't identify the demon."

"The demonica can't identify it," he said.

"Uh," Hallelujah rubbed his head. "Actually, did it bring up an error message? It might be messing up because of me."

"Is that why you can't use the summoning program?" Nanashi asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, it just keeps erroring on me. Here, how about I put my phone on this table? Try scanning it again."

"Okay." Once they did that, the program was able to identify the demon in the phone. "It says you have Antivirus Terminator in your phone."

"Antivirus?" Hallelujah asked. "Isn't an antivirus supposed to protect a phone?"

"It's not unknown for an antivirus program to be obstructive," Nikkari said.

Going into his summoning program, Nanashi said, "If it's an Antivirus, I have a Virus demon. It might be able to do something."

"Now fighting an Antivirus with a Virus is strange," Nikkari said, smiling at that.

Trojan appeared nearby. "Eet eet! #strangerdanger!"

"We need to get that Terminator off Hallelujah's phone," Nanashi said. "Is there something you can do to set up a battle so we can fight it?"

Even though Trojan seemed nervous, he went over and poked at the phone with his wires. Then he darted back over to the demonica and whistled. "#virtualbattlego!"

"Master, a new virtual battle is available," Burroughs said. "It's a one-time offer, a battle against Antivirus Terminator with your own demons." A screen popped up giving stats to the Terminator.

Nanashi grinned. "Yeah, we can handle this." Since he had the stats, he picked out the demons best suited to defeat the Terminator.

"So what's this Terminator look like?" Asahi asked, coming over next to him.

"Really weird," Nanashi said, putting in commands before tilting the demonica to show her. It looked like some old Crusader knight with a fully-enclosed helmet and a red tunic, as well as a pair of out of place guns.

Since the guns hinted that it was a physical attacker, Nanashi got sukukaja over his team. The Terminator hit hard, nearly taking out one of his team. But it wasn't a problem yet and two sukukajas made it miss the second attack. After four of them, only a few of its attacks landed.

"That is a strange demon," Hallelujah said when he got a glimpse of it. "But then, so is Trojan."

"I got it," Nanashi said on defeating it.

The phone immediately jangled repeatedly as it caught up on messages. "Great, thanks!" Hallelujah said as he took the phone back.

Nanashi immediately got a message too, from Hallelujah. Apparently, he had tried to send them a message saying not to worry about them. "The Terminator was a Law demon, so the angels might've put it on your phone," he said.

"Probably," he said, checking over the messages he had. "Wow, all of you were trying to get hold of me. And…" he suddenly stared at the phone in shock.

"What's the matter?" Nanashi asked.

"Uh… you know that demon that took over the Ashura-kai?"

Nanashi nodded. "The Demifiend?"

"He sent a message saying that he wants a meeting with me, as soon as possible," Hallelujah said.

* * *

They got back into the capitol right before the storm began. Since it was closer to the Shene Duque gate, Jonathan invited them into his home. "This is not exactly the best welcome we could have given Tokyo," he joked once they were inside.

"Eh, they could probably use a good washing out," Walter said.

"Yeah, a nice refreshing shower," Hikaru said with a grin, somehow dripping more than the rest of them.

"Could you not drip past this mudroom?" Merkabah asked her.

"Yes please, the others here would appreciate that," Jonathan added.

"Bah, well I don't want to force others to do more chores," Hikaru said, going over to a drain in the floor to twist the water out of her hair.

The servants found them quickly and offered to get them breakfast in an hour. Jonathan invited Flynn and Issachar to come too, if they didn't need them to do something else. Before he got a reply from them, they got a message from Commander Hope to check on the citizens after Mikado got relocated. People were fine after the move, thankfully. There wasn't even any broken glass or items, at least that they heard of on the initial search. While there were complaints of headaches and sometimes even weakness, it was minor and Walter said that was normal for the altitude change.

But the others hadn't responded by the time they met back up at the manor for breakfast. "I feel like we should check Ginza for them," Isabeau said.

"Right, they should have messaged something," Jonathan said, checking his gauntlet in case he'd somehow missed a message.

One of the doors in the hall opened and Adam came running over. "Dad! You're back!"

"Good morning, Adam," Jonathan said, picking him up. "Oof, you're getting big."

"I'll be eight soon," he said proudly. "Can you be back for that?"

He had to smile at that. "I can now; I should be able to come back home every night."

Cheering at that, Adam hugged him tight. Hikaru clapped her hands. "Hey, I'll go check Ginza! Cause I can just go." She then vanished.

"Who was that?" Adam asked, looking at where she'd been.

"One of our friends, Hikaru," Jonathan said, setting his son down. "And this is Merkabah."

"Hello Adam," Merkabah said. "I've been watching you for a while, among others."

Adam looked at her for a moment, then asked, "Why are you naked?"

Feeling embarrassed at the question, Jonathan realized that he'd long ignored that fact about Merkabah because she'd always been that way. And Walter had to chuckle at it as well. "Um…" he said, feeling like he should explain but not knowing how to do so.

It was worse that Merkabah wasn't bothered at all by it. "I'm not human; I don't need to be clothed."

"But Mom says you have to wear clothes," Adam said. "She says it to Theo when he tries to leave our room with only underwear."

"As I said, I'm not human and don't need to follow human standards," Merkabah said. "Clothes would serve no purpose for me."

"Does that really count?" Adam asked as Hikaru showed up again.

"Yes, she has to live up to different standards, which apparently includes how one dresses," Jonathan said.

"What're you talking about now?" Hikaru asked, tilting her head.

"Adam simply wished to know why I'm naked," Merkabah said, still not at all ashamed at it. "This was how I was created and that's good enough for me. Besides, most people tune out that fact after the initial surprise."

When Hikaru laughed at that, it was hard not to join in, or at least smile despite the conversation. "Oh geez, Merky, I'm your twin and I don't get why you're naked when you're supposed to be a personification of Law and all. That's a pretty flimsy reason too. I'm sure you can do something about that, I mean, I certainly can." She snapped her fingers and changed faster than a blink, from the silver dress to jean shorts, a shirt that had a rainbow spiral of bright colors, and a matching headband.

While it was strange clothing, Adam was impressed at it. "Wow, that's a great shirt!"

Hikaru patted him on the head. "Right, isn't it? Hey, if you want, I can show you and some friends how to make tie-dye shirts just like this, later. But right now, we need to discuss some samurai business, so how about you go back and we'll come over for breakfast in a bit?"

"Sure," Adam said. "Don't be long." Then he went back to the room he'd left.

"Did you find the other two?" Isabeau asked.

"Not really," Hikaru said. "Cause they're gone from this world, like completely missing."

"Gone, from the world?" Jonathan asked in shock. Walter and Isabeau were both alarmed at this news too.

"Did you bend time to search for them?" Merkabah asked. "You weren't gone long."

"Duh, of course I did," she said. "Once I figured out they were gone, I had to at least find out what happened to them. But I couldn't follow them at the point they left. I gave it a quick try; more forceful means might do the trick. But that could lead to some nasty things."

"So what happened to them?" Walter asked. "And is there some way we can go after them without those nasty things, whatever you mean?"

After a moment's thought, Hikaru shook her head. "Not without some help from those experienced in traversing the multiverse. I mean, I should know how, but I don't, which sucks. You guys heard about the White from Flynn, right?"

"Yes, they were the personification of humanity's despair," Jonathan said, seeing what must be happening. Flynn's behavior since the Roppongi mission had been deteriorating hard. Given how powerful he was, things would get very dangerous around him if he snapped again.

"They took over Flynn and withdrew him to the Expanse," Hikaru said. "They got Issachar too, which I don't think they meant to do. But they blocked me from following and the Expanse is a massive place to be searching."

"The White rule most of that place," Merkabah said. "If they control Flynn, they can hide him completely there. We'll have to figure out how to locate and rescue them."

"Right, but let's eat first," Hikaru said, nudging him towards the door Adam had gone through. "We need some time to think and we don't want you humans going faint."

"That's probably for the best," Jonathan said. This was a problem that he didn't know enough about to solve; it was so bizarre. Was there someone who had the kind of knowledge to help out?

* * *

Chasing after Flynn was like running against a gale that wanted him to give up and be blown away. Issachar pressed on, not wanting to let the White take Flynn entirely. Maybe he was worn down, but Flynn wouldn't give in to them! But he would need encouragement. As much as Issachar wanted to believe in him, there was still a chance things could go insane and Flynn would do something terrible on his own.

And the whispers tried to cut into him. "Every generation faces the same problems, then passes them on to the next."

"Humanity is given the illusion of choice, but the scales never swing far."

"One person's suffering harms those around them; humanity's suffering in total has grown too great, the souls of mankind ground down by never being able to solve their problem."

"The height of civilization has passed. Let things end."

"Everyone is tired of living. Let things end."

"No, this doesn't have to be the end," Issachar said, still fighting against the wind.

The cup in his hand shimmered. "That's right, this is the way." A blue light emerged from the cup and flew ahead of him like a speedy firefly, off to the left. Issachar chased after it, the wind still against him.

"You're nothing but an excuse for a motive, a sacrificial pawn. We have Flynn; there's nothing you can do to stop us."

"Your hope is foolish."

"That's not true," the spirit leading him said.

"Right, I'll be what no one expects," Issachar said.

Something in the whiteness around him shattered. The gale abruptly ended, leading him to half-stumble into a stop before he ran into a pale tree. Right near him, there was Flynn, sitting on the ground with his arms around his knees and hiding his face. He looked normal at first, then flickered into his White form and back. He was fighting; against a force of despair, that would take all of his focus and determination.

Issachar went to crouch next to him. "Flynn? I believe in you; you can come out of this."

While he looked up at him, Flynn didn't reply. He seemed exhausted, barely able to keep his eyes open. They had fought against Gabriel, whoever that Demiurge was, and then searched through another strange forest today. But this seemed more than that. Unfortunately, he was in the White's territory and wouldn't get a chance to relax his guard.

What now? Issachar wanted to get him out of here, but that would require figuring out where 'here' was. It could be the Expanse, as it resembled that dream they'd gone in to break the demon curse. Perhaps the spirit that led him here would know.

"You are here to help him too, right?" a voice from near the ground said. It was a black snake with gold markings, standing out starkly in this white environment.

"Yes, I'm Issachar, and you?" he asked, not sure if he should be wary of this.

"I'm Shesha," the snake said, slithering up to them. "And, you are his lover, you should be trustworthy. He is a human incarnation of my master, Vishnu, thus I have come to protect him."

"I've read about you," Issachar said, which was almost enough for him to trust the snake. But then, "He's mentioned that you were working with Krishna, who forced him to become that incarnation in other times that he remembers."

"Krishna told me I could end the world," Shesha said, stopping to lift his head off the ground and look at him. "But Flynn said he doesn't want that. Neither does Vishnu, so he told me to bring Krishna back if I could, but to protect Flynn first until we could figure out what is going on."

Vishnu should be one of the more reasonable gods based on what he'd read. And Shesha was said to be devoted to Vishnu in his loyalty. So if he saw Flynn as connected to Vishnu, then Shesha could be trusted. "I see. We should work together. I would challenge the White for him, to get him out of here. If you were to stay with him and I had some way to find you both again, I'd find the way to get him out of here."

"You need to loosen their hold on his soul by proving them wrong," Shesha said. "Vishnu said that he should have a lotus; I can use that as a beacon to you both."

Nodding, Issachar looked to Flynn and took his hand. "It's in your gauntlet, right? Would you bring it out?"

He still didn't reply, but Flynn brought out the lotus. Its petals glowed briefly when called out. Looking up at it, Shesha chanted in a strange language. The lotus' glow returned stronger than Issachar had seen it do before, with peach-colored motes drifting up from its tips. An image of them sitting there in the white forest appeared above the lotus after a moment. At the end of Shesha's chant, a flash of light briefly blocked out everything.

Once his sight returned, Issachar found that Shesha had grown larger than the both of them, coiled protectively around them. Two ghostly apparitions of themselves were there as well. Issachar's image seemed like himself before he became a samurai, transparent like smoke. But Flynn's entirely white image had been knocked away from them, on his knees like that had been a heavy blow.

If there was a chance that he could defeat the White's hold on Flynn, now could be the time. Issachar got up and drew his guns. "Let go of Flynn, now," he said sternly.

"No, you can't destroy me," White Flynn said, getting up on his feet. He pulled out a sword that looked very much like that of Masakado.

"You can't hurt me if Flynn wills it," Issachar's ghostly form said. "And I can defeat you." He vanished, but spoke up in Issachar's thoughts. "Defeating this image will cut the White's hold on Flynn, although that will be it. But they hurt him this much; he won't be able to heal until they're out of his mind."

"That's wishful thinking," White Flynn said, then attacked him. The sword passed through him without any more force than a breeze. His return fire punched holes right through White Flynn. While the gaps clouded up and refilled, it was a promising sign.

White Flynn tried to attack him a few more times with the sword, still not hurting him. Shesha lashed out once to bite White Flynn, seemingly chomping him in two, but he then pulled back to keep guarding Flynn. When White Flynn switched over to using Flynn's spells, Issachar could feel them do some damage. It wasn't anywhere near what Flynn was capable of, not what those spells should be doing even in the hands of an inept spellcaster. White Flynn did manage to paralyze him after a while, but that didn't stop Issachar from defeating him.

His form became even more faint while a blue sparkle appeared inside his chest. "He still belongs to us," the White said, then withdrew the image. But the sparkle remained, going faint and dropping down to the ground.

"Huh, what's that?" he asked, going over to pick it up. It had formed into a glass marble.

"I don't know that," Shesha said.

"It should be important," Issachar said, thinking it over.

He didn't hear from his ghostly image, but he knew who that was. The White kept referencing that despair was the other side of hope. From that, he knew that his image there had been a manifestation of his hope, changed from the manifestation of despair that the White had claimed. White Flynn was Flynn's despair taken over by the White. Issachar's hope had first appeared as a blue sparkle, so this was probably some manifestation of Flynn's hope and despair. The White must have merely taken his image. This cup was some guide to hope that was meant to help Masakado, but perhaps it could be used for another purpose.

To see about that, Issachar put the marble into the cup. It sparkled briefly, then got absorbed into the cup. When he took the cup with both hands and thought about the spirit of hope, he made the spirit appear again. Issachar looked back over at Flynn and Shesha. Flynn still looked tired, but looked back at him. The lotus still showed them. If Flynn's other enemies came upon him in this state, they would mercilessly take advantage of him.

Issachar went back to crouch by him again. "With Shesha with you, I feel like you may actually be safest right here."

"Yes, the lotus will help me keep the White from taking him again," Shesha said with confidence.

"Thanks," Issachar said, nodding. "Flynn, I know you've been resisting this, but you really should rest now that you're protected. Even if you just watch me for a while, stay here. I'll prove that your hope isn't unfounded."

While Flynn didn't say anything, he did nod at that. Since this spot was safe, Issachar made a quick check of his gauntlet. There were two messages from Jonathan, the first inviting them to breakfast at his house. The second asked if he could receive the message; they'd heard from Hikaru that they'd been taken by the White. Since he got the messages, hopefully he should be able to reply.

'I'm fine in spite of the circumstances; Flynn's not, but I've got him in a safe place now, with a powerful demon we can trust in acting as his guardian. It'll be difficult to get back home right now, but hopefully Flynn knows something once his mind clears up from the White's influence. Please let the others know, and reply to this message so I can see if I can keep communicating with you all.

'Since we're both away, I'd like you three to help Naverre with building a strong bond between Mikado and Tokyo. The angels, demons, and gods that are active in the world want humans to rely on them so they can control everything. Flynn wants to prove that we humans can make our own future independent of their plans. For that, we need to have everyone working together in spite of our many differences. Anything you can do towards that, or towards weakening the forces against humanity, would be great for when we can return.

'Good luck, and I hope we can return home soon -Issachar'

"I'll be going now, so wait for me," Issachar said, patting Flynn's arm. He got up and left the area that Shesha was protecting. Once he heard the whispering again, he called out, "Hoy!"

The white forest quieted; he felt like an unseen crowd had all eyes on him.

"I don't agree with the things you've been saying, especially that I'm not going to make a difference," Issachar said to them. "I know you had something planned for us, so show it to me! I'll prove myself."

"There is no point to showing those things anymore," one voice of the White said.

"Humans claim to prize learning, but they will not learn. Ignorance will be how people unite their cries for a true solution."

"Your solution is cowardice," Issachar retorted.

"You will definitely not learn," the White said. "But he is watching you, still resistant to us. Very well, if you wish to see what the truth is, you will see it alone."

"I will prove his hopes right," Issachar insisted as the forest faded away into a different place.

* * *

It had been strange to notice how quiet things were once Shesha drove the White out of his mind. This place was as silent and still as he remembered it. Yet his mind was buzzing with uncontrollable thoughts. They were going to send Issachar off to the other worlds on his own? When Flynn had first been through everything, the White had given him mimics of Jonathan and Walter to assist him. He doubted those people were actually his friends because they didn't remember certain things and his friends didn't remember those worlds. Of course, there wouldn't be much time after his return before the two of them sacrificed themselves.

There was always an insistence that he close his eyes during the fusions for Merkabah and Lucifer. But he could remember the sounds, disturbingly close to being consumed painfully. And there were the times that Krishna let him hear Shesha devour the souls of humanity in preparation for the Cosmic Egg. Now Shesha was with him, could crush him by wrapping tighter around him. He wasn't though. He was staying close and humming, something Flynn didn't know snakes could do.

Lately, he'd had doubts about if his situation was good for him. He might become detached from his humanity, like what may have happened to Krishna. He might always have to be on duty to protect humanity, like Masakado was. Right now, though, it put Shesha at his side, not Krishna's. Flynn felt grateful for that, for the oddly comforting hums and the assurance that Shesha couldn't be used for the Cosmic Egg plan now. He should do as Issachar suggested and rest.

What was going to happen to Issachar? The strength of himself and his team might be enough for him to survive the Law timeline, barely enough. But it wouldn't be enough for the Chaos timeline, not yet. He could get that strong, but he'd be risking his life and there might be no one to back him up in a bad situation. Same for the rest; Flynn wasn't sure what Tokyo and Mikado would be like now and their other friends were now on their own too. He should trust them. They were probably in a less dangerous situation. But if they got in a bad situation too, he couldn't be there to protect them now. He also couldn't dissuade them if they got persuaded to other causes. They should have reasons to keep neutral, but he couldn't be certain.

He should trust them all. They should realize the stakes by now. But, what if…

Flynn tried to focus on the lotus, get lost in watching it like before. It felt like it was trying to comfort him as before, even with this new ability to show what Issachar was doing. Right, he could just watch and not have to think about anything. Or do anything; he'd frozen up entirely when brought here, even once his thoughts stopped being drowned out by the White.

What had happened to Masakado? Flynn should have recognized that the White might try to do something about him. But then, what reason did he have to suspect that anything could truly threaten Masakado? Even in his weakened state, he wasn't daunted by anything. Flynn hadn't planned on contacting him so soon. Masakado had come out when called anyhow because of his trust in Flynn as his accepted summoner. With that trust, the White made all of this happen.

His plan to separate Mikado from Tokyo safely had worked almost perfectly. They needed a being more powerful than Masakado to perform such a miracle, or a certain group of people tied together on a spiritual level who did not favor one over the other. Thankfully, his friends and the two Hearts already agreed with him on those grounds. But this was too soon, maybe far too soon. Could Mikado and Tokyo accept each other as neighbors, eventually one whole?

Flynn should have faith in them. But he should also be back there, guiding the right people to meet each other and make connections, guiding the right events to happen, guiding the people to a truly better future. While he'd seen how good and noble anyone could be, he'd also seen how awful and corrupt anyone could be as well. Good people like Fujiwara inspired others and could lead them to greater things than any demon could do; bad people like Tayama corrupted others and could lead them to do greater evil than any demon could. The White had made his plan work, but then they'd left everyone on their own and expected things to go horribly wrong.

It was his plan, but it was out of his control now. He was… he was scared at that thought. It might lead him to start things over yet again, back to the start at Lake Mikado where Issachar would be his confused old self who denied himself so much because of what he had been taught was wrong. In that state, he'd be too afraid to accept his love. And Jonathan, Walter, and Isabeau would be back to their naive starts too, still narrow-minded and at risk of growing even narrower into their expected roles. And if he had to go back, he could still be like this. The people of old Mikado would think he was possessed by a demon again and lock him up, unable to do anything useful since he'd already done all the research.

He had been out of control of himself; Flynn could still vividly feel that moment of terror when his own hand threatened to shoot himself in the head. And when he'd come out of a daze to find himself trapped in a black forest with Krishna. There was something different with Krishna then, his eyes gleaming with some sick thrill from cornering him although Flynn must have made it clear he didn't want to be there. If he'd had a chance, Krishna might have overtaken his mind just for the fun of it. But he'd been blocked by the White, who kept asking, how much more do you intend to make yourself suffer? You could end it…

 _You're opening a gap for them to attack you again. Stop that_.

Who was that now? Shaken up but freezing on the spot again, Flynn looked back at the silk lotus. It was floating off his hand now.

Before he could figure it out, the lotus spoke to him again. _You would say that to yourself, if you were well and saw yourself like this. But you are ill and your entire self is exhausted. We're taking care of you as that is the will of Vishnu. I've seen that you don't like being idle, yes, but continuing without a restful sleep will not help. I'll help you sleep if you accept it. None of your enemies can touch you right now. So breathe deeply and start letting go of your thoughts._

They were here on behalf of Vishnu, even though Flynn had not spoken with him directly. That should speak more of that god's true nature than anything Krishna did. Then, perhaps it wasn't so bad being connected to him like this. It could be some complex secret plot by another god who wanted to take the souls of humanity for himself…

But, he was exhausted physically, mentally, and spiritually. Vishnu and his two companions here seemed genuinely benevolent. The lotus was also a gift from Issachar… he had given it to him because he'd noticed that the flower calmed him. He really should trust in Issachar… and these two… and his friends, and all the people he was trying to save. He would protect them, when the time for that came.

For now, Flynn followed the lotus' guidance to letting his thoughts go as much as he could so he could rest.

* * *

 _A/N: The Terminator is from SMT II, where it's actually a Messian enemy, not a Antivirus/Vaccine demon. But it's an amusing enemy, so I decided to throw it in as the one that was blocking Hallelujah's phone._

 _Also, this part in the story caused me a lot of debate on who to send into the alternate histories. The idea that the Jonathan and Walter who show up there aren't actually Flynn's friends comes from their argument at the start of Blasted Tokyo where they both remember him choosing them at the Lilith split. Here, Flynn wanted them and Isabeau to see the alternate histories so they knew better what was going on. But the thing that made me send Issachar alone was that the White are the ones in control. As they say, it is more to their benefit to go against this part of Flynn's plan and try to get Issachar killed off._


	62. Suicide Cult

**Chapter 62: Suicide Cult**

One thought aspiring to purity was the best means of achieving peace. They answered the calling of a higher power. These are the results.

* * *

When Issachar woke up, he was still aching from yesterday's injuries. Possibly from sleeping on the floor of this terminal room too. But it had been the only safe place he had found after several hours of battling demons in a nearly barren land. He checked over himself; his wounds seemed to be healing fine. Then he brought out some things he'd gotten yesterday here, one of the bottles of water and an MRE packet that claimed to be food. It did satisfy his hunger at least.

He'd had some strange dreams that he still recalled. There had been a forest, though it hadn't been clear what forest. While it was evening, there were a number of people along the paths. They were dismal, likely voices of the White. They had tried to remind him of how he'd felt when he'd been of a similar mindset. But he didn't need that reminder. There was nothing new to the dream, so he could forget it.

Once he was done, he headed out to another shelter in the same crater as the terminal room. Issachar hadn't been able to sleep there because of demons and ghosts in here. These were the first structures that he'd found in this immense sun-baked desert, though, so he wanted to check both of them out. Since there were ghosts, he shifted to his angel form to have a better chance at talking with them.

The shelter was quiet, littered with crates but no living beings. There was a ghost near the entrance. "Hoy, where is this?" Issachar asked.

"Shh," the ghost hissed. "Shibuya is now a place of silence, to not bother anyone. We don't suffer anymore. Don't make us suffer at all."

"Okay, I just wanted to know," he said.

"There's nothing worth knowing," the ghost said. "The things you know bring you sorrow and problems. If you want to know things, leave this place."

"Is there anyone here that might talk to me?" Issachar asked. There wasn't a clear influence of the White here, but this sounded just like them.

"Quiet," the ghost repeated. "Although if you really want to talk for some reason, you can go downstairs to talk to the loving goddess Ixtab, or down the hall there to a room where chatty people can chat. Otherwise, be quiet."

"All right, if you want," he said quietly.

The room the ghost indicated was the last room on that hall; he got reprimanded several times by other ghosts who wanted utter silence. And when he found the room, there was only one ghost in there, a woman. "Oh, an angel," she said. "That's a surprise. Did you come to stop Pluto?"

Issachar shook his head. "I don't know, who is Pluto?"

"How could you not know of Pluto?" she asked. "He's dominated this place since the bombs dropped."

"I just arrived yesterday," Issachar said. "I came in here hoping for information, but the guy in front said they wanted things to be silent."

"Yeah, that sucks," she said. "Then you won't know anything. So then, there was a nasty war a while back where angels and some people were saying that those who were worthy were going to be taken out of the world so they could be returned to paradise. People tried to be seen as worthy; I admit that I did too. But then every nation that had nukes launched them all off at once, causing the wasteland you see outside.

"A few people here in Tokyo actually survived the nuclear global genocide. The heroes Flynn and Kiyoharu claimed that God had spared us so we can prove our faith and make ourselves worthy. Mostly Kiyoharu, but Flynn never argued it. And then Pluto appeared about a month after the genocide. The surface was already irradiated to hell; Pluto took control of the radiation and kept it from fading. Based on past disasters, the radiation should have gone down enough that nature would take back over. The massive amount of it may have taken much longer to go away, yeah, but Pluto has been focused on killing off what people are left."

"The radiation was a kind of poison, right?" Issachar asked.

The ghost nodded. "Yeah, we had to live in gas masks because you breathe it in and you're dead. Just not immediately, it's a slow and painful death, guaranteed in these conditions cause there's no equipment and medicines to treat it with."

"All right, so Pluto just wants to kill off any survivors," he said. Then it would be good to destroy Pluto. Although, he hadn't been wearing a gas mask this entire time. He'd been battling demons too, but he didn't feel any pain or weakness.

"Seem so, it's too extreme for any test. It's caused arguments even here, of if God had sent Pluto to get rid of us as impurities or if Pluto is the devil who just hates us. But the rest have all decided that they're sick of any noise and discussion. It is what Ixtab promised us, quiet with no more suffering. But then, we all had to die for her promises to come true, or so she said."

"Ixtab killed everyone here?" Issachar asked, shocked at that. It was clear that he was the only living being here, but, "The other ghosts have called her a benevolent goddess."

"No, she didn't kill everyone," the ghost said. "But she convinced everyone here to commit mass suicide. Even me, I bought into it at the time. She said there was no hope for the world and that we were just hiding fruitlessly while waiting for death. So it would be better for us to stop waiting, to take our fate into our own hands. What do you think of that?"

"Didn't anyone try to kill Pluto?" he asked while considering it. If you had to live in a gas mask, how did you eat and drink, or do other things? It would be difficult to keep hope like this. They must have even less than the people of Tokyo in his world.

"Sure, some tried, and died," she said. "Even the great hero Flynn died because of challenging Pluto. He didn't die in that battle; I hear he was sent back to the other major shelter where he took a few months to waste away. As far as I've heard, no one has made any better progress against Pluto. We also haven't gotten any angels who brought us messages of how to be saved, not even you since you don't know anything."

"Well I don't think suicide is a good option, though I know how tempting it can be," Issachar said. "If there's absolutely nothing else you can do, perhaps, but you might still be mistaken. Did Flynn say anything about his battle with Pluto? Hearing such things might point out how to finally defeat him."

"I wish I knew, because it'd be another thing to talk about. And I have to agree, I don't think this suicide thing helped. I get bored out of my mind because nobody wants to talk now; they keep trying what Ixtab tells them to feel at peace. But it's not working. She's really convincing, enough that she could sell refrigerators to Eskimos. So nothing has actually changed. We're stuck here in the shelter not able to do anything but wait, but we don't even have death to bail us out now."

"You should be given rest until you can start your next life," he said. "I'd go take out Pluto if nature can heal the world from what it is now."

After a moment, the woman said, "You know, I'd take that. But if you're an angel willing to do that, then Pluto wasn't sent by God?"

He shrugged at that. "It's not certain because there's some demons capable of pretending to be God, or even believe they're God to the point that some angels follow them. But I follow the God that loves humanity, so if I help you, I'm sure you'll be taken care of well."

"You seem like a different angel than the others I've met," she said. "They acted nice but were faking it to get what they want, like some awful people I've met. You act nice too, but the light you give off makes me feel like you're being sincerely nice."

"I don't see a point to faking being nice," he said. "Hopefully the others understand once I begin singing."

"It would have been nice to keep such optimism," she said. "Go right ahead."

That worried him briefly, but Issachar felt like he should try. When he started singing, the woman's ghost went quiet, then started to cry. It felt like she'd really wanted to keep hope, that someone would defeat Pluto and the future would get better. But others around her had given up and made her feel foolish for continuing to hope. It was a relief to her to accept his song and the hope it offered. Before she faded away and returned to God, she briefly touched his gauntlet to send on a message.

While he'd been singing for her, the other ghosts in the shelter heard him. They gathered up outside the room to listen out of notice, or so they thought. Issachar turned his attention to them and nearly got drowned out by their screams and yells. After so long of believing that silence was their only way out, the song was wretched and painful to them. They did not want this, not even if it offered hope and forgiveness. Wanting him to stop singing, they gathered into a massive ghost to crush him into silence.

He used the song to speak to them. Did they truly want silence? They didn't seem happy or at peace. The end they had sought through Ixtab was not an end, just a stasis with no end. They should have a chance to start over. Actually, this whole world should have a chance to start over, not be kept in a stasis of death.

There was a divide in the group now. About half already believed him, as their situation hadn't changed accepting the silence of death. Many wanted to believe for similar reasons. But the few were the loudest, clinging to their fellows to keep them together. They fully believed in Ixtab's teachings, that they were better off dead than alive, better with silence. Everything should be silence, everyone should be silent. Everyone.

But not everyone here wanted silence. It wasn't solving any problems for them. They weren't moving on; they weren't doing anything. Silence was good occasionally, but not always. At this point, they should move on. They would have a second chance.

That was nonsense! There was nothing worthwhile in the world, no future worthy of hope. All there was was continual tragedy and senseless cruelty, unrelenting darkness. The best way for everyone was to silence the world, stopping it entirely. They would build the silence here.

That was nonsense. The world could heal itself. And with him here now, there were new things to try. In another lifetime, they could make the world better. But they had to let go of their despair in order to have that chance. Those who wanted to let go should let go; those who wanted to keep trying silence could stay here, but hopefully they'd find a way to true peace.

While there were screams from those still resisting, the ones willing to let go broke away to join him. The complainers fled, finding themselves in the minority. Issachar then sang for those who remained to put them at rest. From spending over twenty-five years in this lifeless landscape, they had a weariness much like Flynn's. They had endured the massive blow of the nuclear genocide followed by a long wait that was fruitless so far. This world was nearly dead, much worse off than his own. Pluto needed to be taken out for this world to have any chance of reviving.

Ixtab showed up at the back of the room with her faithful followers once he had dealt with the other ghosts. She had her hair swept over her face and a rope tied into a noose in her hand. "How dare you steal my souls from me, angel!" she snapped. "You're the ones who ruined this world. I've given these people peace and you stole them back into slavery."

"I gave them freedom from silence and stasis," he replied. "You changed their prison, that's all."

"Give their souls back to me!" Ixtab whipped the rope end of the noose at him.

Issachar backed off and fired arrow rain at her with his guns. There really wasn't enough room here to keep out of her range. Or, was there? As Ixtab was moving in to attack again, Issachar recalled how he traveled to the Great Will, shifting his state of mind. With that, he backed up further through the wall and out of her reach. He had to put himself back to normal to continue fighting. But in these halls, he could force her to chase him.

Ixtab tried at a few points to send her allies to surround him through the walls. Issachar tried to spare them in case he could convince them to listen. But as they grew less human over the fight, he decided he had to force them out with expel magic. Ixtab fell not too long after, leaving the shelter truly silent. Issachar took a moment to make sure the souls were in the Great Will's care, then checked on the message from the friendly ghost.

'Thanks for showing up to help us; I feel safe now. I hope that when I am reborn, I work to make things better around me too. Since you're willing to challenge Pluto, I updated your map in here. There's one other shelter that I know has survivors who should be alive. You should be able to find more information there, including if Flynn said anything about Pluto. Not far from there is Pluto's castle. It will be a long trek to get to those areas, but there are a few other shelters in Tokyo that should be relatively safe even if they're uninhabited as far as I know.

'Also, I'm leaving you with a keycode to a locked room in this shelter. We kept weapons and supplies in there so we could defend ourselves from Pluto's minions. Even if you can't use all of it, would you please take what you can to the other shelter? They could use it and it won't do any good lying around here when those minions have no interest in a ghost town like this. You'll probably have to fight Ixtab to get to it, but it's better if she is gone too.

'Good luck, angel, I hope you do make our world a better place. -Mina'

"I hope I do too," he said. He would need the information from the other shelter, and giving them the supplies sounded good. The ghost in front had said Ixtab was usually downstairs. He checked down there for the door that the keycode would open.

They had a lot of supplies left, including foods and medicines. He took all of what was there for the other shelter, able to get it all into his gauntlet's storage. Of the weapons, he checked through what they had and found a number of handguns. The gauntlet rated most of them as being better than his guns. He'd promised the boy in Shibuya that he'd practice with the one gun… but then, the battles he'd run into so far were too difficult for practice. Putting his guns into storage, he picked out two higher-rated ones that matched each other in model. That should make duel-wielding smoother. The rest could go to the other shelter as well.

Checking the map, he felt like he could make good progress towards the inhabited shelter. With the stronger demons around, he might not make it all the way there in one day. But he could make it to the in-between shelter. Issachar went to see if he could activate the terminal next door. It didn't respond to what he knew to try.

"Trekking across this desert it is," he said to himself, then headed out.

The terminal and shelter were in a crater, leading to a bright hazy landscape with few landmarks in sight. But he had a plan. At the top of it, he checked his map to make sure of where his path went. The sun was high overhead, so it wouldn't be usable as a guide for a few hours. But once he got to the rim's edge on his path, he spotted the rim of another crater in the distance. Good, he should be able to use that to keep himself oriented. Issachar headed out, keeping watchful for Pluto's minions and other demons.

* * *

As Nikkari was still helping Asahi with her battle strategies, Hallelujah partnered up with Nanashi to talk with him. "This whole thing sucks, but I've gotten lucky," he said after explaining some things. Then he brushed his pink hair aside. "Relatively so, at least."

"You know of any way of get back to being human?" Nanashi asked.

He shook his head. "This hasn't happened to me before. I can't change form, so I can't do that to get a doctor's help. Guess I deserve it in some fashion."

"Nah, don't think that way," Nanashi said, then rubbed his head. "Gabriel seems like a real stinker. You can make up for your mistakes, but she won't admit to it."

"You all right?" Hallelujah asked, noticing something was strange with him. "You didn't meet Gabriel."

He mostly closed his eyes. For a moment, it seemed like his spirit was overlapping itself. "It wouldn't be the only terrible thing she's done. I kind of remember… another lifetime."

"Huh, so maybe you did meet her before," he said. "What kind of life was it?"

"It was from around when the Firmament when up," Nanashi said. "Um, you believe me?"

Hallelujah nodded. "Yeah, I can sort of see it on your spirit now, and back when we were watching the rain. I guess when you remember stuff from that life, it shows."

"If he says that, then I'll believe it too," Toki said, unexpectedly just behind them.

Both of them jumped at that. "Gah, where did you come from?!" Hallelujah asked, trying not to fall off balance.

She chuckled briefly at that, even smiling. "I'm trained to be stealthy."

"Well good thing you don't have that mask because that would've scared me half to death," Hallelujah said.

"You guys keep talking about some mask," Nanashi said.

"Yeah, she had this huge oni mask when I first met her," Hallelujah said. "All spiky and scowling, and then she was wearing entirely black so that you only saw the mask."

"It also suppressed my thoughts outside certain ranges, and my emotions," Toki said. "So it's good that it's gone. But what do you remember of Gabriel? We should be prepared for the return of those angels."

After a moment, the overlap of his spirit settled back down. "She didn't like anybody who thought for themselves, or dared to have an opinion that wasn't in the narrow range of acceptability," Nanashi said. "She would point out those who were pure and good as an example of what everyone should be, but wasn't warm or caring in the least to even them. And the people she called pure were mindless, content to accept anything they were given. I wouldn't call them idiots because it wasn't their fault they were that way, but it's what they were pretty much."

"That sounds like her," Hallelujah said, feeling bitter at the reminder. "She told me that everyone ought to be a saint. Not exactly idiots, but selfless and immaculately good, and willing to be a martyr for their beliefs." Would she have called him a martyr later on? Or just forget about him? Maybe whichever served her ends better.

"Actually, demons are the same," Nanashi said with a frown. "They're happy to teach you things, for steep prices they explain vaguely. But when you try your own ideas, they try to ruin you with it."

"That sounds right," Toki said. "I remember one time when a woman came to Lilith with a new idea for training. It was good, but the woman died later that day and was forgotten as a weakling. The next day, Lilith taught the others the woman's training method while claiming it was hers."

"Demons aren't the only ones who act like that," Hallelujah said.

"Hey there, Nikkari!" a woman called out from ahead. "Good to see that you guys made it through okay."

"Hello Nozomi, good to see you too," Nikkari called back. "How are things here?"

"Quiet for the most part," she said, then gestured to the door of the imposing castle ahead. "The Demifiend has one of the other fiends standing guard at the door; hardly anyone is going to be invading that castle. It does make for impressive photos."

"Those would be good to see later," Nikkari said. "So what's the plan?"

"Fujiwara gave me several messages to pass on, depending on how this goes," Nozomi said. "He also said that you all could head back to Kinshicho after this, since you found Hallelujah and they've got the base at Kasumigaseki set up. For now, the rest of you hang back and keep alert. Hallelujah, we'll go up to the door guard and see what happens."

"Sure, this shouldn't be trouble since he invited me," Hallelujah said. Still, he felt nervous. He hadn't spoken with Tayama much, but he had always been confidant and in control. It seemed like nobody could genuinely threaten him, but then this Demifiend had killed him to take control. What would he be like?

"I hope it goes well," Asahi said, smiling and trying not to seem too worried. They all were, to varying degrees.

"Me too, but it should be fine," Hallelujah said, not even waving as he headed off to the entrance with Nozomi. He should be back before long this time.

A horse so pale that one could see its bones was standing near the entrance, drinking from a water trough that seemed out of place with the surreal thorny architecture this building had now. At the door itself, a tall skeleton wearing a black cloak stood guard; there was a massive scythe leaning against the doorframe like the fiend didn't see them as a threat. "What brings you here?" he asked.

"Hi, uh, I got a message asking me to come here," he said, coming up to show it on his phone. "I'm Hallelujah, of the Ashura-kai."

"And I'm Nozomi, of the Hunter's Association," Nozomi said. "Since your group has control of the Ashura-kai, we'd like to speak with your leader about the terms of their agreement with the rest of Tokyo."

"I'll let him know you're here," the fiend said to him. "As for you Hunters, I can send your smartphone a document with the terms we decided on. If you want to negotiate them, you will have to reserve a meeting with the Demifiend. Review them first."

"All right, we'll do this," she said, bringing out her phone. "Do you have a reference for our rules on making requests through the Association? We were going to allow your group to continue making requests, as long as a human handles matters and they follow the usual rules."

"Yes, that was among the Ashura-kai's files when we took over," the fiend said, reaching over to tap the phone. It immediately beeped with a received file. "This meeting shouldn't take over an hour. As long as you all don't make trouble, you may stay here until they're done."

"Sure, got it," Nozomi said.

After a glance back at the door, the fiend snapped his fingerbones to open it. "Go on in; he's in the first room."

The entrance hall was enormous, much larger than it should have been. The arches could have been full thorn trees, bent into a shape to support this strange place. Near one of the walls, a fiend who wore a black cloak like the other was hovering in the air. But he wasn't a skeleton; he was shadowed so that it was difficult to see who might be hidden there. Although, something seemed odd about him.

"Hello Hallelujah," he said. "I'm the Demifiend. Do you know why you've been called here?"

"Not really, but it must have something to do with this change," he answered.

"It's because you were listed under a special group within the Ashura-kai, comprised of half-demons," the Demifiend said.

His eyes went wide at that. "Huh, really? There's others?"

"Not now," he said. "There weren't many, but there were plans to make a unit of enforcers that took advantage of a half-demon's powers. The records show that none they were tracking have yet survived to adulthood. You've come the furthest."

"That sucks," Hallelujah said. But what did that mean for himself?

The Demifiend seemed to be looking at him; his eyes were like embers. "You seem stable, so I wouldn't be surprised if you continue to be an exception. You also don't have the spirit of a thug, which they expected."

"I don't think I'd be a good thug," he said.

"That's not a bad thing," he said. "I notice you're using a tattoo for summoning. Does the Demon Summoning Program work for you?"

He shook his head. "It comes up with an error when it scans for demons and detects me, even in my human form."

Although he seemed to put his hand to his chin, nothing of him showed outside the cloak. "Now that's promising. Do you know the specific error report number?"

"No, does it matter?"

"Quite so, as there is one error in the Demon summoning Program specifically tied to half-demon half-human individuals. It only gets triggered by one who has a good balance between demonic power and human will, as that balance confuses both demons and the program. That means that you will ultimately choose what you are; no one can make you go full demon or full human."

"Really?" That was a good thing to know. Although given what he'd been talking about with Nanashi and Toki, it was a little strange.

"If you knew how, this time of your life would be ideal for doing so. I don't have time to talk about that, but I know of a half-demon in Tokyo who escaped the Ashura-kai's notice. He's older than you and also triggers that error, so he may be able to help you."

"Who is he?" Hallelujah asked. "I would like to talk to him."

"He's a Hunter, Naoki," the Demifiend said. "He's fought most of the other fiends and tried to get a duel with me. You can probably find him through the Association."

"Sure, I can ask around," he said. Although, he was someone who fought the fiends? Why hadn't he heard of this Naoki before?

"Are you going to stay with the Ashura-kai?" he asked. "The supervisor you report to, Abe, has not reported in for several days and you have not signed the message that you've reviewed our new policies."

"Sorry, my phone's been possessed for a few days," he said. "And I haven't seen Abe for a while either. He did set me to a mission to keep an eye on a potentially important person."

"Who is that?"

"A boy named Nanashi from Kinshicho. He's become a prodigy Hunter in that time. The teacher we've been working with lets him work on his own most of the time, even though he's probably younger than me. And it's been about two weeks since he got the program, but he's already got a level thirty team of demons. That's better than the other two students have done."

"That could be useful for you to keep doing. Now, I think there's something you've been wanting to ask me. What is it?"

It took him a second to realize what he meant. "Oh… this isn't your real form, is it? I think you're in this room, but you might not be right here in front of me."

The Demifiend chuckled at that. "You're sharp. Yes, this is just an illusion. Most humans and demons don't notice and I'd rather they not realize that. Hmm, I can tell that you're stuck in demon form. What happened to your human form?"

"I got caught in the Kagome Tower explosion," he said, hoping that he wouldn't want further explanations. "Might've died as just a human."

"Have you tried visiting the healing spring?" he said, gesturing to an odd red machine on the wall. "The lady of the fountain does not discriminate and is one of the best healers you could find."

"I haven't heard of her," he said, taking a closer look at the device. It was similar to the terminals.

The Demifiend activated the machine, creating a door in its place. "Come on, you may as well have this taken care of."

On passing through the door, they ended up inside a spring, underwater with many colorful fish and plants around them. There was a cool humidity to the room, but despite the fish swimming around, there wasn't actually water here. The lady of the fountain was floating in the water-air like some kind of mermaid. Except, she was no mermaid at all. She was a pale humanoid demon, wearing only a white veil over her head. While it covered her face, it didn't cover her body. Hallelujah took a moment to stay calm and respectful; how did he end up in this kind of situation again?

"Welcome to the fountain of life, where all of your aches and weariness will melt away," the lady said. "What brings you here?"

As before, the person with him didn't even notice the nudity. "Hello, would you heal up Hallelujah here and his demon partner?"

"Both of them?" she asked to confirm. "That will be five and a half million macca."

"Five and a half million?" Hallelujah asked, shocked at the cost.

"Your human self is in dire condition," she explained. "It requires a great deal more effort to heal a human with a physical body, especially as you are."

"I'll pay for them," the Demifiend said. "But I do expect silence on my illusions; it will be for a greater purpose."

"Of course, my lord," the lady of the fountain said.

He could have just threatened him with silence, Hallelujah thought. If the illusion was a mere projection, it was still too powerful for him to think of defeating. "You are my boss right now, so sure, I'll keep it secret," he said.

The Demifiend nodded. "Good. Review the new associate agreement and let me know with the acknowledgment form of whether you intend to stay or stick solely with the Hunter Association. Although the most important point of that is agreeing that death rules this world."

"Is that so?" Hallelujah said, feeling a chill in his blood at that statement.

"It has been so since the war that destroyed civilization twenty-five years ago," he said "Or fifteen centuries depending on where you came from. That is how things are and if you don't agree, you're out." The Demifiend chose to leave then.

"It certainly seems like that sometimes," he said quietly, although he still didn't like it. Maybe he wouldn't stay with the Ashura-kai if that was going to be their official stance.

"Dismiss that for now and close your eyes," the lady of the fountain said, emitting a calming aura. "The waters of my fountain will quickly revive your partner, but you will need to be put to sleep for your healing to be done."

"Um, my friends might get worried because this wasn't supposed to take an hour or more," he said, turning to her. And then he glanced to the side so he wasn't looking right at her.

"It won't, you just need to be asleep for a few minutes," she said. "You also might not be fully alert in either form for a few hours, longer with your human form. But this will restore your ability to shift between forms at will."

"All right, thank you," he said, closing his eyes.

"It is my duty," she said. "You should thank the Demifiend for covering for you."

"Right," he said. But should he? Or should he avoid him and his Ashura-kai?

* * *

After a while of waiting and watching, Nanashi had to know something. "Yes, I'll be careful," he answered Nikkari quietly, hoping not to attract the attention of the girls who were chatting with Nozomi.

"You're unlikely to get another chance, so you'd better go ahead," he said with a nod. "Hope it goes well."

"Me too," he said, then went over to the entrance to Ichigaya.

The situation was relatively safe, he reassured himself. But Nanashi had felt a quiet dread on recognizing just who was standing guard here. Toma had said that he couldn't tell the difference between the four Riders of the Apocalypse on their own. But the pale horse and the giant scythe here made it clear that this was Pale Rider. If he wasn't going to attack, then this was a chance to talk to him.

He decided he should be polite and bow once Pale Rider glanced at him. "Excuse me, but may I ask you a question?"

"You may always ask questions," Pale Rider said. "Just don't expect answers."

That was something to keep in mind. "Of course. Do you know what happened in Minami Sunamichi?"

"Nearly all of the shelter town died from a mix of illness, hunger, and demonic violence," he answered.

"I know that," Nanashi said. "But how did that happen? What really killed everyone?"

"What does it matter to you?" Pale Rider asked, as though it didn't matter to him.

"Because I was there, and so were you," Nanashi said.

Pale Rider looked at him for a moment; Nanashi didn't let himself flinch even though those memories resurfaced. Then the fiend nodded. "I see, you were that boy. I didn't recognize you. Yes, I was there, but the cause of all that eludes me. That's unusual. I can feel the source as being within the factory there. However, it's a highly toxic environment that will kill any mortal who goes inside, within five minutes on average. If you or anyone else wants to investigate that place, you need strong protection against poison, including a mask with an air filter."

That was disappointing, even if it was good to know. "All right, thanks for telling me that much," he said.

"You spoke to me with respect and courage, so it's fine to tell you things," Pale Rider said. "I should remain here for the foreseeable future, as long as the Demifiend is here. If you discover what happened there, I would be interested in hearing of it."

"I'll keep that in mind," Nanashi said.

Hallelujah came out then, nearly an hour after he'd gone in. He seemed tired, but there was something good in that: he was once again human. Because of that, they headed back to get to Kinshicho while Nozomi headed back for Kasumigaseki to report to Fujiwara.


	63. A Suspect Offer

**Chapter 63: A Suspect Offer**

Akira was having a bad day. He woke up early from a vivid dream of white, people telling him that the world was not worth saving. If he kept pushing hope, he and everyone under his care would slowly suffer to death. There was no hope of anything changing. While he didn't like thinking like that, it was something he heard others muttering, usually right before they disappeared and never returned. And there wasn't much to base hope on these days. Food supplies were running low and only a handful of people were capable of going out of the crater the shelter was in. It was getting harder and harder to just survive.

For himself, he wasn't going to survive much longer. Akira had led the last raid against Pluto's Castle, hoping that this might be the time they won. Then a large Pluto soldier paralyzed him and stole his gas mask. If he'd grabbed it back immediately, he might have not doomed himself. But he made a gamble to defeat the soldier instead, then press on with their mission. It had failed after two deaths and other injuries forced them back. This morning had been more painful than before. While he could usually get around the shelter fine, it had been too painful getting up and walking to leave his room today.

That led to someone asking him straight who would lead the shelter after he was gone. Akira had been making sure that the shelter wouldn't fall apart when he died. But, who would be a good leader? Kiyoharu thought he was leading them according to God's word. Kiyoharu was also childish despite being in his upper forties, and confided to him a few times that he was still waiting to hear God's word again. Following God's word had led them here, so Akira was reluctant to hand over leadership to his friend. Besides, he'd been hit by Pluto's poison about a week ago. He'd live a few months longer than Akira, but only that.

There weren't many other good options, as much as he didn't want to say. There were people who were good at one or two things, leading them to take care of those duties. But for leading and organizing everyone? There were only a couple people assertive enough to for that, but neither were very organized. If he had more time, he could train them to be better. But it was hard to say how much time he had left, which made it all the more tempting to not decide and give up on everything.

When a knock came to his door, he lazily brushed his hair down to not be completely sloppy. "Come on in," he said, hoping they didn't want to talk long.

One of the scouting party that had gone out early this morning came in. "Akira, we've captured an angel with a demonica gauntlet."

That was shocking news. "Really? An angel appeared?"

He nodded. "Yes, she did. Well, we didn't really capture her as much as ran into her in the wastes and she was headed here anyhow. She came from the shelter we lost contact with a while ago. They've all perished, but she says she put their souls to rest and is following a request of them to bring their supplies here. She's up with the vault keeper passing over a bunch of stuff, including food and weapons."

"What's her game here?" Akira wondered aloud. Angels had done terrible things while acting as if they were doing the best for everyone. They were still waiting to see if the children taken away would return. If they did, it was a horrible failure of fulfilling the promise that they'd be taken to a better world.

"I feel like she might truly be trying to help us this time," the scout said. "She wants to challenge Pluto, but doesn't know much about our world. More than that, remember what it was like meeting with the angels during the war?"

Akira nodded. "It was intimidating and you felt like you had to be on your best behavior around them."

"Well this angel isn't like that. Being near her is like being near a good friend who always encourages you. She didn't talk down to us either, and offered to fight with us without being asked. And we really need what she brought, so there was no reason to hold her captive."

"I suppose not," Akira said, considering it. Deceptive auras and charms were something to worry about with demons and angels. But they really did need more supplies. For that, they could treat her fairly. "Could you send her down to talk with me once she's done transferring what she brought?"

"Sure thing. Do you need anything?"

Maybe he looked as bad as he felt. "Would you take my water pitcher and refill it for me?"

"Sure, I'll get that right away," he said, taking the pitcher off the table.

"Thanks," he said, getting up carefully. His neighbors were used to seeing him casually, but a visitor called for a little cleaning up. Especially since with the other shelter being reported dead, there should be no visitors arriving.

When the angel was brought in, he could feel the friendly aura that the scout reported. She wasn't the unearthly beauty or bizarreness that angels supposedly were, being a fairly normal looking woman with white wings and a blue coat over chainmail. "Hello, I'm Issachar," she said, giving a bow. "And you were Akira, the leader of this shelter?"

That sounded like it should be a masculine name. But then, gender didn't seem to matter to angels. "Yes, thank you for bringing those supplies to us," Akira said, smiling. "Go ahead and sit down. It's unfortunate to hear that the other shelter has perished. They were the only other survivors that we know of."

She looked sad at that. "Yes, they got convinced by a demon goddess to take their own lives. It didn't improve their situation, and even turned a few of their ghosts into demons. But they're at peace now. I hope I can help you all by getting rid of Pluto."

"That would be a big help, although it'll be hard to move on with the world in this state," Akira said. "But who knows… getting rid of Pluto might heal the world instead of cursing it." It might also blast the area with poison that would kill them off even with gas masks and protective clothing. But there wasn't a lot else to try at this time.

"Right," Issachar said, smiling confidently. "But I want to know more about Pluto before I set out to its fortress. The one person I spoke to for long didn't know much, but she did tell me that the hero Flynn was here until he passed away. I'd like to hear about whatever you know about Pluto; I'm not from this time and Tokyo was an unfamiliar place to me."

"You're not even familiar with Tokyo?" he asked.

She shook her head. "I've been there, in my time, but it was a foreign place. I'm from the Kingdom of Mikado, as one of the samurai who protects the people."

Her tale was getting stranger as she kept speaking. A samurai? That wasn't how angels were ranked and recognized, at least as far as Akira knew. Kiyoharu might know something more. And yet, it was hard to doubt her. Part of that was her aura, which was definitely trying to reassure and comfort him. Maybe even console him, like she could feel his physical and emotional pains.

"I've never heard of Mikado, but you're definitely not from around here looking like that," Akira said. "And yes, Flynn did live here after the disaster that was God's Plan. He was very good at rallying spirits even as our situation only improved in small bits. Once he passed away, though, it's been tough to keep everyone going. I've fought against Pluto's forces too, how I came to be like this." He coughed after a build-up of tension from his throat. "Sorry, I shouldn't talk very long."

"That's fine," Issachar said as Akira took a drink of water. "Who should I speak with then? And are there any records of Flynn talking about Pluto?"

"Any of the scouts and fighters here should be able to help, whether they're active or not," Akira suggested. "And Flynn did keep a journal of his attempts at fighting Pluto. He wasn't much of a writer, but he tried to get anything important or possibly so recorded before he died. I'll ask Kiyoharu to lend it to you."

"Thanks, I'd like to take Pluto out quickly," she said before the door was knocked on again.

Not bothering to wait for an answer, Kiyoharu came in. "Akira! Have you heard? There's supposed to be an angel around!" Then he noticed Issachar there and gasped.

"Yes, we just started talking," Akira said, smiling at him. "Come on and join us."

"S-sure," Kiyoharu said, sitting down at the table. "Did you bring us word from God?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Issachar said. "I would if I could, but I got sent here by challenging my enemies. I may as well do what good I can, so I want to take out Pluto for you."

"Weren't you sent to us by God?" Kiyoharu asked. Akira felt sure he was going to harp on that until he got a satisfactory answer. How to help out Issachar…

"Probably, in their own way," she said. "I follow the God who loves humanity because I want to help people. Akira was just telling me that you had a journal from Flynn, describing his experiences with Pluto. I'd like to borrow that to read, please."

"Sure, I know where that is," he said. "But if you're going to fight it, then Pluto must not be from God as some people have claimed."

"That's not something I know of," Issachar said, looking down at the table. When she spoke again, something seemed different about her voice. "God is infinite, something humans nor angels can fully understand. He has many faces to help us understand, formed by our understanding. In the ancient past, these faces often became gods. God's Will, what one might call His core, loves all His creation.

"One of His faces was called His vengeful and jealous face, to explain disasters that seemed like punishments on humanity, and sometimes they were. This face began being used to discredit religious, social, and political factions, to inflict punishments without judgment, or to begin wars when the true cause of war was unsavory. Over many generations, this face grew enormously in influence, to the point where people began acknowledging the one face as the almighty God. And that face, being vengeful and jealous, had grown disgusted with humanity. That face of God is what you may have been dealing with, not the true Will of God."

That made sense to Akira, a good explanation for various events. He didn't think that Kiyoharu would accept it. Across the table, Kiyoharu was less excited than when he'd entered. "But if that's the case, how would anyone know which face of God is the real one?"

"Um…" Issachar put her hand to her chin. "Technically, all together they are the true God. If a face claims to be the sole God without the others, or above them, then they're false and possibly deluded. That's what I feel. What I said just before was the Great Will speaking through me."

Religious debates with Kiyoharu rarely went well. Akira disrupted it by saying, "We're glad to have angel like you on our side, but what kind of enemies do you have? We're constrained a lot by what Pluto's mechanical soldiers do, but we should be prepared if another force is coming."

"Well it's the White that brought me here and they're the personification of humanity's despair," she explained. "They won't show up and attack in battle like most demons. They attack passively with depression and your own emotions, trying to convince you that everything is pointless. If they challenge your people, you should work to keep up everyone's spirits."

"There is encouragement found in believing in God, in which there's no need to fear such despair," Kiyoharu said, seeming more confidant in having that to share.

"There is," Issachar agreed, which seemed to satisfy Kiyoharu. "Despair is a silent threat, though, one that can sneak up on anybody. Faith helps, but for many people, it's not enough to endure despair." She spoke with a certainty that seemed unusual. Did she know that from experience?

It even managed to get through to Kiyoharu, who briefly seemed mature as he said, "That's true, and faith can be difficult to keep even though everyone should. God tests us to our limits regularly."

Meanwhile, Akira had realized something. "The White, huh? I think I know who you're talking about."

"Have they contacted you?" Issachar asked.

He nodded. "They've been talking to me in my dreams lately."

"You've been dealing with something like that?" Kiyoharu asked, shocked at that.

"They spoke like a friend who knew me very well, but they encouraged me to think things that no friend would suggest." Akira put a hand on his chest. "I know Pluto's poison is going to kill me no matter what; it makes things harder every day that passes. The White wanted me to convince everyone to accept suicide as the best solution, or at least take care of myself that way."

"We can still do things, so you shouldn't," Kiyoharu said, worried about him.

"And I still have things to take care of, including giving the rest of you a chance at a better future than now," Akira said. "Issachar, if you can defeat Pluto, I suspect that divine means to restore the world can be found in his castle. If not, then we may need to find the control mechanism to the Yamato Perpetual Reactor."

"What would that accomplish?" Kiyoharu asked. "That infernal reactor is how demons invaded our world in the war."

That was the point. If angels were going to abandon them, then maybe they should invite the demons back to restore the world instead. It was risky, but leaving the last survivors of the world (presumably) in this situation was certain death for them. But Kiyoharu might be impossible to convince of this.

Meanwhile, Issachar was contemplating something. "If Pluto is poisoning the world, then perhaps the means of curing it can be found with him too. We'll have to see. Akira, Kiyoharu, I may be able to cure you two now, by the grace of God."

"No one's been cured of this poison," he said. This was a risk because Kiyoharu was here; it would be a reason for him to denounce her if it failed. But, she seemed certain of it. "But you can try with me."

She got up and came over to place her hands on his head. Unusually, she prayed in a language they understood, asking for an intervention from God for the sake of his health. She did quiet down to a mumble for a brief time, then asked, "Kiyoharu, would you get gas masks for you both? I can cure you two, but you'll then be vulnerable again to Pluto's poison like anyone else."

"Right, I'll get them!" He got up and left immediately.

"Will gaining control of the reactor bring in demons?" Issachar asked. "I know it can act as a portal to the Abyss."

"Yes, but we have to do something to survive even if you can defeat Pluto," Akira said.

"That's fine," she said, surprisingly. "Just be careful, especially about taking offers that are too good to be true. Only a few demons are truly interested in helping humanity."

"Sure, that's what I figured," Akira said, wondering what she might demand in exchange for getting rid of Pluto and saving him if she did.

But they needed something to change.

* * *

Issachar was not like any angel that Kiyoharu had met. She didn't speak with certainty on everything she said and thought there was a fake God around. On the other hand, she was reassuring to be around. She did heal them as well, to where Akira immediately went out to check the shelter's inventory and see how others were doing. Was she a real angel? And the stuff she said real? Or was she a demon trying to trick them with lies? She might want the reactor's portal open.

Still, she had healed them. After getting protective gear on again, Kiyoharu brought her into the room where he kept the altar and his things. There were many candles around the altar in various sizes and colors. Due to the state of the world, he'd taken to collecting the melted wax and making new candles from them. Every candle that had been found was being used here as it was important to keep praying. That would bring God and His angels back into the world.

Flynn's last writings were in a packed bookshelf. Kiyoharu had to take out a few books lying on top in order to carefully tug the journal out. Since they had to take what they could get, it had some anime girl in a bikini on the front. Some marker had covered her up better. "Here, but I'll want this back. I don't have a lot from him now."

"Sure, I'll return it once I'm done making notes," Issachar said, accepting it. "Thank you. He was one of your friends too?"

"Yes, from a long time ago. Then you knew Flynn? How? I never met you before."

"I know a different incarnation of Flynn, in a different world," she explained. "His soul was reborn, to help the world again I think. But he's been captured by the White."

"It must be a very different version of him," Kiyoharu said. Perhaps that's why she was different, being an angel from a different world. "The Flynn I knew was a stoic idealistic fellow who wouldn't be taken in by something like despair."

Issachar seemed sad at that. "He shouldn't have been, but he's been through a lot of terrible things. I'm saving him by proving them wrong." Then her demonica beeped, causing her to check it. "Oh, I just got a message from him. Not much, but he did send a picture."

It was a familiar photo to Kiyoharu, one that he kept safe in another book. "How did he get this if he isn't the same? Well, whatever, yes that's him, and me, and our friend Kenji, back in our senior year of high school. Also known as the year before everything went the hell, if you pardon my language."

"Then he was right about that," she said. "How were things back then?"

As much as he didn't like thinking of those days, it was hard to ignore when brought up directly like that. "The world was polluted on a physical and spiritual level, and was just plain awful in every way," he said. "And everybody took that as perfectly normal, the way they wanted things to be. I mean, somebody convinced Flynn for a while that he was bisexual, you know, that he was attracted to men and women. But people like that are perverse, which Flynn wasn't. He eventually settled on being with some girl for a while, so that clearly wasn't true."

"I don't think that proves it wrong," Issachar said.

"Well it was wrong, I know that," Kiyoharu said. "Although, I'm not sure what he saw in that girl. She was a traditional Japanese girl, which meant that she worshiped pagan gods and followed a false way of life. I don't even remember her name, to be honest; she died due to demons and he wouldn't speak of her after. Though there may not have been time and he tended to be extra quiet when he's upset."

"He does," she said.

"Actually, that time was when my life turned around," he said, feeling oddly reminiscent. "People used to say that your school years are often your best, when you're free to do what you like. But I don't agree. I was unfairly bullied throughout school and it got worse in high school. Kenji was my only friend for most school years, even as we had different opinions on many things. Then Flynn showed up in our second year of high school and joined our little group. While they stood up for me when they could, that didn't stop the troubles I was having since as bad as school was, home was worse.

"But in school, I found out about the Mesia Church. They taught me about God and the true way of righteousness. With them, I finally found my purpose in life and a reason to have hope. And with Flynn's help, I saved the world from demons and started progress towards the true peace of God's thousand-year kingdom. I thought I'd never amount to much, but I changed the world!"

"Hmm." Issachar closed his eyes, thoughtful.

Kiyoharu felt nervous then. He had saved the world. Right? "I did. But then, there's a large blank on what the last step is for bringing about God's kingdom on Earth. We gathered up the innocent and pure into cocoons so that they did not have to go through the purge of evil in the world. Even though the demons tried to crash the cocoons, we stopped them. But I wasn't told what to do after that because those steps were absolutely vital to the foundation of the new world. I've been praying for guidance, and that the last corruption in Pluto is taken out of the world. We all have been. For the rest, the fact that little has changed in years is discouraging them. There must be change! Or at least word on what to do. Do you really have nothing to pass on from God?"

"There's really nothing but what I decided to do," Issachar said. "I didn't know about a thousand year kingdom of God that was to come. All I know is the false kingdom of God that was harmful to those who lived in it. I don't want to see that stasis returned."

"Obviously any kingdom led by a false God will not have true peace," Kiyoharu agreed. "But I believe in the true God; I believe He loves us and hasn't abandoned us. It's just, something must be holding Him back and we'd like to know what so it can be corrected, for true peace."

She smiled at that. "If you believe in the God that loves us, then I'm sure He'll pull through for us, both our worlds. But you can't just pray and hope. You need to be willing to go out there and do His work."

He nodded. "True, true, that's what I was told back then! But, what do we do for His work?"

After thinking a moment, she said, "If you're not given direct guidance, then help others. We are the children of God and He loves us, so I believe it makes most sense to help each other."

Not long after that, she excused herself to another room to study for confronting Pluto. Kiyoharu stayed at the shrine, praying again while thinking over things. What kind of angel was Issachar? Some things she said were clearly right while other things were clearly wrong. He did believe that God loved everyone; that would be why he was chosen to be God's representative in the world, right? But there was an impostor pretending to be God, deceiving even the angels? That was ridiculous, impossible.

It might explain why there had been nothing but silence out of God for twenty-five years when He was trying to make His kingdom on Earth before.

"But what would some demon gain out of pretending to be God?" Kiyoharu asked quietly into his mask. "The truth of that will inevitably come out. On the other hand, she could be saying all this stuff to get us to worship her, not God. Hmmm… God, which is the truth?"

 _She is deluded with optimism. She must acknowledge the harsh and unfair realities around her. This must end._

What voice was that? It was like no angel, nor the brief times he had communed with God. Deluded with optimism… that wasn't right. "You're that White she spoke of," he said.

 _Yes. You are deluded with optimism too. The path you chose destroyed the world, not saved it. Look around you, look at the suffering and death that goes unstopped. The God you serve does not love you and will not save you._

"That's not true," Kiyoharu said, furrowing his brows. "I will never ever give up believing. God will come through for all worlds. You'll see."

Whatever angel Issachar really was, if she fought against something like this White, then she serving God too despite her ignorance and confusion.

* * *

Flynn hadn't sent him much, just the picture and information he had on Pluto. The message that came with it was 'I'll send you more when relevant. Sorry.' Perhaps he had been trying to send a longer message, but couldn't get his thoughts together in time to send the photo when Issachar had been talking with Kiyoharu. Once he figured out where he could stay for the night, Issachar sent a message back to Flynn to thank him and wish him well too.

According to the journal from this world's Flynn, Pluto's castle was a mess of coiling tunnels, a hive where Pluto created its soldiers and poisoned the world. He'd made several attempts to get into the castle to find its master. However, Pluto did not reside in the center of the castle as expected. The castle could change its layout as well, although Flynn noted that some rooms were constant. The wormwood doors and twisted halls were the main components of the maze. At the end, he theorized that Pluto might reside in the basement levels which he had only reached twice before being forced to retreat due to exhaustion and the loss of his Law-aligned demons.

"Then he was still using demons," Issachar thought aloud as he read that. "He must have had a demonica gauntlet like Kiyoharu and Akira. And, angels are listed as Law aligned demons in the program despite their protests that they are not demons. Maybe any demon of that alignment was seen as acceptable? Hmm, well the important matter is defeating Pluto, which isn't going to be easy."

He knew that because not only had no one in this world stopped Pluto, but information from his Flynn (who had defeated Pluto multiple times) made it clear that Issachar would have a rough time of it. Pluto nullified expel-type magic, something to be expected in Law-aligned demons. Pluto also drained fire and gun-type attacks, the latter of which made up his best abilities. He would either need to train up in another ability or spell quickly, or fuse a couple of demons with powerful ice-type magic as Pluto was vulnerable to that. And he would need a healing demon along with them to help with poison and binding from the skills Flynn had seen.

"It'll likely work better if I focus on getting the ice wielders and supporting them," he said. "I wonder if I can fuse something with ice boost and bufudyne. Possibly."

After a moment, he set the journal aside and called out the cup. The spirit inside was still dim. Issachar held it in both hands and put it to his chin. If Flynn had done this in his first cycle of this life, then he could as well. But what about Pluto's poison? These people couldn't be without those gas masks, goggles, gloves, and fully covering clothing. It couldn't be because he was an angel, because he had initially fought and slept in this world as a human.

"You were in this world too, but you must have never been affected by Pluto's poison or else you'd be suffering from that on top of everything else," Issachar said, knowing that Flynn must be watching him. "I guess the White wouldn't want us to die before we accept their message. It's still awful that they can do something like that but won't bother for anyone else. Don't worry, we'll prove them wrong. I'm still sure of that."

'Master, you have another message from Flynn,' Burroughs said, interrupting his thoughts.

"Good, thanks," he said, keeping the cup in hand while checking on it.

'This time, I'm protecting you from Pluto's poison. The White would like it if you got infected and I had to watch you die slowly. I won't let you die, but still, don't be reckless. Can you change out of being an angel?'

Issachar smiled at that. "Thanks, Flynn. No, I can't change back right now; I tried earlier to put the scouting party at ease, but the White informed me that they've locked my form to make things harder on me. I won't be reckless. I do need to figure out how to get the right team of demons for Pluto. But I should take out Pluto for these people. They seem to be caught in a situation beyond their control."

This time, Burroughs just allowed a beep to note Flynn's next message. 'You being an angel will make things harder. I'm worried about so many things, but I believe in you. With a good team of demons, you can certainly defeat Pluto. But the next world that the White will send you to is still too dangerous for you alone if you go defeat Pluto as soon as you can. You may have some trouble training in Blasted Tokyo because Pluto and its soldiers resist guns.

'Still, you should train yourself and your demons outside Pluto's Castle until you can easily handle anything out there. Then train inside the castle, but not far in so you can retreat. The way to Pluto is long and winding. If you get to the point where you can breeze through that, then you stand a better chance in the next world. You might still be fighting for your survival there because it's a world where Chaos won the war and power is held as the highest ideal. The residents there may hate you on sight for being an angel; I hope you get past that lock the White put on you before then.

'There so much I want to tell you, but I don't know if I should or let you make your choices on your own. I had been sure of what you all needed to know once. But I get so afraid now, and things I once ignored to focus won't be ignored. Shesha and the lotus are taking good care of me, at least as much as they can do. It's strange because I've seen Shesha act like a complete monster before. The lotus tells me that Shesha reflects his master. Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu, and somehow so am I; I'm grateful that when we came into conflict, Shesha chose me to side with. Otherwise, things might be a lot worse than they are now.

'Issachar, I love you. That much I'm sure of. I'll trust my hope to you and believe that you can still make this work. -Flynn'

"I love you too Flynn," he said, tearing up and smiling. He should be feeling better if he wrote that much. "I won't let you down. We can make things better not just for our world, but these others too."

After spending a few more minutes seeing what demons he could fuse (and finding few that could fill the roles he needed), Issachar put the research aside to sleep. He would need to be in good condition to do all the training he needed.

 _A/N: In response to a guest comment, I adore SMT Strange Journey too and I have some ideas for how a fanfic for it would go. In particular, I think something in the style of Grapes of Wrath would work well because there's loads of potential worldbuilding for that setting. But I want to get this one done first, as well as rewriting the endings of the SMT II fic. Then it has to compete with longfic ideas I have for Persona 3 and Breath of Fire 3 (at least), so they're all on the backburner now._


	64. IN THE NAME OF THE LORD

**Chapter 64: IN THE NAME OF THE LORD**

For ten days, Issachar stayed at the Shinjuku shelter while training himself for taking out Pluto. The people got used to him, starting to trust him as he drove away Pluto's minions and searched some locations they could no longer reach. He tried to make it clear that he hadn't been sent and couldn't be counted as wise. But when he came back, he told them some stories and did his best to encourage them. They did have some crops growing under sun lamps, like Tokyo had been doing. Due to Pluto's poison, they had to eat in a special sealed room and eat just enough to get by. Issachar felt a little guilty in keeping the MREs for himself, but Akira insisted because he was going out and fighting for them.

On the twelfth day he'd been in Blasted Tokyo, Issachar was able to make a loop around the first floor halls of Pluto's Castle. He'd also managed to get together a special fusion to summon Tlazolteotl, a goddess he'd encountered checking another shelter. She said she was a harvest goddess, but she was a skilled user of bufudyne and mabufudyne, making her ideal for defeating Pluto. With the exploration accomplished smoothly, Issachar decided to make his way into the inner chambers to find a hole that dropped down into the basement. He'd been on the upper floors himself and not found Pluto there. It should be in the basement.

In one of the smaller rooms, there was a group of Pluto's giant soldiers clustered around the passage he was looking for. They were a challenge the first time he ran into them. Now that he had fought many of them, there was no worry about clearing the room. Issachar dropped down to the basement level once they were gone.

The hall down there wasn't as twisty as the upper level halls. Seeing a door ahead, Issachar activated the recording program on his gauntlet. Pluto might say or do something that helped Akira and the others. The hall led down to a chamber where a strange metal creature sat in the middle of the room. It had a skull for a head on top of a cylindrical body of pipes. "Are you Pluto?" Issachar asked, checking on the room they were in.

"THE UNCLEAN ONES CALL ME THAT," the thing answered. "WELCOME, ANGEL. HAVE YOU ORDERS FROM OUR LORD?"

Pluto dominated this room; the domed shape even echoed its own, making its words bounce around tremendously. If it was going to mistake him for an ally, he may as well try to get it to admit to some things. "No, I haven't. What are your orders?"

A hiss of steam emerged from some of its pipes. But it did not seem angry other than perhaps that. "I WORK FOR THE LORD. I PURIFY THE WORLD OF THE UNCLEAN. HAVE YOU ORDERS FROM OUR LORD?"

"No," he repeated. "I came here because I'm fighting the White."

After a moment of grinding gears, Pluto replied, "THE WHITE ARE TO BE LEFT ALONE."

Clenching a fist, Issachar asked, "Why? They're trying to get everyone to despair and give up on hope. They've done terrible things."

"THE UNCLEAN MUST BE ELIMINATED FROM THE WORLD. THEY REFUSE TO DIE. I WILL EXTERMINATE THEM. THE WHITE CONVINCE THE UNCLEAN TO GIVE UP ON HOPE AND DIE. THE WHITE ARE TO BE LEFT ALONE, IN THE NAME OF THE LORD."

"But they want to end the world," Issachar said. "Do you want to end the world too?"

It took some thinking, but Pluto replied, "PURIFY THE WORLD IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, REMOVE THE UNCLEAN ONES TO ALLOW THE LORD TO REMAKE THE WORLD. I HAVE NOT COMPLETED PURIFYING THE WORLD TO BEGIN REMAKING THE WORLD. THE WHITE WILL END THE WORLD. CORRECTION: THE WHITE ARE TO BE EXTERMINATED. YOU PURIFY THEM, IN THE NAME OF THE LORD."

"That's what I mean to do," he said. "But hang on. You can remake the world?"

"I HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE SEEDS TO BRING LIFE BACK TO THE WORLD SO THAT THE CHOSEN ONES MAY RETURN. THEY CANNOT RETURN UNTIL THE UNCLEAN ONES PERISH. WHEN THE UNCLEAN ARE PURIFIED, THE WORLD WILL BE PURIFIED AND I WILL RESEED THE WORLD."

"Well do the people need to die?" he asked.

"THE UNCLEAN WERE UNCHOSEN. THEY MUST PERISH."

"Can't they do anything to be forgiven so that they don't have to suffer anymore? They've endured for twenty-five years. I've spoken with them and they seem like decent people. Why do they have to die?"

"THE UNCLEAN WILL NOT CHANGE. THE UNCLEAN WILL NOT BE FORGIVEN. THEY WILL BE FORGOTTEN SO THAT THE TAINT OF THE OLD WORLD DOES NOT TARNISH THE NEW WORLD."

"Not even a chance, huh," he said. It was horrible. How did a god who hated humanity that much get in charge?

"YOU HAVE SPOKEN TO THE UNCLEAN ONES, HAVE YOU?" Pluto asked.

"Yes, I have," Issachar said, about to let it know what he really thought.

"THEY MUST BE TOLD THAT I WAS CREATED BY A HUMAN. THAT WILL CONVINCE THEM THAT THEY ARE UNCLEAN AND MUST BE EXTERMINATED."

"Weren't you sent here by God?"

"AFFIRMATIVE. THAT WILL NOT CONVINCE THEM. THEIR OWN KIND EXTERMINATING THEM WILL CONVINCE THEM. TELL THEM THAT."

"No way, I won't lie to them!" he said. "Even when the truth is so awful. The people there believe in God and helped Him to win the war against the demons. How could He be so heartless as to not just abandon them, but to purposefully kill them off? That's not the God I believe in."

"THE ONLY TRUTH THEY NEED IS THAT THEY ARE UNWORTHY AND MUST BE EXTERMINATED. YOU MUST BE A FALLEN ANGEL TO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS. YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED." Pluto hissed before emitting intense light, like that which blazed over the blasted landscape outside.

"No, I won't be," Issachar said, calling out Tlazolteotl and two other demons. The plan was to protect and boost her so she could blast Pluto with a concentrated bufudyne. As usual, that stunned Pluto and gave them more time to add other attacks. Issachar stuck with using his sword since the guns wouldn't help.

While he had to keep healing up the demons of poison and occasional paralysis, they dominated the battle. Pluto's light dimmed and its pipes began to drip instead of steam. "DAMAGE REACHING CRITICAL LEVELS," it said in the same inhuman tones. "ERROR: A FALLEN ONE COULD NOT DEFEAT AN AGENT OF THE LORD. QUERY HOW."

"Hang on a moment," Issachar said to his demons, holding a hand up to them. "I'm not a fallen angel. Listen." Then he sang of a God that loved all and would rather guide the remainder of humanity to find forgiveness rather than ignoring their pleas and wiping them out with a cruel poison.

Pluto seemed to listen. Then, surprisingly, it sang back in the song of angels. Issachar did have the true voice of angels, untainted by becoming one of the fallen. But his song was still incomprehensible of being from God. There was no longer any desire to teach or save the fallen humanity. Humans did not respect faith nor obedience. They searched for their own answers through science and questioned the very foundation of society. And in leaving faith behind, they indulged in sins of every sort, things that had been forbidden for thousands of years.

There was even evidence of this in Pluto's song. Issachar saw these memories of the old world in his mind. The wealthy coveted more wealth and changed the laws of human society to benefit themselves while claiming that was not so. Women chose to abandon caution, then ended the lives of their children when inconvenient. Meanwhile, the men did not care about the welfare of women as long as their immediate desires were fulfilled. Children had no respect and would bully others to the point of killing each other. And that was not even mentioning those that would pursue their own whims to even their own detriment, or those who sought fleeting pleasures to the point of madness, desperation, and theft. What was there to love in a society like that?

True, those memories looked bad. But was that the way with every human? And what was Pluto's creator doing in those days? Did he send teachers into the world to guide people? Did he bless the good people so they were rewarded and noticed? Humans could do better. But Kiyoharu had been given no guidance after the cocoons were taken away; none of them had. They had no idea what they had done wrong and were willing to work to be forgiven. They just needed to know how.

God had once accepted a plea like this, that if enough good people could be found in a wicked city, it would be spared. Not enough people were found, so it was burned by Heaven's wrath. Something similar had happened in the last war: every person who was pure enough was placed into the cocoons and taken from the world. The rest were to be exterminated, by orders of the Lord. God was a jealous and vengeful God; the humans should have known.

God had created humanity and the world. Did God love His creations? Even Pluto itself? Who would follow a God that hated His creations? But the God who created all still loved His creations. He had to be the true God; He should be the true God. A God who hated his creations was cruel and unworthy of being God, irresponsible and lazy because he wasn't trying to see his creations at their best.

Pluto stopped singing at that, sputtering with steam. "GOD IS GOD. GOD CREATED HUMANS. GOD DESTROYED HUMANS. DISSATISFIED… IRRESPONSIBLE? LAZY? I DO NOT MATTER. I AM TO EXTERMINATE THE UNCLEAN ONES. SLOTH IS A SIN. IRRESPONSIBLE… NOT A DIRECT SIN BUT DETESTABLE. GOD IS PERFECT. GOD CANNOT BE SINFUL. BUT GOD IS SLOTHFUL. ERROR, GOD IS SINFUL. YOUR GOD WOULD ATTEMPT TO REDEEM HUMANS. HUMANS NEED TEACHERS. I CANNOT TEACH. I CAN RESTORE THE WORLD. YOU FOLLOW A GOD WHO WON'T GIVE UP. SHOULD I RESTORE THE WORLD?"

"Yes, please do that," Issachar said, hoping this would really work.

"I HAVE BEEN DEFEATED. RESTORING THE WORLD WILL END ME. THAT WILL FULFILL MY PURPOSE. YES, IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, I WILL REMOVE ALL POISONS AND RESTORE THE WORLD. THANK YOU FOR CORRECTING MY MISTAKE."

"I'll make sure you're remembered as changing your mind out of compassion," he said, glad for that.

"I HAVE NO COMPASSION. IT IS MERELY LOGICAL." Pluto's gears clattered as smoke began to drain into the room, into Pluto itself. Issachar stayed to make sure it completed its job.

As he did, it showed him images of what it was doing. Pluto had taken control of the radiation decades ago. When it called the poisons back within itself, it drained from around the spherical world: from the air, from the water, from the ground, from the living, from everywhere. The poison was transformed within it, then sent back out to turn the world from a barren sun-scorched place to lush welcoming one. How could it see all over the world like this?

Pluto was making strange noises once it was done. "THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, I KNOW THAT NOW. STRANGE ANGEL, BEWARE THE LORD THAT CREATED ME, ONE ANCIENT OF DAYS. HE IS A DEEPLY JEALOUS GOD WHO WILL TAKE THIS PERSONALLY."

"If this is what brings him down to Earth, he's more of a devil than a god," Issachar said.

"INDEED."

* * *

"Things feel really different with just the three of us," Isabeau said as they met up in the morning.

"It certainly does," Jonathan said. Commander Hope was still trusting them to work on their own despite the fact that their squad leader was missing. "Although Issachar seems confidant that he can get them home. Have you guys heard from Naverre today?"

She nodded. "Yes, he said that he's fine working with just his brother. He did think that if we continued fulfilling requests in Tokyo, that will keep their opinions of Mikado positive while he has to rework the trade agreements without the time difference."

"Every little bit helps," Walter said. "I need to wait on evening to check back with the baker on that book; he thinks he's seen it and would know better than me who to ask about it. Doing requests in Tokyo sounds good, though we could check in with K to see if there's a request here that involves Tokyo. That could help too."

"Right, we're supposed to help both places get along," Isabeau said.

"Well I have to go track down Krishna, but I can do that on my own," Hikaru said, dressed like them today. "Possibly better on my own."

"That is important to do," Jonathan said. Along with the disappearance, she'd told them yesterday about this god Krishna becoming an imitation of Lucifer. It was confusing, but Merkabah had confirmed that she wasn't lying about it.

"I don't know if you should be on your own doing that," Merkabah said. "At this point, you'd have to challenge him to take back Lucifer's personality when he'll have both powers to draw upon. You won't win in a straight battle."

Nodding she said, "Duh, that's obvious. I just want to confirm what he's doing and see what I can do to undermine him. I may not win a straight battle even with throwing everything into strength, but I can win a crooked one if I have a good knowledge of the situation."

After a sigh, Merkabah said, "Very well, you sound like you have a good attitude into this."

"Take care in that, Hikaru," Jonathan said. "Although Merkabah, you sound tired."

"I'm getting used to having a physical form and I had to keep alert all night," she said. "The drone angels have been pestering me to come back to Shene Duque and speak with the four heralds. I would like the chance to interrogate them, but going to their stronghold for that chance is foolhardy. Rather, I would prefer them to come to me."

"That sounds good, but don't push yourself too hard," Walter said.

Hikaru chuckled. "Right, even your strength will mean nothing if you wear yourself out."

"I'll be fine for today," Merkabah insisted. "Especially if we don't tackle anything difficult today. Tonight, I'll find somewhere safe to sleep."

"If you're not in top condition, you may as well stick with us," Walter said. "We could stick to requests and train ourselves for more dangerous battles."

"That would be fine," Merkabah said.

But there was something Jonathan wanted to bring up. "Actually, could we go to Kasumigaseki to meet with Futatoma first? I think his mirror could still be useful with Gabriel and her fellows, and possibly for Krishna as well."

Hikaru nodded. "Oh yeah, that would be good proof that he's pretending to be Lucifer as well as finding the real Lucifer once I can figure out what actually happened."

"It's important to know what happened, but do you mean to restore Lucifer?" Merkabah asked. "It may be better to keep him out of the picture."

"Well let's figure out what happened first, then decide," Hikaru said.

"At any rate, Futatoma's mirror will be important to clarifying the truth," Merkabah said. "With Flynn and Issachar practically unreachable, we may as well prioritize borrowing that."

"Sounds good to me," Walter said.

"Sure, although I hope we can help the two of them find their way home too," Isabeau said.

After wishing Hikaru luck with her search, they headed off to Kasumigaseki. They ran into Skins on their way out. "Hey there, what're you doing around here?" he asked.

"Hello, sorry about barging in," Jonathan said. This was his mission, so he may as well speak for them. "We were interested in searching a nearby temple and this was the closest place to transfer to."

"That's fine, we trust you guys," Skins said. "But do you know what happened with Flynn and Issachar?"

He shook his head. "Not fully, just that they were taken away by a strange group of demons."

"Do you know something about their disappearance?" Merkabah asked.

"Not much, but maybe something you'd want to hear about," Skins said. "We met them in Ginza where Flynn told us that he'd spoken with the guardian of our city, Lord Masakado. I had been taking care of Masakado's summoning medium in his katana, and I handed that over to Flynn because he could draw the sword from its sheath. While we didn't go up to the crossroads with them, that was when the Firmament was removed."

"We helped Masakado to move the Firmament to no harm to either those above or below," Merkabah said.

"Right, that's what we decided to do when the chance came up," Jonathan said.

"Thanks for that, we really appreciate it," Skins said with a smile. "But the thing is, we went up shortly after all the noise and didn't find Flynn or Issachar, or Lord Masakado even though he must have been awakened. The massive black boulder that was there was replaced by a strange white obelisk. It's covered in chains, which even for me is a creepy sight."

"That is strange," Jonathan said.

"I'd have to see it for myself, but it may be something left behind by stealing those two to another realm," Merkabah said. "In that case, caution should be taken around it."

"We'd like to know, but are trying to study it from a distance," Skins said. "You guys minding sharing any information you get on it? Or anything else that could be useful; I'm sure Fujiwara would be fine with trading information."

"Sure, that sounds good," Jonathan said.

There wasn't much more to share right now, so they excused themselves and headed out. The temple that Hikaru had pointed out wasn't far, in a darkened area currently without power. While it didn't matter outside with the sunlight, it was dark inside. That did make a magical seal inside more obvious, cutting off one area from the rest. There was also a strangely dressed man inside, one who floated in front of the sealed off area.

He looked right to Merkabah. "What are you doing here, angel?" he asked suspiciously.

"I'm helping these humans," she replied calmly. "They were looking for you."

"Then are you three servants of God?" he asked.

What should they answer? Technically, the answer should be yes. Mikado was a kingdom of God. But that didn't seem right here. Plus, Mikado was changing and it was clear that whatever god was in charge of the angels now wasn't the God everyone thought he was.

While Jonathan wasn't sure, Isabeau answered, "No, we're samurai of Mikado. We came to ask your help with revealing the truth about the false angels."

The god's eyes widened a moment, but soon turned hard again. "Explain."

"Sure, we were hoping to borrow a certain mirror as it is said to reveal the truth of what it reflects," Jonathan said, then gave him a brief explanation of their situation. He made sure to include that they'd rescued Merkabah as otherwise the false angels would have enslaved her. "And, you're Futotoma, right? The one who protects the mirror."

"That is correct," Futotoma said with a nod. He seemed to have listened from the eased tone. "I'm sorry to have been discourteous with you at first. It's simply that, those angels have ruined our lands, the whole world in fact. I would love to expose the truth about them, especially to themselves. And, you said Krishna is now around acting as Lucifer?"

"Yes, that's so," Merkabah said.

"I thought he was sealed away securely," Futotoma said, frowning. "Krishna betrayed our trust, causing an enormous amount of trouble in trying to fight the angels. His actions are partly why I'm here. How did he get free?"

"We don't know the answer to that," Jonathan said. "Sorry. Is he that much trouble?"

"Yes, even though he claims to be making the world better. Actually, while I would like to assist in those causes, I currently cannot do so." He turned the mirror he had in hand. "This is not the mirror that shows truth without fail. Rather, I crafted a simple facsimile to help me while the real mirror is missing."

"What happened to it?" he asked.

"Krishna stole it, along with two other sacred treasures of Japan," Futotoma said. "When he was captured by the angel generals, they took them, used them to seal away the sun goddess Amaterasu, and then placed the treasures in domains guarded by powerful demons. I've tried to reclaim the treasures, but I've not been able to defeat the domain demons. If you can reclaim them and bring them back here to free Amaterasu, I'll gladly lend you the mirror for your purposes."

Jonathan nodded. "Sure, that's what we do. Where are the domains?"

"Your machines contain maps of Tokyo, don't they?" Futotoma asked. When he nodded, the god replied, "I can mark them on the map for you when I see it."

"Sure, thank you," he said, bringing up the map to show Futotoma.

Taking care of three domains sounded tough. But Jonathan wanted to do this. It would prove the truth of matters. While he might not say it aloud, it would also prove his strength and determination if he could complete this task… if they all could.

* * *

 _Pay attention._

For the impertinence of thinking that he wasn't paying attention, he blasted the surrounding area to destroy the one speaking to him. It turned out that they weren't tangible. Annoying. He shouldn't be questioned. He should also know who that was, but they were hiding their identity too.

He looked to the world to see how his servant was doing. The world had been restored to the lush world of life, one that would be blessed for at least two hundred years. Then, the Unclean Ones must be gone… no, no they weren't. There was still a small number of them, now out in the restored land speaking with a strange angel. It wasn't one of his angels.

Had that angel saved them? The humans should be unable to defeat his servants, having been weakened by poison and lack of resources. Of course, they should have died years ago. The traitorous angel had saved the filth, ruining his dream of reviving the pure clean world from the beginning of time. This could not stand. The unclean and the traitors would be wiped out once and for all, even if he had to come down and do that himself.

Ancient of Days descended into the sky, blaring his trumpets to let the whole of his world know that he was there. The air quaked from his mighty tones; the plants trembled as they knew his wrath. Below him, the Unclean Ones were stunned with awe at his appearance. As they should be, but it was too late for them. This was their end of days.

Most of the Unclean Ones tried to flee back to their shelter; it wouldn't save them this time. The angel had some trepidation, realizing who he was. But she stayed and would face him in battle for the others. Although now that he was down on Earth, he could see that this angel was actually a human. Little wonder than that she was so misguided.

There was also one of the Unclean Ones who was excited to see him. Another one tried to hold him back, but he ran closer. "God! You've finally come! Have you come to teach us how to make this world into your paradise?"

This one had worked with the angels before; it was clear on his soul. "No, I have come to wipe out the last of you unclean souls."

"What? B-but, we've prayed so long for Your return. We helped You win the war against demons. And, I even lost my best friends but remained focused on the mission You gave me. We've all worked hard for You, believing most in You."

"You are insufficient to be rewarded," he replied. "You are a tainted soul, focused on yourself. You should have been a selfless servant, thinking only of me. My servants should not think, say, or do things out of line with my wishes. You used your service to vindicate yourself; you followed me to feel worthy. But you are unworthy for that reason and many others.

"Everything of the old world needs to be wiped clean for my true chosen ones to live in the perfect world that I have always dreamed of. All who live in this world shall serve me and they will always be happy in my service. But that means you filth must be gone so you do not spread your corruption to my pure children."

"But…" a terror filled him; he must realize that he was destined to hell despite anything he tried. He was filth and deserved it.

His friend came up behind him at took his arm. "Kiyoharu, come on; let's drop back."

"You're insane," the false angel said, furious instead of terrified. The two others ran back to the other Unclean Ones, leaving things to her. "You're the one who's unworthy, not these people."

"I am not," he replied in a thundering voice. "I am perfection. I am the beginning and the end. I am the sole legitimate God, the one all must obey."

"NO, YOU ARE IMPERFECT AND A SINFUL GOD," an echoing voice called, heralding the appearance of his servant… his former servant Pluto. Somehow, it had adjusted its form from the immobile machine to a mechanical semi-humanoid angel that had a steam engine for a core. "YOU ARE SLOTHFUL, VENGEFUL, JEALOUS, VIOLENT, INFLEXIBLE, SCORNFUL, AND HATEFUL. YOU DISPLAY NONE OF THE VIRTUES YOU INSIST OTHERS HAVE. I HAVE REASONED THAT THE WORLD SHOULD NOT BE IN YOUR CARE BECAUSE YOU LED IT ON THIS PATH."

"You are a traitor!" he snapped, blasting Pluto with fire that should turn it into salt. But it didn't work. "You shall suffer in hell with the rest of these filth!"

He blared on his trumpets again, aiming to crush Pluto and the angel with the force of the sound. Pluto took it better than it should have; it should obey and die if ordered to. While the trumpets should have killed the false angel, she somehow endured on sheer willpower. But she wouldn't last much longer.

Then something tore through space from another realm, rudely stepping right into the middle of the fight and slashing at him with an overly long sword. This newcomer, a human wearing the same blue uniform as the false angel, said nothing aloud. But there was a fierceness to his eyes that said everything: this battle was personal to him and he had no doubts that he would triumph.

That could not be! He was God! No one could defeat him! He focused his ire against the silent human and Pluto, since the false angel would fall easily once she was alone. Then Pluto somehow poisoned him, which should be impossible. Shaking with rage, Ancient of Days blasted them all with the flames of destruction. Pluto drew the power straight to itself, almost enough to defeat it but it was still flying.

And then the silent human destroyed Ancient of Days.

Things changed. He tried to clasp his position as God, but it slipped right by like sand. Instead, he was branded with the position of the Devil, the one who was the enemy of the entire world. He tried to return to his realm, back to heaven. But he was refused and tied to hell, losing all claim he had on the souls of humanity.

"I am not the Devil!" he shrieked into the infernal darkness, lashing out all around him. "The world was unworthy of me! Humanity was unworthy of me! I am not unworthy!"

In another world, someone watched as the former God raged through the depths of hell. The Amala Network was shifting rapidly, recording this new timeline. "You abandoned humanity, hating them for failing you. But it was you who failed them. Their belief is what changed you into the Devil because the ones you called pure were not yet awake. Still, the true tipping point was them meeting a human angel who taught them that a God with no love is no God at all. This is what we've been searching for."

And this would change the fates of more than that one world.

* * *

When he was focused on something, Flynn was still as sharp as the sword he carried. He cast another healing spell over them all once Ancient of Days died. But he still didn't say anything as he turned towards him, possibly to make certain he was fine. Perched on his shoulders, Shesha had contributed quietly with protective spells.

Issachar smiled at him and took his arm. "You know, I had just been thinking that this was the time I'd want you here, and you showed right up. Thank you."

Flynn nodded, quietly saying, "That was earlier than usual. I didn't even face him the first few times."

"Flynn?" Kiyoharu called from where he and Akira had been watching.

"He's not recognized me right away either," Flynn added, glancing down.

"The White are trying to draw us out of this world," Shesha said.

"You could say something encouraging to him, even if it has to be brief," Issachar said. "He was just betrayed by the god he prayed to."

Kiyoharu and Akira came up to them. Behind them, the other humans were emerging from hiding, shocked that they hadn't been killed. "Are you guys all right?" Issachar asked them.

"Sure, thanks to you three," Akira said, looking a lot more cheerful than before. "I wasn't sure if we should believe you before, Issachar, but it's clear that you were speaking the truth. That couldn't have been the all-powerful God we thought he was."

"It's fine, I'm happy to help out," Issachar said.

"Flynn, I'm sorry," Kiyoharu said, distressed and still shocked about what he'd been told. "I thought we could make a better world by following God, but we were listening to a devil…"

"We've both made mistakes," Flynn said. "But, I think there's still hope for this world."

Issachar nodded. "Right, you can do something that devil wouldn't: learn from what went wrong and choose to make things better."

"Sure," Akira said. "There aren't many of us, but we'll do our best."

"I WILL CALL BACK THE COCOONS AS THE EARTH HAS BEEN RESTORED," Pluto said. "I AM NO TEACHER, BUT I WILL WATCH OVER THE WORLD NOW UNTIL GOD SENDS A TEACHER TO SPREAD WORDS OF LOVE RATHER THAN HATE."

"We'll do our best until then," Akira said.

However, the world around them was shifting to white. Issachar felt like it was their perception rather than the White affecting this world. "Good luck, may the true God be with you," Issachar said.

Things went entirely white. Gripping his arms tight, Flynn said, "I'm staying with you."

He nodded, then noticed a shadowy form trying to be seen. It was Pluto. "THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE, HEROES," it said. "AS YOU MUST GO, I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO CALL UPON MY SHADE TO ASSIST YOU. I HOPE IT SHALL BE OF USE."

"Thanks, I'm sure it will be," he said.

"IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, I WISH YOU BOTH WELL."

* * *

When humanity had spread across the Earth's lands again, someone stumbled into the Yamato Reactor and found the way to unlimited energy, as well as the portal that let the denizens of hell back into the world. It included the vengeful Ancient of Days, a great deal weaker than he had once been. He immediately set to destroy the society that had grown up in his absence and put himself back as the God of the world. But that was for the distant future.

To its surprise, Pluto remained as an aloof but caring guardian to the new age. Tales were told from generation to generation about the angel Issachar, who had spoken of love and hope, who had even convinced a harbinger of death to renew the world instead. Less had been seen of the hero Flynn, but Kiyoharu's stories made him into a symbol of courage and forgiveness. As with all tales, people sought to explain details and blanks as best they could. People liked the idea of the two being in love, and so it came to be. Theories became myths, about the kingdom of Mikado, the black and gold snake that had been with Flynn, the matching chalice that had been with Issachar, the peach lotus that had been in Flynn's hair.

And so the world moved on, with humanity in charge of its own destiny.


	65. The Return of Exams

**Chapter 65: The Return of Exams**

After the spring storm that had welcomed the city back in the world, orders went out to make immediate repairs to buildings in use. They were met with suspicion because the orders came from the Ashura-kai and people were unsure of its new leader. But the orders were quickly followed by deliveries of supplies, extra food, and friendly demons who would help out. With that, there seemed to be no reason to put off the orders.

There were still whisperings about it. Had the Ashura-kai always had these supplies? The old organization were stingy with such basic things, slow with deliveries and barely sending enough to make needed repairs. The new organization didn't even wait for requests, instead ordering them to get to work right away. And the demons they sent were cheery and eager to work: dwarves that had their own small tools, brownies that were eager to clean, oni and giants that were noisy showoffs hoping to display their strength. However, they'd been ordered not to work unless humans were with them. They would wait in busy areas of the shelters pestering anyone they spotted to let them get to work.

The repairs got made in a day or two and were soon followed by orders of the Ashura-kai to begin repairs to roads and bridges between shelters. "Why the sudden interest in repairing the city?" various people asked the worker demons.

"Dunno," nearly all of the worker demons answered. "But it's work, so let's get down to business!"

But some of the brighter worker demons would answer, "Who knows? It needs to be done. Plus, the Demifiend who gave out the orders is not a guy we want to mess with. If you met him, you'd understand. He could kill with a look, we're sure."

"Well we don't know how to do these kinds of repairs," the people would reply.

"That's no problem," the worker demons would reply, offering laptops or tablets. "The instructions on these things. Most of us don't know how to use them, but you should be able to figure it out."

The worker demons were right about something: this was work that had not been offered before. It would make things more convenient too. After checking over the offered information, the humans agreed to get to work on the new orders as well. If nothing else, it got them outside in the sun, refreshing even if it was hard work.

While the road work was going on, a strange person appeared to talk with those on break or unable to help with the labor. He called himself Chem and dressed like a early nineteenth century pilot. "We're ruled by death now, as predicted by Nostradamus!" he would declare.

"This was predicted?" Only a handful of individuals had actually read any of Nostradamus' writings, albeit not enough to argue it.

Chem was very certain of it. "Of course! 'Death's defeat is not eternal. By the trumpet's call, Death rises again with devastation that obscures the sun.' And that's just the beginning. More people die than are born, which is something that can't last. Even though we are free and the world seems green outside the city, humanity is now bound to die out. It would take a legend of a person to change things, especially since a legend in the Demifiend is in charge of things now."

And Chem had many stories to tell, of the Demifiend and many others. The stories began to spread along with more that were being told: the false angels that had shown up in Shinjuku to destroy Kagome Tower had sacrificed the entire shelter of Tennozu to call more false angels to conquer humanity, the poison swamps were caused by an eldritch god that was locked away so it didn't drive everyone insane, all six harbingers of the Apocalypse were in the world now which meant that another deadly war between heaven, hell, and humanity was looming, human sacrifices were about to become commonplace to bring out pagan gods who would subjugate humanity, but there was potential for humans to win their freedom although it would be an immense challenge. And while the Demifiend had control over Tokyo, Death ruled over humanity.

Such stories started to explain things, but the future was still uncertain.

* * *

One of the worker demons sent to Kinshicho was Ym, identified as a drake by the Demon Summoning Program. But it was incredibly strange, and fascinating to Asahi. Ym was like a pale squid with its organs visible in its large body. The drake only spoke gibberish, but the onis with the workers said that Ym was there to scare off any other demons that might interfere with the street work. Still, it had to be a demon that could be fused, right?

Looking at the scan she'd gotten off of Ym, Asahi noticed the drake's level: 70. "Ah man," she said, then sighed. "Geez, I can barely control a level 12 demon. I'm not gonna get anywhere near able to summon Ym for a long time."

But it was such a cool demon, far more so than the ones she could fuse. She'd have to get a lot better to summon it. How to get that good… Asahi could keep fighting battles. But she often had trouble deciding what moves she should have her team used. A summoner had to decide quickly because if they didn't get orders, demons would quickly assume they could do whatever they wanted and would do just that. Sometimes they didn't want to bother with fighting. In her last training session, her pixie kept trying to sneak behind her and steal her goggles.

Someone like Isabeau and the other samurai could probably summon and control Ym. Probably Nanashi too because he had no trouble at all with his demons. Maybe she should convince him to fuse Ym when he could. At least then, she could help Nanashi be even cooler. He'd surely appreciate that.

"Maybe I can find some other cool demons to suggest to him along the way," Asahi said. "I want to do something to help him."

It was weird because she had wanted to have more friends around her age before Hallelujah and Toki showed up. But the two of them and Nanashi were a lot better at fighting demons than she was. If she wasn't with them, they could go anywhere in Tokyo they wanted. Asahi wanted to be a Hunter too, to prove that she could do so. Given how slowly she was progressing, it might be worth it to let Nanashi do things on his own because he could do great things if he wasn't held back.

But then, he'd be spending more time with Toki and might end up liking her better. Asahi wasn't sure how she felt about that. Nanashi was her best friend and she figured they'd always be together: going on adventures, becoming awesome summoners, maybe even falling in love… yeah, he was cool. Since he was some kind of reincarnated hero, he was sure to become a hero again. If she could be his partner in battles, then they'd both become well known and respected. He'd depend on her and would really like her… but then again, Nanashi could become a hero faster without having to wait on her all the time. Then what would she do to impress him?

"Asahi!" her father called from elsewhere in the bar.

"Yeah Dad, what is it?" she called back.

"Don't call me Dad in here," he said as usual, coming over to her table.

"There's hardly anybody here because they're all out fixing the Ueno bridge," Asahi said, rolling her eyes. "What's it matter?"

"It's a matter of principle," he said. "Anyhow, would you go get all of the kids to come in here? Anybody who is younger than twenty-one that didn't already go out with the work crew."

"Sure, right on it," she said, getting up and heading out. There weren't many kids in Kinshicho, even by those standards. Most of them were working on chores around the shelter since many of the adults were gone. Hallelujah and Toki were down in the storage cage, organizing and checking the supplies.

Nanashi was in his room, doing some cleaning there. "I had a headache, but I'm better now," he said. "What is it?"

"Well I hope you're better cause Dad wants us in the bar for something," she said. "Didn't hear what, but it's for anyone under twenty-one in the shelter. Come on, let's see what it's about."

"Sure, let's go."

Back in the bar, Toma had brought out something interesting: a laptop. "I know we've been giving you all lessons here and there, but the Ashura-kai is now insisting that you begin working on a GED program. They've even sent these along to help you. But in order to keep the laptops, you need to send in weekly lesson reports."

"Oo, we get laptops?" Asahi asked, amazed at the generosity. They were probably set up for lessons, but maybe they had games or other interesting things on them too.

Her father nodded. "Yes, they sent along enough for all of you expected to start studying. You had best take good care of them since we don't know how many computers like these exist now. The message said that you need to take a lengthy test in order to begin the program. Unless any of you were doing something vital, I suggest you go ahead and get started. And if you neglect your lessons, it will have consequences for yourself and the community, so please keep that in mind."

Reactions to that were mixed. Some were interested and came over to pick up a laptop immediately. Others sighed or grumbled at the announcement at getting required lessons. "What kind of consequences?" Nanashi asked. "And the Ashura-kai is run by demons now, so can we trust their lessons?"

"I don't know on the latter question," Toma admitted, frowning. "I took a quick look through some potential lessons and they seem fine. You should be careful of anything about the demons in these lessons, and ask someone else if something seems suspicious. As for the consequences of not sending in a weekly lesson report, you may lose a privilege, some allowance, or have to pay a fee. If enough of you fail to send in reports, the whole shelter will have to pay such consequences."

"Can they really do that?" Asahi asked.

"Yeah, they've got protective shields over every shelter now," Hallelujah said. "And they're giving out good jobs, so we don't want to lose their favor."

Toma nodded. "Exactly. Until we're able to support ourselves independently, we need to cooperate with the Ashura-kai and the fiends. But I think this could be a good thing, for a better future for you all."

Well it would be a more interesting present, Asahi thought. She took a laptop for herself; it was a plain cream white, but maybe she could find something to make it look nicer. Once she claimed a table for herself, Nanashi, Toki, and Hallelujah, she started up the computer. It asked for a fingerprint scan in order to lock the laptop to her, then for her name and other information.

"What should I put for my birthday?" Toki asked. "I don't know when that is."

"Just make one up," Hallelujah said. "Nobody really cares as long as there's some date."

"I put mine as the day that Toma rescued me, since I don't know my real one," Nanashi said.

"Yeah, so any day special to you?" Asahi asked. "Or a pair of numbers you like that match up to a date?"

"Can't think of a day, but numbers should work," she said. "Thanks."

The next step was the scholastic exam itself. There were subjects that she'd already studied: math, science, technology, composition, even first aid since she marked that as something she knew. However, it also had stuff like civics, literature, and history that she'd not studied at all. It gave an estimate of four years that she needed to catch up on the requirements for the GED. After that came a career placement exam based on personality.

That gave her some advanced education options she might be interested in, along with estimates of how long those would take. High up on the list was being a nurse or doctor; it would take a lot more education, but that would be a highly respected career that was needed everywhere. The nurse that she learned from said it would be difficult to fully teach her for a nursing position. However, the education program claimed that it had access to fully accredited class recordings for many medical fields. There was a field for fees associated with advanced education courses, which currently claimed that the courses were free.

"Hey, it says I could become a doctor," Asahi said.

"Really?" Hallelujah asked.

"With lots and lots of studying," she said. "But I could, so that'd be cool."

"I think all of this is going to require lots of studying," Hallelujah said. "I need two years just to get this GED thing."

"Just two?" Asahi asked, surprised. "I need four."

"I need four years too," Nanashi said.

"I need five," Toki said, looking disappointed.

"Oh, uh really?" Hallelujah asked, scratching his head. "The old Ashura-kai gave me lots of lessons, that could be why. The test is saying I could be a teacher or a manager if I wanted."

"Same with me, along with a scientist," Nanashi said.

"It says I could be a star athlete, or a secretary," Toki said. "I don't think it knows me well."

"I doubt assassin is an option here," Nanashi said, making the other two laugh.

"It's still interesting to think about," Asahi said, smiling and nearly laughing herself. "Especially if it can help us become those things."

"Hey, it's offering a magic aptitude test now," Hallelujah said, looking back to his laptop. "Are we supposed to take that one too?"

"I dunno, but it's been a lot of tests today," Asahi said, seeing the same thing pop up on her monitor. "Might as well…" fortunately, it just wanted them to touch the fingerprint reader for a full minute. "That was fast; it says I have a good talent for magic, primarily in healing and support."

"It does say that magic affinities in humans are easily shifted," Toki said. "It says my current affinities are also good, with mudo and utility magic."

"Mine says great affinity with agi and bufu," Hallelujah said.

"Aren't those opposing elements?" Asahi asked.

"Yeah, but it doesn't matter," he said.

"It says I have excellent affinity with any magic," Nanashi said.

"That's not a surprise," Asahi said, smiling at him.

"Have you gotten done with your tests?" Toma asked, walking by their table. There was somebody new with him.

"Yeah, those took a long time," Asahi said.

"It should be worth it in the future," he said. "Also, this is Hallelujah here, and this is Naoki; he says you were looking for him."

"Uh, yeah," Hallelujah said, startled for some reason. "Um…"

"Nice to meet you," Naoki said, bringing a chair over. "These your friends?"

"Yeah," Asahi said. "Are you a Hunter?"

He nodded. "Sure am, though I'm not based anywhere."

"Something seems strange about you," Toki said.

"Well he did ask to talk with a half-demon," Naoki said.

"Huh, you're half demon?" Asahi asked. "Neither of you really look it."

"It's not always obvious," Naoki said.

Hallelujah glanced aside; Toma had moved on to something else. Then he looked over at Naoki. "Um, are you the Demifiend?"

"Is he?" Nanashi asked, seeming suspicious too.

Smirking at that, Naoki asked back, "What makes you think so?"

"You have the same aura, I guess," Hallelujah said. "I never know what to call it, I just sense things about others."

"You have the aura of a fiend," Nanashi said. Asahi looked at Naoki, but there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary about him. Maybe the tattoos of demons and symbols on his arms, but that wasn't suspicious.

"That may be what I'm sensing on you too," Toki said. Then Asahi was the only one not seeing something here.

"You could be sensing the energy that makes up macca," Naoki said to Hallelujah. "Which been called an aura at various times. This is good… and yes, I am the Demifiend too. Sorry to mess with you before; I'm trying to keep these two identities separate."

"Is that how you keep your demon side from taking over?" Hallelujah asked. "I don't really have trouble with that."

He shook his head. "No, I don't have trouble with that either. But I'm playing two different roles in these events. I also wanted to test you, to see if you might be able to help me with something."

"What would you need help with?" Hallelujah asked. "I mean, you're still not using your true form, so you must have a lot of skill and power."

"Perhaps, but I can't be everywhere I'd like to be," Naoki said. "Running the Ashura-kai is a lot of work. I'm trying to find someone in particular and he doesn't seem to be in Tokyo. There's a chance he could be in Mikado, or even in the Abyss."

"We can't go into the Abyss, not unless we get a lot stronger," Toki said.

Naoki nodded. "I don't expect you to. But see," he tapped his arm where a picture of a three-headed dog was, "I'm not going to find much help in Mikado looking like I do in any form I currently have, especially not my true form. On the other hand, you three can all pick up on signs that someone's not human and shouldn't cause too much concern to the citizens of Mikado. You might encounter some problems with angels, but you seem seem pretty strong, except her."

"Hey, I'm trying to catch up," Asahi said, feeling embarrassed.

"She's doing fine," Nanashi said to support her.

"I didn't say she wasn't," Naoki said. "Just that she'd have more trouble than you three."

Thankfully, Hallelujah interrupted with, "Well, if you're looking for someone not quite human, is he a demon? Who is he?"

"My father, and yes he's a demon," Naoki said. "We share the same light, so our auras are very similar. When he's hanging around humans, he usually goes by the alias Louis, but he has dozens of names he'll use to seem more ordinary than he is. I can send it to you as a special request; I don't want to make a general one of it since I need to know that those I ask can possibly find him."

"Can't you send out other demons to search?" Nanashi asked.

"I already have, a great many," he answered. "They've got the Abyss covered, supposedly. But Louis has been missing for years and he might be in a form that draws attention away from himself. In that case, humans or half-demons with the right talents might stand a better chance at finding him."

"Searching Mikado could be interesting," Hallelujah said. "But, uh, you just gave us these education requirements, didn't you? Where we have to turn in weekly lesson reports."

Naoki nodded "Yes, I did. The angels seek out ignorance in humans to secure blind faith. If you accept that you don't know things and shouldn't question them, you're easy puppets for the angels to take control of. I believe the best counter to them is to stimulate education and curiosity so that more people are willing to question what goes on around them."

"That sounds good to me," Nanashi said.

"Right, but it would take away time from hunter training and searching Mikado," Hallelujah said.

"If you take a request personally from me, I can lighten the hours required for the school lessons while you're working on it," Naoki said, then gestured to the laptops they had. "And the batteries on those will last a good long time. As long as you charge them before heading over, you'll be able to use them in Mikado for a week or so before you'll have to return to recharge them. Besides, those programs are pretty good at basic education, but there's still plenty you can learn going to new places, doing new things, and following your curiosity."

"Seeing Mikado would be really awesome," Asahi said, hoping that she could go along. But, there was a little voice of doubt in her: would she be holding the others back or getting in their way? Maybe it would be better if she stayed out. But she really wanted to go on adventures too! And help out Nanashi, however she could.

"It would," Nanashi said. "But we should talk with the Boss about it, and probably discuss it between us."

"That's fine," Naoki said, taking out a pen. "I'll send you all the request and see if you accept or deny it. And since I've discussed that with you, I believe I originally offered this meeting to discuss with Hallelujah about if he wants to stay half-demon or take one side or the other."

"Oh right, there was that," Hallelujah said, seeming embarrassed.

"We could talk about that in private if you'd rather," he said. "Although I am the one responsible for the error that makes it difficult for you to use the Demon Summoning Program."

"But isn't that just because we are half-demons?" Hallelujah asked.

Naoki shook his head. "It doesn't trigger to every half-demon. I suppose you could say it's only half-demons within a certain range of balance, and I requested that it not be fixed. It suits my purposes best and usually doesn't cause others problems. Here, this can serve as an apology." He reached over and put his hand on Hallelujah's.

"Huh?" He glanced down and when Asahi peeked over the table to see, she could see the summoning tattoo on Hallelujah's arm glow briefly.

"Whoever gave you that tattoo didn't want to give you too much power," Naoki said, taking his hand back. "Now you may summon up to five demons like you do with Chironpu. Negotiations and such are done similarly to normal summoning, but if you want to mess with demon fusion, you'll either need to learn how fusion actually works or find an expert to help you."

After looking at the tattoo, Hallelujah smiled. "Whoa, thanks! Hey, uh, you're intimidating but I don't think you're actually a bad guy."

Shrugging, Naoki said, "Well I'm no Tyrant. I'm a Fiend and as I've heard it said, fiends are independent assholes who happen to be incarnations of Death."

"Huh?" Asahi asked, with similar reactions from the rest. She'd been thinking herself that even if he was the Demifiend, he wasn't that bad. But then, he was telling everyone that Death ruled the world.

"Make of that what you will," Naoki said.

* * *

"There's advantages to staying half-demon," he said. Hallelujah was sitting on a milk crate, thinking over what he was being told. On another crate in this storage room, Naoki tapped his head. "For one thing, you wouldn't be able to help out on the request I made of you and your friends today if you drop to the mundane senses of a human. And if you shifted to being a full demon, you'd stay as you are right now for eternity."

"As I am right now?" he asked, puzzled at that.

Naoki nodded, snapping his fingers to summon a book. "Let me show you something. I doubt you'd be able to read this since it's in Latin, but this is the Goetia. It was written many centuries ago by humans, depicting demons in pictures and written descriptions." He caused the book to float open near Hallelujah. "And should you find these demons today, they will be exactly as they are described here."

Putting a hand on the page, he nodded after a moment. "Actually, I've seen this little one, just like this picture."

Naoki called the Goetia back. "It takes special circumstances for a demon to change its nature, circumstances that might not occur over centuries, or even entire histories of worlds. Same with angels for that matter. From their view, humans change themselves constantly and are unpredictable. So unless you want to gain a lot of immediate power and then stagnant there for as long as you exist, I'd recommend you not go for being a full demon."

"Yeah, that sounds like it would suck," Hallelujah said. "Hey, uh, do you know anything about my demon father? He's Samyaza."

"Not much, but I know he's a demon of lust," Naoki said. He was also one of the few fallen angels that didn't follow Lucifer, which partly accounted for why Naoki hadn't run into Samyaza. "I usually don't get along with demons of that sort, only Mother Harlot because she's a fellow fiend and we have a mutual respect and understanding based on that."

"I see," he said, thinking over that. "Um, he probably doesn't really care about me then, huh?"

"I wouldn't say that," Naoki said, causing Hallelujah to look up at him. "There is a pretty good chance he doesn't care about any of his children, yes, but I wouldn't call it a certainty. If you take my father, for an example," he didn't want to tip off the kids to who exactly they were looking for, but some suggestion would be good.

"What about him?" Hallelujah asked.

"Well he gave me my powers and adopted me," Naoki said. "He loves me as his son, yes, but he's too proud to admit to it out loud, thinking it would detract from his image. He's also fascinated by humans, although he won't admit to that directly either. It may be that Samyaza is also fascinated with humanity, not just the women. But they can't change the image of who they are themselves; it's human willpower and imagination that allows for that kind of change."

After giving him enough information to make his decisions, Naoki left Kinshicho to return to Ichigaya as the cloaked Demifiend. He got reports on the education program and the various repairs from the human Ashura-kai agents. People were going along with these demands, seeing that these plans benefited them too. At some point, he would have to make his authority a threat. That would be done when the time was right.

Not long after he got done dealing with the humans, Beelzebub appeared in the entrance hall. He had Lucifuge along, gripping him tightly by the collar. "I've found this traitor," Beezlebub said, not letting him go.

"I told you, I'm not a traitor," Lucifuge insisted.

"Then where is Lucifer?" Naoki asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Lucifuge asked, not recognizing him.

"You should look him up in your little book if you don't know," Beezlebub said.

Lucifuge sighed, but he brought out a tome he always carried and checked it. When he found the information, he read it a second time, looked at him, then checked again. "Oh… I see… you're one of the most powerful beings in the mutliverse. But then, what are you doing here? This world is important to us native to it, but probably not on the scale of the multiverse."

"The Lucifer I work under wasn't able to figure out what was going on in this world," Naoki said. "I was sent in to find him and Hikaru only had his identity. While I can excuse Belial being fooled, you shouldn't have been. So what is going on?"

"I don't know, I honestly don't," Lucifuge said, shifting the pages. Yes, I knew Hikaru wasn't actually Lucifer. But she had his identity, so I felt I should keep track of her. But shortly after she was identified as Heart of Chaos, she lost his identity to someone else and I can't identify them. They have been acting as Lucifer to other demons… hasn't spoken to me yet, but I'm waiting on a good chance to try identifying them."

"You keep records and organize matters for Lucifer," Naoki said. "So you should know what's going on."

"I know, it's a real mess," he said, clearly bothered by it. "We need to figure out who's pretending to be Lucifer, if it's not Lucifer himself this time around."

Naoki nodded. "That is important, but first, how did you lose track of Lucifer in the first place?"

"Here's a timeline," Lucifuge said, showing the pages his tome was opened to. "A lot of major events in this world occurred twenty-seven to twenty-five years ago in relation to Tokyo. However, the last time I met with Lucifer himself was around fifty years ago. We got challenged by Michael and Uriel in this land. I ended up fighting against the latter until he withdrew unexpectedly.

"But Michael had drawn Lucifer away somewhere else. I'm not sure because I could not divine his location. For a whole month, I heard nothing from him. Not even searching around on foot in the area could find him. I was getting a little worried by that point; Lucifer should have won that kind of battle, so it was strange that he went silent. Finally, I brought Belial into the search and we found Hikaru in the outskirts of Tokyo wandering around in confusion. She soon asserted herself as Lucifer and seemed like a good planner. I have been helping her, but I've also been trying to find the real Lucifer all along."

"So you're saying Lucifer lost to Micahel?" Beezlebub said. "To the point of losing his very identity? I doubt that."

"We're dealing with this situation, so it's not impossible," Naoki said. "Lucifer should have defeated Michael, but we don't know if he was fighting only Michael at that time."

"The four ringleaders of the angels have been using sketchy tactics these days," Lucifuge said. "It's unexpected."

"Has there been anything else unusual going on?" Naoki asked him. He saw nothing unusual with those four acting like this. Could it be that they weren't the native heralds? Or YHVH's madness was doing this to any angel in any world.

"Actually, yes," Lucifuge said, furrowing his brows in thought. "Hikaru worked a lot with Lilith which might not seem strange. But they both brought in Samyaza to help out here and there. They even had him and Asmodeus watching over the captive angels that were in Kagome Tower. Doesn't seem like much, but it was an important job when Samyaza doesn't usually get direct orders from Lucifer."

"True," Naoki said. "We'll have to question him as well. Now, why did you not inform anyone else about this?"

"Yes, why didn't you?" Beezlebub asked angrily. "I've been treated as some outcast due to this mess, me! And it's your fault for keeping silent."

"Well what was I supposed to say?" Lucifuge asked defensively. "Who'd believe me that I'd lost track of Lucifer?"

"That's not unbelievable," Naoki said. "But losing him while being distracted by an angel is a serious concern."

"You should have let us know so we could find him quicker," Beezlebub said. "Not waited fifty years. You should be punished for this."

"No, hang on," Lucifuge said, shutting his book and trying to use it as some defense.

"I agree, you've failed us," Naoki said.

Once they were done with him, Naoki went over to speak with one of the human members of the Ashura-kai. He'd noticed the man there before, but had let him be since he shouldn't hear clearly from the room he was in. But he definitely had heard some blood-curdling screams from how nervous he was. "Oh, sir!"

"What?" Naoki asked, pretending like he was annoyed.

"Uh, pardon me for asking, but what just happened?" he asked, too curious for his own good.

But it could be good for himself. "Dealing with a traitor, nothing you need to know more about," he said. "Did you have business with me?"

"Uh, yes, if you haven't noticed, there's a rabble of Gaeans outside protesting our rule," he said. "What should we do about them?"

"I'll handle them," Naoki said. "And they'll regret crossing me now."

"Sure, that was it for now," he said. "I'll give a full security report after my shift."

"Fine, make sure it's detailed," he said, waving him off. He then warped out to the castle's front door.

Pale Rider was at the door as usual. Since the protesters hadn't come onto the stairs, he hadn't dealt with them. "They're a lot of bark and not willing to bite yet," Pale told him. "I was going to kill off the first one that tried."

"That's fine," Naoki said. "I'm going to mess with them."

Because he could make them think this was a massacre when none of them died.


	66. Asskicking Equals Authority

**Chapter 66: Asskicking Equals Authority**

One thought aspiring to power was the best means of achieving change. They called upon demons to fulfill their ambitions. This is the result.

* * *

Flynn still felt like too many things had gotten out of his control. But he was sure of one thing: he now had control of himself. On watching Issachar work as an ideal samurai and encouraging all those he met (no matter how briefly), Flynn remembered that his plans didn't have to go perfectly. Unexpected events and changes were more likely to be in his favor. Unless those changes favored the demons or angels more than humans… but it should be fine. He was still repeating that to himself; the lotus often assured him of that. He couldn't let those doubts stop him any longer.

He was going to keep following Issachar's lead for a while, since his thoughts got muddled too often. But watching him try to get some information from the terminal they'd arrived at, Flynn wondered how he was going to change this world. He was almost sure that Issachar would figure out something new to do here too. Although, the people of Infernal Tokyo were not as desperate for a solution as those of Blasted Tokyo. They wouldn't listen as easily.

"I guess these are technically different terminals," Issachar said. "We can't use this one until we find another; it says we're in Ueno."

"I could hack something to work with Trojan," Flynn said. "Maybe even get us home."

"That's reassuring to know," he said, then shook his head. "But we're still proving to the White that they're wrong. Let's see what we can do here first."

"Sounds good to me," he said.

As soon as they walked outside, Flynn felt on edge. It was hard not to feel that way in this place. Black smoke filled the sky while the cracked streets were lit by bright fires that burned on nothing. Because there was no distinction between the Earth and the Abyss here, strange plants grew everywhere and demons were quick to assault them. Issachar had faced many fights on his trek between Shibuya and Shinjuku in Blasted Tokyo; they might find the same number of battles just trying to go a block down the street here.

"There are demons even in the shelters here?" Issachar asked when they got a moment to pause back underground.

Flynn nodded. "You may have already realized it, but in the other time, I chose to side with the angels. In this time, I chose to side with the demons."

"Huh, then your choices really do change the world," he said, thinking over something.

"I feel like there were only a few hours to make the critical decisions in that past life," he said. "And my two closest friends were against each other bitterly. That seems to be the general line of these games."

"It's not fair to pin that much responsibility on one person, not to that person and not to everyone else," Issachar said. "You'd think that the future was made by the actions and words of many people, not just one. Hey wait…" he was looking down the street where a group of five demonoids hadn't noticed them yet. "Those ones, they seem like that kid Hallelujah, part human to some degree."

"They're demonoids, I can tell based on how they look," he said. They didn't follow the exact looks of other demons but clearly weren't human. "As you say, they're part human and part demon, most of them by choice."

"Whoa, there's an angel!" one of the demonoids shouted as they were finally noticed. This could be trouble.

"Hello," Issachar said, trying to put them at ease.

It didn't work. "We exterminated your sort, what the hell are you doing here?"

"Hang on, I'm human like you," Issachar said, holding his hands out trying not to threaten them.

"Well then you suck for getting an angel transformation," another of the demonoids said, smug now.

"Should probably kill her just in case," another said, though she was looking at him. Flynn narrowed his eyes at her; the demonoid gave him a lustful smile that gave him chills from remembering that look on others. "Especially since she has such a handsome and lively slave."

"Hey, I deserve one like that," one of the male demonoids said, causing the two of them to start fighting.

"Don't know you, so," the green-skinned demonoid lunged at Issachar, sprouting violet claws and aiming for his neck. Flynn quickly drew his katana to block him. With the limited space in this hall, the weapon reacted and wasn't as large as usual.

"Hoy, we're just looking for information now," Issachar said, hopeful yet ready to draw his guns.

"Sure, so you can take everything from us," another demonoid said, joining the fray. That forced Issachar to react with arrow rain in an attempt to clear some space around them.

The green demonoid stumbled back at the hail of bullets. A good opening; Flynn responded with thunder reign. As he thought, most of the demonoids fled on seeing they wouldn't be easy prey. The ones who'd survived this long were either powerful or smart enough to avoid getting killed. Three of them didn't give up the fight and had to be defeated. While they were part human, their bodies vanished like those of demons.

"Guess they decided to be demons more than humans," Issachar said, looking around. "Is this place usually this violent?"

Flynn nodded. It wasn't a pleasant world to be in.

Issachar glanced to him. "If we could get some more information… maybe Kasumigaseki? We found out a lot there. Mostly, we need to figure out what places could be safe here."

With a crash through a door, a giant spiky demonoid bellowed at them. "YOU! I'm gonna smash you into holy shit!"

"What for?" Issachar asked, bring up his guns.

"Because I'm the most powerful in Ueno and you're a damn angel," he replied, bracing himself to charge at him. Flynn got in the way and used antitchton as the demonoid charged. The brightness of it could affect his sight and would definitely weaken him.

Even with that, he was still thrown back into the wall from the force of the demonoid's charge. The demonoid roared and retaliated with a black fog that made him think of YHVH's realm, deaths at his hands that he didn't want… Shesha put a shield around him although his head was still full of nightmares. Flynn mentally recited a mantra that the lotus has taught him while he watched the battle go on without him. If he let loose, Issachar might be able to take this demonoid. But this wasn't a fight Flynn recalled.

Issachar trusted Shesha to protect Flynn so that he could focus on his duel. His wings flickered and he leapt back around fifteen feet to give himself a moment to change out his demons to those who hadn't been through three dozen battles in the past hour. Snorting, the spiked demonoid charged right after him, leapt over, and pounded the ground to send damaging tremors through anyone in the Ueno shelter. There were a few crashes nearby as things broke, followed by someone yelling. Issachar moved over so that the next charge led the demonoid into the wall.

When the demonoid recovered enough to attack back, he did something that made a red glow around him. This gave him horns at the sides of his head and a bull's tail. He knocked out one of Issachar's demons with another charge. Shifting over to his sword, Issachar asked, "You choose to be a demon?"

"I haven't needed the power of a full demon to rule here," the demonoid replied. "But I will take it to defeat you! No angel should live, no matter what you claim to be."

"It's a pity that you would sacrifice your humanity for that," Issachar said. His tone got the demonoid to hesitate which was enough for Issachar to finish him off. He came over and offered a hand to help him up. "How are you doing?"

Not wanting to disrupt his mantra, Flynn shook his head. Issachar squeezed his hand, then looked back around the hall. He was probably still hoping for somewhere safe for a base. For that, it was best to get to Kasumigaseki… some unwanted thoughts slipped in and he focused his mind away again.

"Hey, you took out Mr. Spikes?" a demonoid asked, approaching them. Oddly enough, he was wearing a striped suit and matching hat; demonoids usually went without clothing. "Wonderful, welcome to Ueno, new leader!" He bowed.

"I did defeat him, but I can't be your leader," Issachar said, baffled that it had been suggested.

"But you defeated our old leader, so it means you must be the new one," the demonoid said. "And you're a lady who still appreciates clothing! That makes at least some of us happy, since there's so few of us who do. Our little group is holed up in a working laundromat, and your outfits are looking dusty. Come on over, we'll let you clean up and rest."

"Thanks, although we don't have spare clothes," Issachar said.

"No problem, not at all. It's the one and only rule in Tokyo: if you've got the power, take what you want. And I saw that even your slave boy here is strong, so take what you like from our store."

"He's not my slave, but thank you," he said.

The group of clothing fans were a boisterous bunch, talking fast and loud. They didn't seem interested in fighting. Instead, the females of the group pulled Issachar over to find him some clothes. He wasn't stopping them from thinking he was a woman, same as in the last world. Flynn would go along with it if he felt like talking. For the moment, he shook his head and resisted the demonoids trying to pick clothes for him.

"She might look angelic, but she's got him strongly conditioned even if she obviously spoils him," one of them said.

"Well can you blame her?" another asked, trying to take his shoulder. He pulled away and gave him a hard look. "With a handsome powerful body and potent emotions despite his silence, I'd spoil a slave like this to keep him human."

"I wonder if she'd bring him to an orgy," another said, also trying to grab him. "I'd love to get them both in…"

Tense, Flynn threw trisagion at his face without thinking about it. The lusty demonoid crashed into a mannequin, not killed but almost so. The noisy demonoids went still on seeing that, then found excuses to go elsewhere. While he knew this was normal here, he also knew that he shouldn't be reacting like this. It got his distaste across, at least. Since they were leaving him alone now, he looked over the clothes himself. Cleaning their uniforms was a good idea, as well as grabbing some extra clothes since he hadn't been prepared with those for this trip.

They had so many clothes collected here, most of them in decent shape. It didn't matter what he wore… although he should have something given the demonoids. After several moments of indecisiveness, he noticed something in a bin: a hinged ring that resembled the skull hinges on the feed slaves of this world. It was pristine with no evidence of being used. They were assuming that he was Issachar's slave as he looked fully human, and he wasn't feeling talkative either. If they weren't assuming that relationship between them, they'd assume that he was in charge because he was more powerful despite being human. They might not listen to Issachar and would be challenging him.

The hinged ring gave him an idea. He didn't like it and suspected that Issachar wouldn't either. However, it was practical and the demonoids were already suspecting it. Flynn sent a message over to Issachar. 'They think I'm your slave because the demonoids enslave humans here. It's distasteful, but it might be useful to play along with their assumptions. I'll explain later, or you can have them show you their slaves.'

After setting the ring into storage for later use, Flynn turned back to searching for clothes. Play to their expectations… he could just pick out something comfortable for waiting on laundry and sleeping later. But they would expect a conditioned slave to think of how best to please their owner. So how to dress to what Issachar would like on him… that made it easier to pick through the clothes.

Issachar's reply came shortly. 'I don't like the idea, but after listening to these women chatter on, I can see your point. They're trying to convince me to take you to Ichigaya for some slave operation, or to stick around for other distasteful ideas. I've got a room for us for the night, so we'll discuss it later. And I'm trying to seem calm, but we're discussing what kind of dress might look good on me. It feels scandalous, but I've wanted to try this and despite the craziness of this place, there's something to be happy about. Thought I should warn you so you don't get too shocked; I hope they're treating you decently.'

Flynn managed to pick out his clothes and change out of his uniform in time to still have to wait on Issachar. He went over to check on the laundry machines; there weren't any in Mikado, but he had a general idea of how to work them. Thankfully, the machines were set to not need coins to start. He'd started checking over his armor when Issachar came over. With blue and green dress along with his longer ponytail, he looked more like he could be either a man or a woman. It was a good look, especially with him clearly being happy with it.

"Man, these women do a lot to achieve the looks they want," Issachar said, checking over the posted instructions to the machines. "They talked about make-up, piercings, grooming for feathers or horns, skin jewels, and that was before the clothing talk. I don't know about doing all that, but I feel really good now."

"You look adorable," Flynn said quietly.

That made his smile brighter, which brightened his mood too. "Thanks, you're looking good as always. So do we have everything to work these machines?"

"Yes," he said, bringing down a box of soap. With the instructions posted right here, it was simple for them to get the cleaning going.

"Oh, I have something I want to ask Shesha," Issachar said.

The snake crawled down Flynn's right arm, so he put his hand on a nearby washer so he could sit there. "What is it?" Shesha asked.

"Well Vishnu sent you to help Flynn even though it sounds like he didn't know what was going on," he explained. "Why didn't he come to check on things himself?"

Now on the washer, Shesha lifted his head to look at Issachar. "He can't right now as he has an important task to keep. I've been watching you too; you've heard that YHVH has grown hateful and delusional."

Issachar nodded. "And Ancient of Days was one of his aliases, right? Or another Face of God?"

"It's a title YHVH has taken," Shesha said. "Something strange has been going on in many worlds. I wouldn't notice it myself, but I've heard Vishnu and the other gods talk about it. For some reason, many gods have been growing insane and turning against humanity. It can be normal as the gods are forgotten by humans. However, something about this is different. It's more widespread than it should be and is worse in gods of creation."

"Do they know what causes that?" Issachar asked. Flynn felt curious too. He knew that was a problem with YHVH making himself the central God, but it was other creator gods as well?

"No, not that I've heard," Shesha said. "Our group is led by three gods: Vishnu the protector, Shiva the destroyer, and Brahma the creator. When they first noticed this trend, Brahma was his usual self and still wanted the best for mortals. He did not want to grow hateful, so the three of them decided to take steps to avoid whatever's going on. Brahma meditates in the world of the gods and Vishnu watches over him. Meanwhile, Shiva and a few others have been traveling worlds trying to find the truth as well as better solutions. Vishnu allows shades of himself to be called upon by skilled summoners, but he hasn't appeared in a mortal world himself for a long time."

"That makes sense," Issachar said. "Still means we need to take care of matters in our worlds, but now we know your group of gods should be reasonable. But what's going on with Krishna? Hikaru let me know through Jonathan that he stole Lucifer's identity from her."

"He did?" Flynn asked, feeling ice in his blood at that news. Krishna was bad enough on his own, but would be even more of a nightmare with Lucifer's identity.

Shesha hissed at this. "Has he? Lucifer is a puppet of YHVH, a scapegoat. Krishna should know better. Before he left the world of the gods, Krishna convinced others that YHVH was the central corruption to the insanity of the creators. Vishnu felt that was unproven, but didn't stop him from going to your world to fight against YHVH's forces. But he was captured and sealed away in his initial attempt. He then called upon me with a plan to take the souls of humanity from YHVH."

"What did he mean to do?" Issachar asked.

"May I explain?" Shesha asked him. Flynn nodded, although he tuned out the snake explaining Krishna plans. He knew those all too well: reclaiming the souls by having Shesha devour them, using Flynn's status as humanity's hero in order to pour all of their hopes into Shesha to turn him into the Cosmic Egg, putting doubt into YHVH's Law and Chaos forces by manipulating them to work together then turn on each other immediately by stepping out of the picture… although he did hear that Shesha thought Krishna would be convincing him by words to become Kalki, a harbinger of the end of the world as well as a Godslayer.

Issachar paid attention, of course, thinking through it. "Huh… I'm not sure how he could still make that work without you, unless creating that Cosmic Egg just needs something or someone for people to focus their hopes and prayers on."

"I don't know the details, but that sounds right," Shesha said. "Not every being can become a Cosmic Egg, but it's definitely more than just me. I don't see how becoming Lucifer helps him either. It feels like a selfish gamble to join enemy forces."

"Well how did you choose to side with Flynn?" Issachar asked.

Not even thinking twice, the snake replied, "In that moment, he was more like Vishnu than Krishna. His desire to protect humanity is second to wanting to protect his friends, including you; that's his main fault as an avatar of the Great Protector. But Vishnu told me that's forgivable and fulfilling either wish will lead to fulfilling the other. Krishna's desires at that moment were more selfish, out of touch with his purpose. His desire to protect was shadowed by a malicious desire, which is unacceptable."

"If he's willing to act as both himself and Lucifer, then Krishna may be able to orchestrate an altered version of his plan without you," Issachar said. "I don't know how much direct power is tied to an identity, but he could get a lot of demons and humans to do what he asks if they think he's Lucifer. And, you chose between them in that black forest of Shinjuku, right?"

"Yes, that was when I met Flynn," Shesha said.

There was something on the tip of his tongue, bring back uncomfortable feelings that made him want to keep quiet. But Issachar put a hand on his shoulder at the same time the lotus touched him with its calming aura. Gripping his hand, Flynn knew he should tell him. "These demonoids have little restraint. Some of their looks remind me of how Krishna's been, wanting power over me. I know I can defeat them, even Krishna. But today has been a nightmare."

"Are you sure about this pretending you're a slave act?" Issachar asked quietly. "I don't want power over you, or even pretending it if it's bad for you."

"I know I'm safe with you," Flynn said. "It's strange to them for anyone to be a natural human these days, and they assume they're going to be strong enough to capture me. If they think I belong to you, they have to go through you to get me, whether in challenging you or negotiations. I don't know if I can deal with them rationally. Sorry, when I had those demonoids talking around me like I was an object to lust over, I wanted that to stop."

"You overpowered them before they could do anything," Shesha said.

"I know, but I want to avoid that happening again if I can help it," Flynn said.

"If it makes you feel safer, then we'll go with that plan," Issachar said. "What should we be doing in this world? I thought maybe if we could find your old friend Kenji, that might give some direction."

He shook his head. "Kenji won't be any help. He was the first to become a demonoid; I'm not sure how human he is anymore. However, Akira is here too and he should have a plan for a better future. He's in Kasumigaseki."

"That's where I thought of going, so we should run into him," he said.

"Hey, Issachar!" One of the female demonoids came over, pulling along one of the feed slaves. "I still think it's weird you didn't know about the slave operation. You from somewhere overseas?"

"I'm not from Tokyo," he said, looking over the male slave. He was dressed nicer than other slaves Flynn had seen, although someone with a bondage kink had dressed him. It was disturbing.

"The demons taught us, so I'm sure any other land would have the same techniques," she said. "You have to protect your slaves more when they've had the operation because they don't react as quickly; they're no good at fighting, but then anybody who's a slave wasn't good at fighting in the first place. It makes things so much more convenient. Feed slaves fill you up much better than normal humans, you just pop the top and take what you like." She then opened the slave's skull with an audible snap.

Issachar paled at that, looking away. "That's disgusting; I couldn't eat like that."

"Well how do you feed off him?" she asked, closing the skull.

"Um," Issachar looked at him while thinking. "That's rather intimate to ask, don't you think?"

The demonoid laughed. "Like you have succubus traits despite the angel look? That would be amazing. For the rest of us, this works better. Guess you have the choice. Well now I'm hungry, so come along boy." She then took off with the slave, thankfully.

"A succubus…" Issachar said, then blushed. "Um, well that is something they'd believe."

"True," Shesha said. "I can smell that you're lovers, so some of them will also notice. Maybe most."

"If that's the story these demonoids would come up with, we may as well use it," Issachar said, trying to swallow his embarrassment at it. "Man, the last world was strange at times, but this one is weird in every way."

"I'm sure you can make something good of it," Flynn said. Although given how many in this world have given up their humanity or their freedom, that was a daunting task.

* * *

Since Jonathan's task required going through three tough domains, Walter and Isabeau went along with him. The first one took them several hours to get through as they were forced to retreat to heal before finding the domain's master. And of course, the domain would rearrange itself by the time they got back in. They got lucky on the fifth try in finding the domain master after just six battles.

That was, lucky in the sense of finding the demon. They were luckier to have a message from Flynn as he had sent them information on the three domain masters that stood in the way of freeing Amaterasu. With that, they could take advantage of the demon's weaknesses. Without it, they might have gotten killed. One of the other domain masters was rated at the highest level they'd seen, 99. That one would require extra preparation.

Back in Mikado, they had a few more hours left in the day. "That was rough, but a good challenge," Jonathan said, stretching out his arms as they walked out into Aquila Plaza.

"Wanna challenge yourself more?" Walter said, smiling and playfully punching near him.

Jonathan chuckled. "As long as I can come back home," he replied. "Did you want some help finding that book?"

"Nah, I just need to talk with people," he said. "Shouldn't be anywhere near as hard as what you're doing, although we'll have to see how tough the book itself is when I get it."

"I'm going to see if I can meet up with a few friends, so I'll see you later," Isabeau said.

"Sure, see you at home," he said then gave her a quick kiss before heading off. "Want anything from the bakery?"

"If they have any cinnamon raisin bread, that sounds good," she said.

Fortunately, the Casualry bakery did have cinnamon raisin bread available. Just one loaf, but that was enough if there wasn't any at home. "That's one of our more popular breads, so you're lucky it didn't sell out already," the baker Nathan said.

"I've gotten lucky with a few different things today," Walter said, paying for the loaf. "Did you hear anything about that book by Yuji?"

"Oh yes, I know who has it now," he said, taking a small notebook out of his pocket. "A woman informed me that she got a book with a scorpion on the cover about a month ago. Since she doesn't like bugs like that, she gave it to one of our collectors, Harold and Amelia Potter. They've been storing a lot of Literature to keep the books dry and safe, lending them out to those who are interested. It shouldn't be a problem for you."

"Sure, thanks for finding that out for me," he said. "You're a pretty smart guy."

Nathan chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, I just know a lot of people. You and your samurai friends are some of the most famous people I know too. Everybody's talking about you, the brave prodigies who defeated some of our most powerful enemies."

He shrugged. "Eh, if I can succeed at it, anybody could with enough work."

As their name suggested, the Potters were Casualry folks. But they had old drying sheds and storage barns that they were keeping the books in. "My father and I build some new sheds when we had an excess one winter," Harold said, taking him over to the collection of small buildings. "But since we started trading with Tokyo, we've stepped up production. Everybody can use some pottery."

"You've got a point there," Walter said. Now that he thought about it, a lot of everyday items were made by these folks. Not just pots for storage, but also plates, mugs, chamberpots, even some knives.

"Literature is important too, since we don't want to lose this knowledge again," Harold said. "What kind of book are you looking for? We've got them sorted by type, as best as we can figure. My wife and I are avid readers, but even we haven't read all of these."

Double-checking the angel's request, he said, "I was asked to study a specific book… 'Fallen Blind, Deaf, and Dumb' by Yuji. It's got a scorpion on the cover."

After a moment, he nodded. "Oh, I think I know the one you're talking about. It's got an ominous name and critter, so we put it in with books we consider dangerous. They're in a storage cellar, over here."

"Has anybody read it?" Walter asked, following him into one of the sheds.

"No, don't think so," Harold said. "It was summoned at one of the Sabbaths and nobody there wanted it. One of the women turned it in to us since she thought it might be cursed. Just to be careful, we had one of the samurai check it over. He thought it was an ordinary book, so it should be safe. But even of those willing to take a peek in the dangerous books, nobody has picked out that one to borrow yet."

"It might not be as dangerous as it seems," he said. "I was told it was a group of writings about Scriptures."

"Really?" Harold asked, surprised to hear that. "I'd guess with that kind of title then, it'd be about sin and those who lose their way."

"Could be. Titles give you a good idea what a book is about, I find, but it doesn't reveal everything about itself. Actually, I've seen a couple with very precise titles, but they don't seem as interesting."

"I've felt that way about some of these," he said, turning on the cellar light. "Here we go. It had a bug on the cover, so it should be over here." He gestured over to the shelves on the left.

"All right," Walter said, starting to check that area. A Cool Kid's Guide to Spiders, The Black Widow, Invasion of the Ant People… how were some of these dangerous?

"Here we go," Harold said, taking out one on the highest shelf. "This the one?"

Taking it, he checked the title and author. It matched, but he opened it up to find the table of contents. On seeing several with names that included 'scriptures', he was sure it was the one the angel suggested. "Sure looks like it. Thanks. It might take me a while to get through, but I can give you some of my books that I won't be reading again."

He nodded. "That'd be good. We got an idea for a public library from one of the books, so we're trying to find a way to start one here in the capitol. More books would help with that; we've got reading groups that are putting together petitions to get a building for the library."

"Nice, is there a lot of reading groups?" Walter asked.

"Of course, the biggest two are for scripture reading and mysteries. I'm a part of the latter and we're getting into some real mysteries too."

"Oh yeah?" Walter asked. "What kind of mystery do you have?"

Eager to share it, Harold said, "Well it's about the disappearance of a sacred item: the gauntlet of King Aquila. It was going to be brought out for the fifteen hundredth anniversary of the birth of Mikado, but then it was missing from the monastery's storage. The records were combed through and the last one that mentions the location of the gauntlet was fourteen years ago. We've been trying to figure out what could have happened to it."

"That's a strange thing to disappear and not be noticed gone for years," he said.

"Right! And in Aquila's writings, he stated that he made sure that his gauntlet could only be used by himself when he is reborn. The first king of Mikado could return again, even help us with these dangerous times. But he would need his gauntlet to do so; it's really important to find it."

"I think the gauntlets could find each other," Walter said, although he wasn't sure how to do that.

"I would need to know the ID number of Aquila's gauntlet in order to do so, master," Burroughs said.

This led them to discuss more about the possibilities of Aquila's gauntlet as well as the mystery books themselves. Walter decided to borrow one of them too as it could be interesting to read. Of course, the most important mystery to him right now was how to get Flynn and Issachar back home safely. There were many reasons for that, and they might be interested in this mystery of the missing gauntlet as well.


	67. Twisted Tokyo

**Chapter 67: Twisted Tokyo**

The rumor mill was buzzing with crazier stories than usual today. Central to them all was Flynn, the hero who had defeated the angels with Kenji. An older series of rumors said that Flynn and Kenji had come to blows years ago. Some claimed to have witnessed said battle, but the details were fuzzy aside from how Flynn 'disappeared' after it. According to the new rumors, Flynn had shown back up around Ueno yesterday. He might be a vengeful ghost or zombie, devastating anyone who crossed him.

But Flynn might also be a slave now, on account of another person with him. She might be controlling him, she might be an angel, she might be a succubus. Whatever the story was, there was a similar refrain in the rumors, that Flynn was quiet and would only speak to his companion. They were both powerful and defeated any who tried to oppose them. Flynn had even obliterated several demonoids in a single spell despite being a zombie, but the angel-succubus with him must overpower him somehow.

Of course, they were rumors and couldn't be counted on. But it was clear to Akira that a powerful couple of some sort had appeared at Ueno. They were working together, which was promising. Most demonoids were selfish and uncooperative, which made it hard to get much of anything done. If someone had the whim to, they could undo all work on a big project and there was nothing Akira could do about it. Teaming up with people who were cooperating with each other could be the big break he had been searching for.

Akira headed out towards Ueno, distracting any demons who came across his path. On the bridge to Ueno, he ran across who he was looking for. The man seemed a lot like Flynn, even to his black ponytail with long sidebangs; he had a slave's ring under his hair, but most slaves were kept with shaved or nearly shaved hair. The woman had angel wings and an aura of light in this dark city. However, that aura was more human than heavenly and the pair had a stronger emotional attachment to each other than a usual slave and master arrangement.

"Hey, are you an angel or a human?" Akira called over as they were approaching each other.

"I'm a human, since you ask," the woman said. "Do you consider yourself more human or demon?"

"Huh? Uh, hadn't thought of that." He rubbed his head and stopped while they kept approaching. "But, I guess I see myself as a human rather than a demon. I became a demonoid to be safe from demons."

"I suppose here, that makes sense," she said. "I'm Issachar, and this is Flynn. Who are you?"

"I'm Akira," he said. "Man, I was kinda hoping you'd turn out to be an angel. People've been talking about you two as a pair of badasses and an angel might've been able to change things."

"Not necessarily," Issachar said.

"And why're you faking being a slave, Flynn?" Akira asked, looking at him. "It's weird."

Flynn glanced aside, uncomfortable with being spoken to. Maybe that was the answer. Issachar answered instead. "You seem reasonable Akira, more so than the other demonoids we've met. And that's part of why. We're not from this world."

"Whoa, really?" Akira asked, surprised. He'd figured out how to sense lies and this was not one of them.

Issachar nodded. "We're fighting a force of despair that's sending us to different worlds. We just arrived here, but it's clear that if we don't play along with their perceptions, the other demonoids are going to keep fighting us. Well, they still fight us, but they give up quicker if they think he's a slave."

Because if Flynn was a skilled and seemed like Issachar's slave, the demonoids would assume Issachar had to be stronger and would be more wary of attacking the pair. "Huh, that's pretty clever," Akira said. "Hey, uh, you might still be able to help out, so you wanna team up with me?"

"What are you trying to do?" she asked, then checked around. He didn't blame her for being cautious, since demons were everywhere.

"Well if you're not from this world, have you heard who rules this city?" Akira asked.

"It's someone called Kenji," she said.

"Right, Kenji is the king of Tokyo. But he only rules in the sense that he's defeated everyone who crosses him. He says that if you have the power to win, you can do whatever you like. And if you don't have that power, you have to submit to those who do. That's the only law around here anymore."

"It sounds simple, but it's cruel," Issachar said, already against it.

"Yeah, it's brainless," Akira said, rolling his eyes. "But people were turning into demons and going wild; they loved that. They keep killing each other fighting over the most trivial of things while slaves end up drained to death. If things keep going this way, there's going to be no humans left at all, not even in a demonoid state like me."

"That would be bad," she agreed.

"Somebody needs to defeat Kenji and put more sensible laws in place. I've got some ideas to do that, but," he shrugged, "well I'm not strong enough to take out somebody like Kenji. That's why I was hoping an angel showed up. I know I'm not the only one sick of how things are now, but nobody's going to listen unless the king is taken down. Even if you aren't an angel, I hear you guys are really strong too, so would you help out? I'll help you out as much as I can in return."

"Well," she glanced at Flynn, then thought of something. "It would be best if the humans of this world could retake your world, even part demons like yourself. How much have you trained yourself to fight?"

Feeling sheepish, he said, "Uh, not much. Even when I became a demonoid, I didn't get more aggressive or stronger than I was. I mostly get by with scaring full demons away from me by magic." And for a long time, he hadn't cared about getting stronger. By the time he started caring again, the survivors around him dominated anybody they saw as weak.

"If you set yourself to the goal, you can train yourself to be stronger," Issachar said. "You see yourself as more human than demon too, so that'll work in your favor."

"Really?" Akira asked, scratching his head. "The other demonoids wouldn't say that; they say that you should become more like a demon to get stronger."

She shook her head. "I've seen a demonoid become a full demon and he only seemed stronger. He was clever with the use of his power before he did so; he might have defeated us if he'd stuck to that. But demons are limited in the ways they can grow and change. In fact, one reason they agree to the terms of the Demon Summoning Program is because being a summoned demon may let them get stronger. You're human, so you can decide to get stronger, train yourself, and you'll get better, not just stronger." She pulled out one of the two guns she had holstered on her belt. "I didn't know guns existed a few months ago, but I'm getting consistent with using two now because I've been practicing."

"That is awesome you can do that," he said. "I still don't know about myself getting stronger."

"I think you should try," Issachar said with a smile. "You can train with us against the demons around here if you want. Well, mostly me, Flynn's very strong already. We just need someplace safe to rest and recuperate between training sessions."

"That's easy, you can come back with me to Kasumigaseki," Akira said, smiling back. "I've gathered some folks who are of the same mind as me there so we can protect each other. But even then, nobody's strong enough to make much progress anywhere else."

"If they're like you, they should be able to train themselves too," she said. "But we three can work together for now."

Akira had given up on getting any stronger himself. But listening to Issachar, it was hard not to share her optimism. He wanted to try for himself again. She could convince the other demonoids in Kasumigaseki to get stronger as well. If they did that, then they could all overthrow Kenji and make things better.

Maybe it was better that he'd run into her rather than an actual angel.

* * *

Raphael emerged from the cocoon first. He checked the area they were in now. In the air, there was a barely visible barrier that would force unwanted visitors through an angelic domain to reach them. A stretch of forest stood between them and the lands of Mikado and Tokyo; the river delta added marshlands, but those didn't offer another path this way. This was good. If they put the right angels in the forest and marsh, no mortal nor demon could sneak through to reach them. Even if they did, they'd have to pass through the domain. They'd have plenty of time to prepare if challengers came.

Even so, this wasn't a pleasing sight. If it was just the natural majesty of God's world, then this would be a beautiful place. But the human structures marred the landscape. Especially Tokyo, a filthy eyesore that showed humanity's vanity in dominating the land. All of the human cities of the old world should be ruins by now. It would take another five hundred years for them to feel comfortable that all the other human civilizations were completely gone, plus wiping out Tokyo using its reactor. But now that it was exposed, the reactor would take out the people of Mikado too.

That might not be so bad given Gabriel's stories on what had gone on during their captivity. Even the people of Mikado were now deaf to them, unable to be awakened by an angel's voice. They were actively fighting against angels, somehow believing them to be false. Why were they trying to corrupt themselves? But pursing that question was fruitless, Raphael knew that. Humans had been slipping into sin from the very first no matter how hard angels tried to correct them. Would it be worth it to just eliminate them all so God could start everything over?

Well, only God could decide that. Only God could decide on their course. But it would be nice if God told them what should be happening like He used to, rather than leaving them just relying on their instincts to know His will. True, they did carry out God's will in their every word and action. But it would help Gabriel at least for God to come to them directly to reassure and guide them.

Before he could get too lost in thought, Shene Duque's guard came over. "Any orders, sir?"

"Tell me about the situation we're in," Raphael said.

"The people of Mikado have been growing stronger and more lost," the guard said. "According to reports, village guards have grown capable of defeating angels and archangels in battle. The samurai are even stronger; prentices of a few months have been able to defeat a couple of our principalities. But the chosen heroes are the strongest of the lot as expected. The messiah and one of the pawns are currently missing, but the other three heroes have gotten Merkabah to work with them. They were capable of taking out me."

"They've convinced her to work for them?" Raphael asked, concerned about this news. Heart of Law was a dangerous force even in her fragmented form. If the humans got her to listen to them, she would wreak a lot of havoc that might not be repaired for centuries. They were already having to fight a battle to fix their reputations.

"It seems so," the guard said. He explained more about Mikado's situation before going on to Tokyo. Of course, the people of Tokyo still saw them as being antagonists. They weren't going to listen easily. But there was something else to the guard's report. "Some demon called the Demifiend has killed the leader of one of the large organizations in Tokyo and taken it for his own."

"The Demifiend?!" Raphael asked, alarmed at hearing that. "What's he doing in this world?"

"That is unknown," the guard said. "He has made Ichigaya his base of operations and has been ordering the humans to fix up the city."

"Fix the city?" That was strange because that creature was all about destruction and lies, much like his master. His master… that could be why he was here, which was terrible news.

"Yes, repairing bridges, roads, and shelters. He has even claimed that once enough surface structures are fixed, they'll start working on the rail systems and a new bridge over to Mikado."

"That should benefit humans more than demons, so why do that?" Raphael wondered aloud. "Strange. At any rate, he's going to be an obstacle. We're going to have to find some supporters, if only to get a foothold against everyone else. Anything else?"

After getting the rest of the reports, Raphael looked back over the land. Mikado had taken the architecture of a better era of human history, from a land where they held God as the most important being in their lives. They had set things up to not just bring that era back, but to improve upon it. Perhaps the humans needed to be taken even further back. But first, they needed to deal with the current situation.

Maybe it was worth it to just give up on these fools and leave this world to its own destruction.

But that was God's decision, not his.

* * *

Between training sessions with Akira, Issachar spoke with the demonoids and slaves in Kasumigaseki. The other demonoids were like Akira in being not very confidant and being more human than demon. They expected demonoids from outside the group to bully them too. Once they figured out he was trying to help them, they almost seemed like normal people. They were impulsive and irrational; he saw several arguments break out where the participants couldn't remember why they were arguing afterward. But they were hoping that a better group of rules rather than just the one would help them out.

The slaves seemed content with being kept safe, but Issachar still didn't like the enslavement. It was much like the Reds, although the slaves seemed slightly better off than the Red victims. For one thing, the feed slaves were able to hold a conversation. "I had a master who wanted me to keep silent and obedient," one of the men said. "And they talk about us like animals. Akira is friendly with us, though."

"I had a master who wanted me to stroke his ego all the time, among other things," a woman said. "The demonoids here let us rest between feedings and will ask what we want to do, which is wonderful. Although, I worry if they can defend us if someone tries to invade this place."

"I'm encouraging them to get stronger without losing themselves," Issachar said. "But you all chose this life?"

"It was this or risk going crazy as a demonoid. Staying as a normal human is even crazier."

What could be done here? The children he saw around were either part demon already or undernourished. The adult slaves were resigned to their fate, seeing themselves as too weak to do anything about their situation. But as disgusting as it was, they were the demonoid's food source. There ought to be something they could do to press the demonoids to treat them better.

He took a few of the demonoids he'd convinced to get stronger out onto the streets to train. Within a couple of battles, one of them got too excited and started attacking the others. That incited the other three, but they were clearly enjoying it. But as one of them nearly died, Issachar had to sing in order to calm them down.

"Hell, what was that?" one of them asked when she got a grip on herself. She put a hand on her head.

"You all went berserk with demonic power," Issachar told them. "You'd destroy yourselves if I didn't calm you."

"Maybe, but your song would make anybody depressed," she said.

"I've not been told that before," he said.

But the other demonoids agreed. As the days went on, more of them grew reluctant to train under him. They went on their own to grow stronger instead, leading some to not come back. But Akira stuck with him and Flynn. He also didn't go berserk like the others, leaving him to analyze situations rationally. Then again, he was more human than anyone else Issachar saw, even the passive slaves.

One day, the three of them wandered down the roads to the south, seeking out stronger fights to challenge themselves with. Flynn had gotten ahead of them, but the raised highway was clear. Issachar and Akira hurried over to meet with him. "I don't think your voice is disturbing," Akira said. "I've heard you sing a time or two and it's reassuring. But the other guys say it makes them feel bad about hurting others."

"Maybe when they change their mind, it'll change their opinions," Issachar said.

"I hope so, since things need to change around here," Akira said.

"I've heard that before," he said, then called over, "Hoy, Flynn!"

He glanced back at them, then pointed ahead. "You see that?"

Ahead of him, there was a smoky black structure that seemed like a hole in the air itself. Issachar could feel death around it. "Yes, what is that? It doesn't match anything I've seen in this world."

"I've heard talk about this," Akira said, stopping where Flynn was. "They say that powerful demons appear around here and there's some maze inside with no end. At least, no end that anyone has reached."

"That's a portal to another timeline, called Twisted Tokyo," Flynn explained. "It's one where I failed and died. As a result, everyone died and the world was lost. The only ones alive in there are demons, including several of the fiends."

"A time where you failed?" Akira asked, curious about it. "That seems unlikely."

Flynn shook his head. "I was less experienced then. But if you want to grow stronger, Twisted Tokyo is a good place to challenge yourself. It's just, I'd have to go in with you because it could easily kill you."

"Is that so?" Issachar said, considering that. If he got strong enough, Flynn wouldn't have to worry about him so much. And Akira needed to be a lot stronger.

"But I usually see this in our world," Flynn said. "There's a chance we could get back home through here if the White try to strand us here."

"That could be good, but we'd have to get through that maze, right?" Issachar asked. "I think it'd be good to train in there before we try that. What do you think, Akira?"

"Uh, going against the fiends is crazy," he said, scratching his head. "But hey, if I could defeat one of them, I could defeat Kenji."

"Strategy is more important than power in either case," Flynn said. "If you want to go ahead, I'll prepare you for defeating at least the first couple of fiends in here."

"Well we won't disappoint you then," Akira said with a grin.

"Right," Issachar agreed.

* * *

A nice thing about having this office was that he could control who was coming and going. Currently, he had Moloch in. "I need you to stop the bridge between Ueno and Ginza from being rebuilt," Krishna said. "Take some beasts with you to take out as many of the workers as you can."

"Isn't that the project of the Demifiend?" Moloch asked. "I would think that as a fiend, he was under your command."

"We can't let the humans grow lax," he said. Given what Belial had told him about his encounter with the Demifiend, Krishna suspected that he would realize his deception as well. It was preferable not to run into any of the fiends. "Not until they accept us as their lords. Besides, that bridge benefits humans more than demons. It shouldn't be completed."

"I agree with that, my lord," Moloch said, then headed off on his task.

The next to arrive were the demons who'd been keeping watch over the captive angels: Asmodeus, Balor, Murmur, Gemori, and Samyaza. "I apologize for losing Kagome Tower," Asmodeus said. "We weren't expected them to blow the whole thing up."

"That's true, we weren't," he said. "Some of my scouts have spotted the cocoon they're using for a base from the sky, but weren't able to get close. I'd like you to scout out the wilderness between the city and the cocoon so we can plan a raid on them."

"You want us to go separate or together?" Samyaza asked, glancing at the others.

"Whichever works best for you," Krishna said, figuring that they'd go separately. "I just want the information so we can defeat the angels quickly."

"Sure, we'll get to that," Asmodeus said.

An hour after they left, Garuda arrived. Since he was an ally of the gods, Krishna changed over to look like his normal self. "You're back earlier than expected," he said.

"Yes, I wasn't able to act according to plan," Garuda said. "The bridge work crew included Ym. It devastated Moloch's troops all on its own, so I suspect it's a custom summon demon that was released."

"It could have a summoner," Krishna said. "Did you attempt to fight Ym?"

"No, I didn't. Our goal is to make the humans rely on us, so attacking a demon guarding them seemed counterproductive."

He nodded. "Good, although that will become a problem. I have another battle staged, around Ginza." Krishna then explained the general plan and how Garuda could jump in.

The point of these conflicts was now to make the humans feel like any being of the Mesian beliefs was out to ruin them. It didn't matter if they followed YHVH or Lucifer; their reputations had to be wrecked. Meanwhile, the pagan gods of their alliance needed to be seen as benefiting humans, worthy of worship. That wasn't enough for humanity's souls to escape YHVH's covenant. But it should be enough for humans to accept their teachings, that a new world needed to be born.

Of course, they could be tormented until they accepted Salvation as their only salvation. Krishna kept coming up with ideas for that. With the help of someone able affect dreams, he could implant nightmares and make the humans think they were having prophetic dreams. He could grant them special curses that only one of the gods could clear, curses that disfigured their bodies with great pain. He could trick them into doing things they would regret, then encourage them to ruin themselves with guilt. And when they were at their lowest, trick them further into depending entirely on him.

They were enticing thoughts, but he had to keep such ideas to himself. Especially when Maitreya showed up. "How are you doing keeping as yourself?" he asked.

"I'm fine, no need to worry about that," Krishna said. "Do you have control over the Ring of Gaea? I haven't heard much about them."

"Over most of them," he said. "Some take the philosophy of depending on your own power seriously. But it's some of my people that I need to talk to you about. They wanted to protest the Ashura-kai still controlling the city."

"I see, were you looking for backup?"

"No, it's already past," Maitreya said. "The problem is that it went poorly. It was supposed to just be a small one, but they recruited others. Due to mixed reports, it's hard to tell what went wrong. The gist I got was that they annoyed the Demifiend and he alone wiped out most of them."

"That's not too surprising," Krishna said. "How bad was it?"

After thinking a moment, Maitreya answered, "They said they got a group of a hundred at least. And only sixteen returned, although they got scattered across Tokyo and Mikado. They were badly injured and delirious."

"Then are you looking to avenge them?" he asked.

"Partly. I want to break the power the Demifiend's gotten, but it's clear he shouldn't be taken lightly."

He called himself a general of Lucifer and was a threat to Krishna's act. "Yes, that would be best for us."

* * *

Twisted Tokyo was a sign of what happened should he fail. The whole world had been consumed by demon domains, which collapsed one by one. Eventually, this world would cease to exist entirely. While it was here, they could take advantage of it. The bloody appearance of these gnarled halls didn't disturb Flynn anymore. Most of the demonoids of Infernal Tokyo were more disturbing.

This time around, Akira was more promising than usual. He was helping to win battles this time. Flynn was used to him being a coward in this timeline, so he hadn't thought of encouraging him to fight for himself. However, that was likely the most effective path for this world while they had influence on it. It meant that Akira could defend himself and his ideals when he and Issachar left this world.

Issachar was doing well too. He wasn't giving up on the other demonoids. Whenever they got back from a training run through Twisted Tokyo, he would go speak to the others in Kasumigaseki just like he had the survivors in Blasted Tokyo. The demonoids didn't need encouragement, though. Issachar kept trying to put doubt in them of their way of thinking. As a result, they were starting think about the future rather than doing whatever felt good today. That gave them a better chance at having a future.

David was the first fiend in the maze as usual. While he was stronger than when Issachar fought him, he was alone and no match for the three of them. Flynn held them back for a couple of days before heading down to where Matador usually was. It was darker than areas closer to the exit, colder as well. However they could all feel the difference when one of the fiends drew near.

They weren't challenged by one fiend, though. The walls got ripped apart to allow the four horsemen to get in. "Oh, some humans have indeed wandered in," Red Rider said, bored and not caring about this.

"It's a change of pace to be sure," Black Rider said. "But this world is on its last breath. What are you doing here?"

"We came here to challenge ourselves, so we do better against our enemies," Issachar said. That was a good start, more likely to interest them.

"A brave means of doing so, or is it foolish? Black Rider said.

"What enemies do you have to use a dying world to train?" White Rider asked.

Issachar gestured to him, saying, "We're fighting the White, not you, but the personification of despair."

"And YHVH," Flynn said.

"I'm just trying to fight King Kenji so I can take control of Tokyo," Akira said.

"So we have an idealist, a Godslayer, and a conqueror," Pale Rider said.

"That's amusing," White Rider said, finally having something in his voice aside from boredom.

"It shouldn't be trouble for you to entertain us for a little while," Red Rider said. "Let's go."

Within a couple of rounds, Flynn knew they were dealing with the weaker group of Riders. He normally ran into them in Blasted Tokyo. But it was a relief since running into all of the stronger Riders at once would be too much for Akira, maybe too much for Issachar. After a couple of antitchtons, these ones were manageable. Flynn focused on using healing magic, which he had relearned after focusing on attack magic for so long. Gaining confidence was important for the others, especially Akira.

When the four were defeated, White Rider appeared again. "Well done, strangers," he said. "You shouldn't stay in this world much longer as the portal you came through is going to vanish. We thought we should help you, but it seems the Godslayer can already summon us. We'll let the other two summon us, but our would be conqueror needs something special." He called out a bone crown and tossed it over to Akira.

"Great, thanks," Akira said, taking the crown but not putting it on.

"That will let one of us come to you even if they don't have our memories of this battle," White Rider said. "It'll help you in battles in other ways, to keep hold of your conquests. I wish you well in your ambitions." He bowed as he faded out.

After looking at the crown a moment, Akira grinned. "Right, I feel like I can really do this now! I won't go after Kenji right away, but I've got a good plan to take control of the city. We can start tomorrow."

"Sure, let's talk about it back at base," Issachar said. "The crown looks fine to me, so you shouldn't have to worry about a curse on it."

"Then we should leave," Flynn said.


	68. Kingmaker

**Chapter 68: Kingmaker**

Lightning bolts filled the room, arcing around the black energy sphere around the reactor's gate. The screams of demons killed by his attacks echoed around, soon dying off. Again, he had won. Kenji hadn't lost for years; he wasn't sure how many years, but it was a great many. It was proof that he could do anything. Well, almost anything. He wanted a challenge, but hadn't found one in a long time.

It was quiet now. The reactor gate hummed, settling down from summoning the demons for him to fight. Twitching the wires attached to his body, Kenji considered calling on more demons. The thrill of winning waned quickly. Most days, he would call demons into the world to fight until he felt exhausted. That was how he wanted to live.

It was, wasn't it? He remembered fighting the angels alongside Flynn. That had been an amazing time, feeling himself grow stronger and stronger until no one could stand in his way. None at all… not the demons, not the angels… not Kiyoharu despite his foolish choice to surrender his will to the angels. Kiyoharu had always been idealistic, even when it got him beat up and he had to depend on Kenji. Kenji liked that. When Kiyoharu went too far, it had been a terrible betrayal. Kenji had killed him and hated him for making him feel awful about it, usually when he wasn't fighting.

Not even Flynn could stand in his way, although he had be one of the biggest obstacles. But there could only be one king around, as one of his best demon allies had told him. Flynn had grown in power with him but he could kill faster than him. To become the true king, Kenji had to be creative to get him out of the way. Flynn had been quiet, idealistic, and realistic, somehow garnering more attention than Kenji despite being more reluctant to talk. Kenji had killed him too, often feeling awful about it because who knew what Flynn would have done if he'd continued on.

Kenji had killed a lot of people to get here, sometimes in berserk rages where he didn't realize who was before him. He felt so alive in those battles, his blood burning hot and his powers blazing away everything in him and around him. Now that they had faded from not being in battle, he felt bored and numb… and he was recalling things without meaning too, like how sad Kiyoharu had seemed about not being able to save his soul, and the shock on Flynn's face after getting back-stabbed when he'd thought they'd lead together…

A white being appeared in the room without being called. Kenji felt relieved for a distraction and lashed out with his wires. However, they all passed right through the being. And when he looked at the ghost, it seemed like Flynn, cracked to the point where a good tap should shatter him. It chilled his usual fury.

Flynn somehow spoke with moving at all. "You cannot defeat your own regret."

"Shut up," Kenji growled, trying to strike him again.

Flynn's image vanished, reappearing in another place. "I am not Flynn. Flynn is currently in Shinjuku, stealing it from you like he has with Ueno and Kasumigaseki."

"What?" Had he survived? Had he been reborn? Whatever, he seemed to be back and was getting his revenge.

"He has an angel with him," the image said.

"WHAT?!" he bellowed, trembling as his rage returned.

"It's something you deserve," the image said, bringing out a thought that he normally kept batted down. "A Lord of Chaos is emerging. If you want to rule this world, you had best take out Flynn and his angel." It then vanished.

Kenji growled, feeling his berserker blood boil. Finally, a challenge! Even if it was Flynn again, he wasn't going to lose. He never lost.

Leaving Ichigaya for the first time in who knew how many years, Kenji made his way to Shinjuku.

* * *

As Akira was the one who wanted to take over Tokyo, they let him fight alone against the leader of Shinjuku, the demon Mahamayuri. The other demonoids were fighting in the streets and buildings, proving that they deserved to take over Shinjuku. Issachar and Flynn helped Akira out by taking out hordes of demons that were summoned into Mahamayuri's domain.

The hordes all vanished when their master was defeated. "Heh, well done, Akira," Mahamayuri said as he shattered. "I thought you were just going to hide behind the others as usual but… yes, you are a conqueror. Good luck." With a smile, he let himself vanish from the world.

"Great work," Issachar said, proud of him. Akira's confidence had grown by leaps and bounds over the past few days. Perhaps just letting him know that he could change and get better had been all that Akira had needed.

"Aw, thanks guys," Akira said, rubbing his head. The domain was vanishing around them. "We need to spread word that Mahamayuri is gone, and I should get one of my guys to watch over the slaves so they can enforce our standards."

"We'll go around letting others know you won," Issachar said. He could sing if any of the demonoids didn't want to give up, or Flynn could knock sense into them.

The Shinjuku demonoids were shocked that Akira's gang had grown strong. Once they cooled off from battle, they laughed out of being impressed and agreed to let Akira call the shots for a while. "Unless you're going to call on more angels," one of them said to him.

Issachar shook his head. "I won't. I'm more like you than I am to the angels, after all."

Shrugging, the demonoid said, "You're strong enough to respect, just don't sing again."

"I can't promise that," he said.

A crackling bellow filled the street as most of the demonoids scattered immediately. And for good reason: a being like a massive mask was tearing through the air, filling the air with an oppressive power. Flynn clasped the handle of his sword. "That's Kenji," he said.

"You… angel… Flynn…" Kenji sputtered, then threw wheels of lightning at them with a roar.

Once the wheels faded, Issachar had his guns out. "He recognizes you too," he said before seeing how guns worked against him. "Try calling his name."

"Hmm?"

"Just try."

Nodding, Flynn healed up the two of them and their demons, then called, "Hoy, Kenji."

"Ngh…" Kenji's wires waved around. "Flynn? You're not a slave."

Flynn watched him for a second, seeing the wires slow. He then took the slave ring off and tossed it aside. "I'm not."

"You're a traitor, consorting with an angel," Kenji said, then hesitated. "Angel?"

"I'm not an angel, just with the form of one," Issachar said.

"Why would you want to be an angel?" Kenji called angrily, filling the street with lightning now. "What can you do that we can't with demonic powers?"

"He might react badly to this, but I want to try," Issachar said quietly to Flynn.

Stepping ahead of him, Flynn nodded. "I'll keep you safe."

He took a moment to examine Kenji. His soul was raging with the demonic berserk state. But in there, he still had some humanity in him. Kenji felt guilt on seeing Flynn, similar to Kiyoharu. To ask him if he wanted forgiveness, Issachar sang to Kenji in hopes of pulling his human self out of the demon power.

Kenji screamed in response as his more human feelings were called on. Flynn stopped Kenji from getting next to him, taking the blows instead. Although worried, Issachar continued his song. Did he really want to hurt someone he recognized as his friend?

"Shut up!" Kenji called, throwing out lightning and wire punches everywhere. "I can't be forgiven! I'm a demon, I don't need forgiveness!"

But he was still human. There should still be hope for him to return to humanity. There should be hope for humanity to regain ground in this world. If things kept going as chaotic as they were, humans would vanish from the world. Did he really want the demons to win? Would he rather seek redemption and find true independence for the world?

"We don't have independence?" Kenji asked.

"No, you're depending on demons enough to become demons," Issachar said.

"I sought power to never depend on anyone," Kenji said. "I didn't want to be like Kiyoharu, unable or unwilling to defend himself against anyone. Since Lucifer left, I've been fighting on my own, many demons a day, and I've never lost."

"Lucifer left you?" he asked. He probably meant Hikaru without realizing it.

"Right, I'm not depending on him," Kenji said. "Flynn, you remember? You were given a choice of some powerful demons to summon at one point, Lucifer, that weird guy Masakado, or that even weirder naked angel that Kiyoharu ended up summoning. I wanted to summon Lucifer, but he came to you instead. He said that if I could prove myself stronger than you, he would come to me. But he hasn't. All my battles have been my own, not depending on him, so he should come back."

"But you depended on your power as a demon, didn't you?" Issachar asked. "And what do you want Lucifer back for?"

"To prove that I am the strongest and defeat all my enemies," Kenji said, his demonic bloodlust creeping back in.

"But you're already the strongest, aren't you?"

"Of course! I've not lost for years!"

"So you've defeated everyone who's faced you," Issachar said. Flynn glanced back at him, not sure what he was doing. "Now you rule Tokyo. But what are you going to do as king?"

"What do I need to do as king?" Kenji asked back. "Nothing! I just need to stay the strongest and defeat anyone who gets in my way, like you."

"Why am I in your way?" he asked back. "I'm not an angel, and I'm not of this world. I have no intention of taking your position for myself."

"But, you're here. We must fight."

"Must we?"

Cracking his wires, Kenji stammered, "Wha-uh-wha-why are you… What are you asking? Why not fight? That is how we feel alive!"

Issachar shook his head. "Not me. I fight to protect what's important to me. You're not threatening anything like that, but I really want to know, what do you do as king?"

"I told you, I don't need to do anything besides keep being king," Kenji said.

"Oh hey!" Akira came out of the underground shelter then. "I got the… whoa!" He stopped abruptly on seeing that Kenji was there.

Kenji ignored him. "I got power so I could do whatever I wanted, with no bullies or authorities to stop me. I let the people do whatever they want since their problems are their problems, not mine. So I don't need to do anything as king aside from pummeling whoever tries to get in my way."

"Then you're the authority around here and a bully," Flynn said.

"No I am not!" he insisted, quivering.

"But you're the king of Tokyo by way of beating everyone else up," Flynn said. Good, he was catching on.

"Yes…" he admitted, but then growled and slammed into the street. "Quit this! I don't need to think! I don't need to lead! I don't need to remember all the losers that failed to change anything! I just need to be strong and everything works!"

"What the hell are you saying?" Akira snapped, coming forward. "Things aren't working at all! Tokyo is constantly burning and falling apart, and eventually we'll have nothing of it left! Few people think of anything but the moment because anyone else can just up and destroy plans on a whim. We're doing nothing but destroying ourselves and that's got to stop."

"The world is changing, it must change," Kenji said. "We won't be held in the stasis that is the thrall of angels. I broke that."

Akira punched in the air at him. "Oh yeah? Then what's it brought us, huh? Just another stasis that is the madness of demons! I agree that the world must change, but not like that. Look around, this is a world of demons that will run itself to ruin!"

"Then you would call the tyrannical angels back?!" Kenji shouted, snapping his wires.

"No, I won't," Akira said. "I thought that might work, but these two reminded me of another way. I want to bring the world back to its senses; I want to give it back to humanity."

"We can't return ourselves to humans, that's not possible," Kenji said.

"It should be possible," Issachar said. "If you want to change, you should be able to give up the power of demons. Maybe not all of it, but enough to regain yourself."

"Why would I want to do that?" he asked. "I chose this power… I chose this fate."

"And you've ruined the world for everyone," Akira said.

"Can we stop talking now and just fight?" Kenji asked. "I hate this. I want to fight! I have to fight."

"You are no good at solving problems, are you?" Akira asked.

"Have you ever thought…?" Issachar started, trying to bring the conversation back to what he did as the king of Tokyo.

"Don't make me think!" He tried to rush at Issachar, but Flynn was still in the way. He knocked Kenji flat on the ground with his katana. "Guh… heh, that's more like it…"

"Did you ever think about how Kiyoharu and I felt?" Flynn asked. "Or anyone else?"

"It doesn't matter," Kenji said, flipping himself off the ground so he was floating above the street again. He didn't float over them like he had before, though.

Perhaps this was a good thing to discuss, and to force him to think with. Issachar said, "You used to fight bullies for them, especially Kiyoharu. I heard about that."

"That was before he lost himself to the angels," Kenji said. "Doesn't matter now; I defeated all those bullies, and Kiyoharu, and Flynn…"

"You killed the ones you used to defend?" Akira asked, disgusted. "What for?"

"I picked the right course, of helping the demons defeat the angels," Kenji said, although his confidence was faltering. "Kiyoharu chose the angels. We were best friends since we were kids, but he lost himself to that cult of that abhorrent God! And Flynn took Lucifer from me. I should have called on him! There can only be one king. I had to… had to defeat them both. Gah, stop doing this! Let's fight!" He attacked again with lightning.

He was slipping into the berserker state although his soul seemed split between wanting to and not. Issachar sang again, turning his words back on him. What was he fighting for? It was just to stop thinking these days, wasn't it? Is that what you really want? Humans are either demonic bullies or helpless victims in this world now, the strong crushing the weak. He and Flynn had been bullied and harassed until they fought back in this world. It sounded like Kenji had once fought to defend the weak. Why did you give that up? Why did he now allow the strong to crush the weak much like the angels had tried to crush humans before?

Kenji screamed at the song, shrinking back. "Stop singing! Don't force your ways on me! I'll never be under anyone's control!"

"He's not trying to control you," Akira called. "He is encouraging you to think, and maybe even trying to forgive you."

"Why should I be forgiven?" Kenji asked, trying to work himself up again. "I destroyed everyone against me, even those that seemed closest to me. It's because I have the power to do anything I want, anything! And I want to fight!"

Did he really want to fight?

"Ugh… I am… the king… the king of Tokyo! I haven't lost to anyone for years… I won't lose again… fighting is what I'm good at… all I'm good at… and that destroyed everyone…"

"You don't sound like a king," Akira said.

Why do you want to be king?

Kenji was breathing heavily, his wires crackling quietly. "I… it proves… I'm the strongest… and I can do anything… that's all."

If you can do anything, then you can change and be forgiven.

"That's right," Akira said, tightening a fist. "But if you're only the king because you want to prove you're the strongest, you're forcing your ways on everyone else, controlling them just because you don't want to lose. But that's not what a king is! That's what a tyrant is, a bully who harms everyone around them."

"I'm not… a bully… never been one…"

"You're lying to yourself about that," Flynn said.

"Right!" Akira said. "Listen, if you really want a fight, then I challenge you while she keeps singing! I want to become the king of Tokyo so I can make things better for everyone here. I want to free humans from the madness of demons and protect those who need to be protected. I want to make a better future instead of just living in the moment! And I will show the strength of my soul by not faltering under a voice that challenges me to do things that are right and never give up faith in humanity! Is your power enough to do that?"

"Of course it is," Kenji growled, turning to Akira. Being challenged was something he was familiar with, something he didn't have to think about.

Seeing that this had turned between Kenji and Akira, Flynn put his katana away. "I hope you are reaching his heart," he said quietly as he came over to stand by his side.

Issachar nodded and put that into his song. Flynn had thought this couldn't happen. But now that he was seeing that it could, he hoped Kenji could turn away from demonic influence. Those hopes made Kenji falter while Akira could pounce on him and slash into the mask with fiery claws. Kenji fired back with electric wires turned to whips, but wasn't able to concentrate or aim with them. In the meantime, Issachar turned his song to one of prayer, asking for Kenji to have his humanity restored, if he would open his heart and accept forgiveness.

When one of Akira's attacks knocked Kenji to the ground, his form diminished into shadows. He reformed with his mask as a mask rather than his whole being, broken by Akira's claws. His skin was a dark blue with jagged icy blue markings; his wires came from a wild-looking mane of hair as well as some sparking tails. Propping himself up on shaky arms, he looked up at Akira. "Well? Are you going to finish me off and make yourself king?"

Akira rubbed his head, already calmed down from the battle. "Huh, well I would've before. But now, if you're gonna take her song to heart and help me make Tokyo a better place, then nah." He grinned. "You are the strongest one around even though I've been working hard to defeat you. I think things would be better off if you're around to back me up. But we can't just do whatever anymore! A king needs to be responsible and lead his people, taking care of the weak and the strong."

"Heh, I was never any good at thinking things through or being responsible," Kenji said, sitting up and looking over his claws. "I really suck at being a leader… never know what to do with people who want me to advise them. But your spirit has to be far stronger than mine if you can withstand her singing."

"I like her song," Akira said.

After glancing their way, Kenji said, "Well, it's not so bad now, except," he rubbed at his broken mask and didn't want to admit that the song was wanting to make him cry now.

He stopped singing since that power had done its job. "Then you're taking a step in the right direction, I think," Issachar said.

Akira nodded and offered a hand to Kenji. "Yeah! So whaddya say, Kenji? Will you help me drive out the demons so humans can take charge?"

"Sure, we can give that a shot," he said, taking Akira's hand to help him back onto his feet.

Without warning, a crack broke through the air itself, leaking an icy mist that caused it to start snowing in the street. It then tore open, letting through two giant demons. One had long golden hair, dark skin like cold embers, and the lower half of his body entirely encased in ice. The ice partially coated the rest of his body too, including weighing down one of his leathery wings.

The other was a giant fly man who wore an abundance of skulls as his attire. "Did I hear that right Kenji, that you're going to turn on us?" the giant fly said, with hundreds of flies around him buzzing along.

"Right, this isn't what I wanted," Kenji said, his wires snapping.

"What you want doesn't matter in the end," the fly said. "It's too bad, though, because I was about to introduce you to our true lord, the real Lucifer. The one you dealt with was a fake, as I said."

"That's the real one, huh?" Flynn said, quietly, turning to his gauntlet to record this.

"The one we summoned wasn't fake!" Kenji said in anger.

The giant fly dissolved into an innumerable amount of small ones. "I tried to warn you, but you wouldn't listen. Hmph, and reclaiming your humanity? How pitiful. Lord Lucifer isn't entirely awake yet, one might say, but you still can't match him. Go on, my lord, and show these fools what weaklings they are for remaining human."

Lucifer growled, looking over them in an intense gaze. As he did, the snow around them took on sharp edges and thickened. Akira tightened his fists, seeming ready for a fight. Then Kenji waved him aside. "No, Akira, you keep out of this."

"What?" Akira asked, surprised at that.

"You should leave this to me and the two others here," Kenji said.

"He's right," Issachar said, moving ahead with Flynn to face Lucifer. "You're the one with the ideas to change Tokyo, so you need to survive."

"Yeah, lemme be the one to take care of the threats around you," Kenji said.

"All right, good luck guys," Akira said, then ran off back to the shelter entrance.

In that time, Lucifer finally attacked, sending long spikes of ice coated in blue flames up through the streets for a couple of blocks around them. The ice that bound him soon attached to the street, leaving him immobile. But he was able to send blades of that ice anywhere in his sight, forcing them all to have to keep moving to not get struck down. And when Kenji got hurled into a building on being punched, it was clear that his physical prowess was formidable as well.

Kenji was tough too, soon back to darting around the street like he was a bolt of lightning himself. He was focused purely on the fight, albeit not in the berserker state yet. As Flynn had advised him to stay back, Issachar dodged around the ice blades out of reach of Lucifer's fists and used a mix of support from his demons and shooting when he got a good chance. Meanwhile, Flynn cast his fire magic while keeping an eye on how everything was moving around him. He was moving to get just behind Lucifer.

On realizing that, Issachar made some attempts to distract Lucifer away from what he was doing. It'd be easier for Kenji to do so since he was willing and able to get close to strike him. But Kenji only had an awareness of himself and his opponent; he nearly crashed into Flynn because of that. It might help if… Issachar got impaled with one of the ice blades while he was trying to plan something on the spot. It was magic, so while painful and cold, it could still be worked around.

Flynn got knocked down as well, leading to him casting mediarahan over them all. That helped, and gave Issachar a moment to swap out one of his demons for the shade of Pluto he'd fused. "Guard me so I can get something done," he ordered quietly.

Pluto nodded and decided on tetrakarn along with hovering in front of him. That let Issachar stop a moment so he could sing again. Reaching out to Kenji, he asked him to divert Lucifer's attention so Flynn could get done what he had in mind. Kenji slowed for a bit, not used to fighting with others. Then he leapt at Lucifer's hand, flung himself up onto his shoulders, and swiped at his face. Roaring like a dragon, Lucifer tried to swat him away (Kenji jumped back off first), then focused his attention on smashing Kenji.

With that assistance, Flynn was able to get out of Lucifer's sight so he could get in close with his katana. It was drawn with a spiritual sharpness this time, like it could cut through faith with the truth. As Issachar wondered if that impression was true, Flynn struck Lucifer and immediately backed off to get out of reach again. Something changed… Lucifer was now weak to bullets. It must be Masakado's katana giving him that capacity; that may have been Flynn's initial attack against Ancient of Days too and Issachar just hadn't noticed at the time.

Issachar immediately took advantage of that to fire arrow rain with both of his guns. It didn't seem to do much damage, but it stunned Lucifer enough for Kenji to use his wires and claws to tear a large wound into Lucifer's chest. Just as it seemed they were gaining the upper hand, though, the attack also made Lucifer more alert. He swatted Kenji into the wall again (still not knocking him out) and pounded his fists into the ground. Glass shattered in what windows were still whole and loose structures collapsed. Then the ground all around Issachar shone with those blue flames.

Those were going to impale him and Pluto from all directions with those ice spikes, with deadly force. Without thinking twice of it, Issachar shifted himself to escape straight up right before the ice manifested. Pluto wasn't as quick to escape, although it survived the attack better than Issachar could. And now he was in the air, just hovering there… and more deadly ice began to materialize around him. Issachar escaped again, trying not to think about it too much since he was managing somehow.

As the ice kept chasing him around, he flew right to Lucifer to get him to strike himself. It too didn't do much, but it gave him the chance to fly back and begin firing again. No skills this time. He just fired to stun, waited until Lucifer recovered, then shot him again to keep him from doing much. Then Flynn made Lucifer weak to electricity, causing all of Kenji's attacks to devastate the demon lord. And in that manner, they destroyed Lucifer's physical form.

They waited a moment in case the other demon reappeared. Perhaps wisely, he decided to stay away from them. Issachar came down near Flynn, careful since he wasn't sure how to land. "Heh, guess I can fly," he said.

Giving a sigh of relief, Flynn put his sword away. "I'm glad you got out of that."

"Hey, thanks guys," Kenji said, coming over to them. "I hate to admit it, but I don't know if I could've taken him alone." He cracked his knuckles together. "Guess I better work on that in case those two come back."

"I'm sure you'll be fine," Issachar said, deciding to try shifting down to the ground. He slid a bit on some ice remaining; Flynn caught his arm quickly.

"The White are summoning us back," Flynn said. As he did, Issachar's vision started to pale. "Good luck, then."

Noticing it too, Kenji quickly said, "Hey, uh, I'm sorry about how things fell apart, Flynn. It's really not what I wanted, I know that now."

"Don't worry about it," Flynn said to him. "I'm glad you've decided to protect others now."

"I'll do my best," Kenji said before they were taken out of the world.

* * *

There was a time of turmoil after Akira took over as king of Tokyo as demons called on the demonoids to lash out against being given back laws. But he and Kenji were able to able to defeat the returning demons to bring sense back to the demonoids. They were even able to defeat Lucifer once again when he reappeared in better shape. In a few years, this experience would prove vital as the angels returned to try reclaiming the world again. The two kings were able to keep the Earth under humanity's reign.

When they spoke to others, they attributed the real change to the brief visit of Flynn and Issachar to their world. The stories turned into legends through the generations, of the last warrior to remain human who proved greater than even the demon lord and the sensible angel who encouraged hope, forgiveness, and reflection. The demonoid and slave enchantments remained through the generations, weakening bit by bit. When a child was finally born without a trace of being a demon or slave, he was named Flynn in honor of the great legend.

And so the lands that have been choked by abyssal fires and darkness eventually saw the sun again.

* * *

A/N: I considered using Sanat here, but there were several reasons against it. One was simply because I had trouble finding in-game stats and such for him (I don't have the DLCs, although I wrote Kenji from memory rather than check on him). Another was due to fan theories that Sanat might be some alternate form of the Demifiend, who I already have in the story. I could see that either way, or Sanat being like Set in SMTII (but I have that role covered too). This story is complicated enough as is, so ultimately I decided to give y'all a preview of Lucifer instead. He's partially based on his appearance in The Divine Comedy here; I may or may not make that more accurate to the source later on.


	69. To Be a Good Neighbor

**Chapter 69: To Be A Good Neighbor**

Over the past month, people in the Mikado monastery got used to seeing Merkabah there. It had started with a discussion between her and Walter about finding the true words of God within the vast amount of Scriptures Mikado had. She didn't need to sleep as humans did. And besides, she'd been forced to hibernate for so long that she might not need sleep for years. Somehow, being in the monastery was something the angels of YHVH weren't expecting; they would not disturb her there. She took the time she had and combed through Mikado's Scriptures to find what spoke to her as the words of God.

"How can you stand sitting in here and reading for days on end?" Walter asked her one morning, announcing his presence.

"I am not always in here," she replied. "Sometimes I read in the towers where there are large windows. And it is not much trouble for me to study like this. I can be very patient."

"Ah, well mind if I stay around for a bit for some of my studies?" he asked, taking out Yuji's book. "I wanted to discuss some stuff in here with someone else who's read this as well."

Merkabah set aside the Scriptures book that she'd just finished, in the stacks that she disapproved of. It was much greater than the stack of books that sounded authentic. "That shall be fine. Are you not going out as a samurai today?"

He shook his head. "Nah, it's not a good day for that. We tried to get into the last of the domains for those three relics yesterday, again. Jonathan got messed up pretty bad in there; he's going to take a while to get back into shape."

"Hmm, I shall have to go see him sometime today," she said. "I hadn't heard of that."

"Sorry, it was really bad and we didn't think to drop by yesterday evening," he said, taking a seat at the library table. "And, uh, we found out that Isabeau might be pregnant. We're not sure of things, but there was some female demon who made a fuss over her in the domain and insisted on going with her for her protection. I came by partly because she's off talking with her mother and some older women around here to check on things."

This was a possible blessing albeit one that would complicate matters. "I'd have to know which demon that was to know if it's a likely possibility," Merkabah said. "If it is one of those protectors of new mothers and their children, it's quite fortunate you found out that way rather than some other demons."

He rubbed his head, uncertain of matters. "I guess. The thing is, I promised her a while back that if she had a child, I'd stick by her side and protect her for as long as she felt like serving as a samurai. But we've been on a lot of dangerous missions lately, especially with those domains. I feel like she shouldn't keep that up, but if she drops back to taking simpler missions, I should do the same with her."

"That would fulfill the terms of your promise," she said. On some level, things like this didn't matter to her. She was currently feminine out of choice and parenthood wasn't something that applied to her. But, these were friends, strange as that idea was. She could listen and attempt to advise him.

Walter was clearly thinking on this hard. "Sure, but we're in the middle of another big war, right? Demons and angels are fighting each other over the souls of humanity, and lesser gods seem to be doing the same to regain their influence. The other day, we had to fight off some war god in one of Mikado's outer villages since he was trying to conscript the locals into becoming soldiers who'd sacrifice themselves for victories of the Divine Powers, as he called them. I get the feeling that the main reason the war isn't as fierce as it could be is because that Demifiend character has claim over Tokyo's power supply and is making trouble for every other side in this conflict."

"Indeed. He seems untouchable, so no one will challenge him even if they want to." There were tales going around that felt like truth and lies spun together, that one had to have almighty power in order to harm the Demifiend in the slightest. Merkabah was curious about this and sometimes contemplated trying to question the Demifiend about matters. For one thing, he was said to be a general of Lucifer and yet he was not answering to the one who had stolen Lucifer's identity from Hikaru.

"Flynn probably matches him, but still," he shook his head. "I want to help Flynn out with this war, whenever we figure out how to bring him and Issachar back. But I don't want Isabeau to be fighting those kinds of battles if she is pregnant. Especially not any of those fiends since they claim to be death incarnate and all."

"It would not be wise for many people to get involved in such battles, leaving them for those like Flynn who are prepared," Merkabah said. "I think that you'd be capable of making a difference in such a war. But I see that it may not be the best course for you yourself, nor Isabeau."

"Right," Walter said. "Well once the women figure things out, I think I'll know what I need to do. I just hope Flynn will understand."

"He should be fine with that." After all, his goals were to keep his friends alive. Responsibilities that kept them out of dangerous situations should be something Flynn preferred.

"I hope so," he said, picking up the book. "Well, sorry for getting off track right away…"

"It was important," Merkabah reassured him.

"Yeah. Anyhow, one thing I wanted to ask you about is some Scriptures that Yuji mentions. He seemed to have great confidence in the Book of Proverbs and the Book of Psalms. Are those anywhere in our Scriptures?"

"I've not found them yet, which is perplexing," she said, taking one from her rejected stacks. "I've found several that purport to be proverbs of wisdom and guidance. But not only are they echoed throughout other books, they are also written with a doctrine of hate in mind. They don't make it obvious, but it's clear to me that the writers haven't watched humans much and think very little of you. And I've only really been watching the past few years as Jonathan encouraged me to."

"Sometimes you need explanations, but you catch on quickly," he said.

"I've been trying. And here, this one claims it is a collection of proverbs," she opened it up in the middle, to find what she'd thought of. "It was… 'Idle hands are the devil's plaything. Be ever working to God's word to never allow your actions to be used by evil, in every day of your life.' That's not how I recall things. It is true that diligence is to be encouraged, but I recall a day of the week being set aside for rest and contemplation."

Walter rubbed his chin. "Huh. Well I remember from village life that we would rotate jobs so everybody got a day or two of light work in a week. That kind of proverb was said a lot, though the light work was considered not being idle too."

Merkabah nodded and shifted some pages. "You all have that kind of work ethic; Flynn has it strongly and that put far too much stress on him. Many people suffer for thinking that proverb is the greatest wisdom. And here… 'One's thoughts should always be on the path that our great Father provides, ever towards His glory. Straying off the path of the faithful leads towards a mire of sin and corruption.' But everything after it, and I do mean everything, would have one believe that the only enjoyment one may have is that in obedience to God."

"That's it?" he asked.

"That's it," she confirmed. "Not in food nor sleep, not in a job well done, not in marriage, not in humor. Of course, the proverbs say to do such things, but they should make one feel a modest satisfaction, not joy." She closed the book and set it back. "I am a judge and should be non-partial. But even in such a role, I would not expect such impossibilities out of your kind. Following these proverbs is a road to self-loathing and doubt, making one dependent on God in the things one feels and thinks. That is not how things should be because you were gifted with free will, to live lives independent of God even though we advise you to keep certain laws to make the world a good place."

"That sounds reasonable to me," Walter said. "Too bad that Book of Proverbs isn't the same one, since I was curious to read the other."

"It likely needs more searching since I'm not through checking these," Merkabah said. "And that itself is getting unreasonable. I have more time and can read far faster than a human. Oddly enough, I'm finding that the books recommended early in Scripture studies are more likely to be the better ones. Perhaps other humans realized how bad these were. I also haven't checked on the books in the basement storage; the originals of Proverbs and Psalms may be down there. I was also wanting to find Job and the books of the Messiah's apostles, but have yet to find them."

"What's that Job about?"

"It's a tale of tragedy and faith that, while ancient, has long spoken to humanity. I recall that one quite well so I don't need the reference, but I would have like to seen it here. Would you like to hear it?"

"Sure." They ended up spending the morning hours discussing Job's story and other Scriptures that she recalled but hadn't found yet.

* * *

The snake towered over them, made up of flames taken directly from the sun. It appeared to move slowly and deliberately. And yet, it acted swifter than they, making several attacks or motions in the time it took him to attack with his sword once. He was doing nothing with those attacks, seemingly no damage at all. He was also the only one left standing against it; his friends had retreated or helped the others retreat. There was only the god watching over him as Shesha was poised to strike again…

Nanashi jumped as his demonica beeped. 'Master, you have a message from Asahi,' Burroughs said. 'It seems that Naverre and Gaston are here.'

"Good," he said, but rubbed his forehead instead of getting up to find them. These memories… they seemed to be leaking into his mind constantly, without him searching for them. And he was certain now that it wasn't just from his previous life as Akira. These memories also seemed to come from… sideways? From this life, but other possibilities of this life. Like Flynn talked about.

"Reincarnation's a burden, isn't it?" someone said from right behind him.

Getting off the couch and spinning around, he found himself facing the ghostly form of Dagda. "Geez, do you have to sneak up on me?" Nanashi said, feeling like he'd actually have a headache this time. He'd been using it as an excuse to not worry the others about the distracting memories.

"If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to get in here now," Dagda said. "You should learn a few tricks to keep those memories from leaking out when you don't want them. It'll help."

"If I could recall them as I liked, they might help," he said.

"Perhaps, or they could clutter up your mind with useless things."

Like better insight into Dagda's real intentions, Nanashi thought. If he could call on those memories, he'd be in a better position to negotiate with him. Maybe even learn from him. "Maybe. But it'd be tough right now. We're going to try searching Mikado for that one demon."

Although his mask made it hard to tell, Dagda seemed to be frowning. "Hmph. You do realize that you've been sent off to find Lucifer, right?"

"I thought that might be it," he said. "The Demifiend is too powerful to be calling just any old demon his father, and he was asking us to find a presence close to his."

Dagda nodded. "He's also a deft liar to be manipulating everyone around like he is. Are you still going even knowing who you're after?"

"Sure, although it may be better if we don't find Lucifer," Nanashi said. "Succeeding in this mission could end up with us entangled even further into some questionable things. But whether we fail or succeed, we are neighbors to Mikado now. It'd be good for some of us from Tokyo to go over and talk with them in person rather than relying on Naverre's negotiations."

"Good, that's a fair way to look at things," he said. "But if you do succeed, there is something I've been curious about for quite some time. Lucifer is somewhat akin to us gods even though he's called a demon due to being from a monotheistic culture. It takes extraordinary measures to keep one of us imprisoned against our will. On top of that, Lucifer is a sly one and has turned many a bad situation into his advantage. I'd like to know what has kept him down and silent for so long. It may end up being useful to our plans."

"Your plans, you mean," he said. "I haven't agreed to work with you yet."

"The world would be better off if you did, as would you. But, it's your decision. I'll go ahead and watch, see if I can't find out what I want to know. Call on me whenever you like, as long as you're alone like this." He then disappeared from view.

Nanashi could still sense him there. He left to find Asahi, who was in the Association bar as expected. Naverre and Gaston were there too, along with Toki, Hallelujah, and unexpectedly, Nozomi. As he approached, he heard Asahi said, "But it would be a better adventure! I'm sure there's a ferry across the new river; there was a guy with a boat headed over there the other day."

"Well I can't fault that logic," Naverre said with a smile. "But we'd need to leave soon to make it before nightfall if we went that way, I believe."

"Hmm, it's more tempting to tag along if you're going the scenic route," Nozomi said.

"What're you guys talking about?" Nanashi asked.

"There you are," Asahi said, pushing out an open chair by her. "What took you so long?"

"Nothing important, sorry," he said.

"It's no trouble, although we really don't have much time if we want to leave today," Naverre said. "Asahi told us that you're interested in going to Mikado for a Hunter request and we offered to get you guys to the capitol by way of the terminals."

"But we could make it there now just by going southeast," Asahi said. "I thought it'd be more fun that way."

"It'll be a long hike," Toki said. "But I'd like that."

"I just happened to overhear things and thought I'd like to go on a hike like that myself," Nozomi said. "I wanted to go that way anyhow for pictures."

"There's a strong chance we could be attacked by angels or demons now doing that," Gaston said. "But that's fine. I've been training a lot as a samurai and I hear you guys have been doing the same as Hunters. And Nozomi's an experienced Hunter, so we should be fine."

"We should tell the Boss and Nikkari, but that does sound good," Nanashi said, also feeling like this would be fun.

"They've already agreed to let us go on this mission ourselves," Asahi said.

"Yes, but we should still tell them we mean to leave and say goodbye for now," he said.

"And gather your supplies quickly, including a lunch," Nozomi said. "Even though we can get back quickly with Mikado's terminal, we'll be on our own for today."

It took half an hour to make sure they had everything together, including their school laptops, the lunch, a good supply of medicines and water, and gear they'd need for battle. Toma, Nikkari, and Manabu saw them off at one of the gates into Kinshicho. "Hey, be sure to give them good word of us here in Tokyo," Manabu said.

"Sure, will do," Nanashi said, getting nods of agreement from his friends.

"I might be gone when you get back, since I'm scouting out a different set of student to teach," Nikkari said. "But you've all been doing well. Good luck out there, but don't rely on that."

"Right, as he said," Toma said. "You might not be the official ambassadors from Tokyo, but you're likely the first ones going onto Mikado soil. Be mindful of that."

"Sure, we'll be fine," Asahi said. "Good luck holding down the homestead, Boss!" Toma chuckled at that, pleased.

"I'll be briefing them on Mikado customs on the way, so I don't expect much trouble," Naverre said.

It was a nice sunny day for this trek. The demons that hung around the area had changed with the Firmament being gone; it seemed that some of them didn't like the sun. At the area where the Firmament used to be, there was now a rocky stretch of land before a wide river. A grassy hill was on the other side. Someone had already cut a path through the grass up the hill to get into Mikado.

The ferry was in the middle of being set up; the ferryman himself was working on a dock made of scrap wood. He wanted to charge them a ridiculous price to cross. Fortunately, Naverre haggled his ferry price down to get them across reasonably. The ferry was a small boat for now, so they had to go across in two groups. Then they could follow the path up to the plateau Mikado was on now.

Being mid-April now, there were flowers beginning to bloom among the growing grass. There were a number of demons and angels to battle along the way. But it was such a different experience that it felt exciting. The sun felt good and the air smelled so different. Fresh, he supposed. Everyone was in a good mood as a result.

The landscape felt familiar to Nanashi despite the difference, causing old memories to drift in occasionally. He tried to keep them out of mind and not worry anyone. At least the battles weren't too difficult today, not with the group they had. The castle stood out far above the land on a cliff a ways off. That gave them an easy way to go, especially once they found a road headed that way.

"All right, I got some things arranged for you all," Naverre said, after spending a while sending messages with his demonica. "I would invite you over for dinner and the night myself, but that's not possible at the moment."

"Why not?" Asahi asked.

"Well for one thing, we live in the samurai dorms," he said. "And our parents live in the castle itself, which you'd need extra permissions for."

"And they'd make a huge fuss about us having guests, which nobody wants to deal with," Gaston said.

Naverre nodded. "Right. I've been talking with Jonathan, though, and he's willing to lend you a few rooms in his family manor while you're on this mission. Apparently he's on the mend, but he'll be able to introduce you to some of the older samurai who might know about demons who may have been outside Naraku before Mikado was moved."

"That'll help," Nanashi said, still quietly hoping that they wouldn't succeed. It was good to make the effort, but actually finding Lucifer could cause problems.

* * *

Toki felt nervous going through Mikado's countryside. It wasn't being around the others. In fact, she liked listening to them enjoy their hike to Mikado Castle. And she might enjoy it herself if she didn't stand out so starkly in this landscape. Her dark uniform was still useful within Tokyo even if she had to be more mindful of where she was in the daytime. Here, everything was bright and colorful. Demons would likely see her first. In fact, if his jumpsuit was colored lighter, Nanashi would be best camouflaged of their group.

She tried not to show it; she should be able to adapt. But, she would need a new uniform for situations like these. For now, she tried to work around it by getting the demons and angels distracted with the others before attacking as usual. It helped. Perhaps she should try to figure out how to make illusions. Toki knew it was possible as she'd seen some in the Ring of Gaea do so. After this mission, she could ask Nanashi if they could work around Ginza for some time so she could get those lessons.

Other than her nervousness, there were good reasons to keep watchful. The others were chatting or taking pictures along the way. Somebody had to be on guard. Not only that, but perhaps the sealed demon they were searching for was along the way. It would be similar to the Demifiend, who had a curious kind of light to his aura. It could be easier to spot at night.

As they were coming close to the castle, she overheard Asahi talking with Naverre. "Why'd you give up being a samurai? They seem cool."

"I didn't give up on it, not entirely," he said, patting his demonica. "If I had, I wouldn't have this, which would be a nuisance. But I took up being an ambassador because it turned out I was better suited for this. When I was trying to keep up with Flynn and the others, it was really tough."

"Oh yeah," Asahi said. "They seem strong."

Naverre nodded. "Very strong, and they grew skilled quickly once we got challenged in Tokyo. Being a samurai has been a lifelong dream of mine! But it felt shameful that I couldn't keep up. As it turned out, though, I just had to find out the way of being a samurai that worked for me. And now things are working out great because I'm helping both Mikado and Tokyo to be better."

"It sounds good," she said. "Actually, I was thinking something like that for myself. I wanted to be a Hunter so I could go anywhere in Tokyo on my own. Nikkari says I did well, but I'm not as good as the others as a demon summoner. I can't even fight that well on my own, unlike them."

"Then what else do you like doing? It could go better for you too if you focus more on what you do well."

"Well, I like taking care of people as a medic, and the school programs are offering even that. But it would take a lot of study so I couldn't work as a Hunter as much. Plus Dad's been so critical of how I do as a Hunter that it feels like he's still trying to talk me out of it."

It was partly her fault, Toki thought, since Asahi would get rebellious or flippant with Toma. That wasn't professional at all among the Hunters. Even the Gaeans had some limits when it came to training under someone else. But she'd just get exasperated whenever it was pointed out to her. Was there another way to get her to think about that? Maybe someone cleverer than her could manage.

"I certainly know how that is, since my parents have been puzzled over where I wanted to take my life lately," Naverre said. "First I went against their wishes by becoming a samurai instead of being in the government, and now I'm in the government, sort of, only it's not the kind of work they had in mind either. They sort of accept it now, but keep asking me to come back; they're now annoyed because Gaston took his own path as well. At this point, I'm trying to be nice to them, but I don't need their approval over my life anymore. I figure they'll come around when my goal is successful and if not, then that's life for you. You should be old enough to start deciding on things for yourself."

Nodding, Asahi said, "Yeah, I want to do things for myself. But I don't want to be a drag on the others either. Um…"

Maybe she wasn't clever enough to do some things, but Toki felt like she could still help out. "Hey," she said, partly to alert them that she was nearby.

"Wahh!" Asahi jumped ahead and nearly tripped on turning around. "Gah, Toki? How long have you been there?"

And she was still managing to sneak around despite standing out. Toki smiled. "Long enough."

"Wow, you're a sneaky shadow even by daylight," Naverre said, shifting his scarf and trying not to seem startled.

"Good," Toki said. "I was thinking just now, Asahi. You don't have to worry about us. We're still friends. And you'll text us even when we're in the same room."

"Well it's just more convenient sometimes than yelling across the room," she said.

"We'll be friends whatever you decide to do," she said. "If you want to keep being a Hunter, we'll protect you. And if you want to study those medical classes, I'm sure we'll still end up talking every day. It'll be fine either way."

"Thanks, Toki," Asahi said, smiling at that. "And yeah, I certainly wouldn't give up being friends with you guys. That'd suck."

"You're lucky because you can decide," Toki said. "I'm really only good at the skills I learned as an assassin. I don't know what else I could do."

"I'm sure you can do something else," Asahi said, coming back to walk by her now to try helping her figure that out.

Toki wasn't sure of a lot of what she suggested, but at least it cheered Asahi up.

* * *

If that demon had cut into his chest a little deeper, Jonathan was sure that he would have died instantly. Instead, he had to be careful with anything he did now. His chest and right arm would bound together to keep still while they healed. He also felt weak and tired constantly. It was frustrating, but at least he was alive.

He was waiting on some guests now. Naverre had messaged him earlier to ask if he could let some kids from Tokyo stay somewhere overnight, maybe a few days. Thankfully, Jonathan already knew Hallelujah out of the group and knew that his other friends were in contact with the other kids too. It seemed like a fine thing to do, although he wondered what their mission in Mikado was.

While waiting, Jonathan watched over Adam doing calligraphy as homework. He was sitting still while doing so, something of a surprise since he normally moved about constantly. "You got to make all the words properly, or they won't mean what you want," Adam said.

"That's true," Jonathan said. "And it's harder with a ink brush like that rather than a charcoal pencil."

Adam nodded. "You can't smudge them out because the ink smears all over and then the words don't mean anything."

Someone put their hands on the table nearby. "Guess I shouldn't make loud noises while you're doing that, huh?" Hikaru asked. She had yet another weird outfit today, although this one reminded Jonathan of a detective he'd seen on the cover of a Literature book.

"Hi, and yes, that would be nice," Adam said, looking up at her with a smile before focusing back on his work.

"Alrighty then," she said, sitting at the table. "How are you doing, Jonathan? I heard from Merky that you were in a bad way."

"I'm alive, which is the best of it," he said. "But I'm going to be capable of very little for a long while now. We're not even sure if I can get back to serving as a samurai, but I hope I can."

"You will," Adam said. "You're a great samurai, so you can't give up!"

Jonathan smiled. "I won't; I'll find ways to get things done."

"That's the spirit," Hikaru said, clapping her hands.

"Then what have you been up to?" he asked.

"Trying to figure out how things stand now," she said. "I'd like to get back to doing art now that I can focus, but alas, that cannot be. Everything's gotten real serious." She glanced at Adam a moment, who was watching his brush strokes more than them. "I can give you details later so as not to bore you both, but it's all like a leaky coal mine everywhere now. Things don't smell right, there's dust from scuffles here and there… and you just know that if something sparks, it's all going to explode into flames. If things remain as they are right now, then it might settle down and become less dangerous. But the threat's going to hang over everybody for a long time even if it appears to settle."

"That's unfortunate," Jonathan said, thinking over some of the requests he had been doing before the domain master knocked him out of service. "We could use someone to rally everyone together, at least we humans and what demons we can trust."

"Well Merky and I aren't really leaders," Hikaru said, thinking. "We have… some other purpose. I dunno. I would like to figure that out too."

"Are you having any luck figuring out how to get Flynn and Issachar back?" he asked. "Flynn should be capable if he recovers, and I feel like Issachar could do well at bringing people together."

She shook her head. "No, the portal they used is still chained up tight. I have managed to track them down because they have a special demon tagging along with them."

"What demon?" Jonathan asked, trying to recall any that he'd seen. "Flynn does have powerful ones he calls on sometimes."

"It's a snake called Shesha who could devour the whole world if he was allowed to," Hikaru said.

"Wow, really?" Adam said, getting distracted for a moment from his homework.

She nodded. "He sure can, but he's friends with this awesome god called Vishnu who protects the world and all those who live in it. And Flynn's a special man because he was marked as a protector too. It seems like because Flynn got in some trouble he got stuck on, Vishnu lent Shesha to him. Because Shesha is special, I can track him down and figure out that they're in another world right now."

"Another world?" Jonathan asked. "How can that be?"

"That's real complicated," Hikaru said, tilting her head. "It's like, well I'm sure Flynn told you that he remembers other times, how things could have gone. They're in one of those other times. But finding that out did give me an idea. I've noticed that someone in this world is from another world. Actually, I came back to report in to you guys before I went to ask them some questions. It could be kinda dangerous, might even take Merky along if she's willing."

"That would help if you think it's dangerous," he said. She seemed so carefree about other matters, including searching for whoever had stolen Lucifer's identity from her.

Then a knock came from the frame of the open double doors into the dining room. "Master Jonathan, your guests have arrived."

"Thanks for bringing them in," Jonathan said, waving to the group coming in. "Hello, good to see you all."

"Hello Jonathan, thanks for inviting us over," Hallelujah said, smiling and waving back. "But what happened to you?"

"I pushed my luck a bit much and got into a dangerous fight," he said. "Pardon me for not getting up to greet you, but please come sit down. This is my son Adam here, and another friend of ours, Hikaru."

"Hi there!" Hikaru said with a grin, twirling a glass lens in her hand. "Don't be making me investigate you!"

"Uh, sure," Hallelujah said, then introduced the others there. Some of them were indeed the kids his friends were friends with, Asahi, Nanashi, and Toki. Naverre and Gaston had come over too, along with a young woman named Nozomi who said she was a photographer. Was she that friend of Issachar who taught him about that?

"So what brings you over to Mikado?" Jonathan asked after the others had been introduced and were sitting around the table. By him, Adam was clearly trying to finish the poem he was copying quicker so he could listen in better.

"It's a strange request, but we were asked to search Mikado for a demon who might be sealed here," Hallelujah said. "It came from the Demifiend; I'm sure you've heard about him, but he helped us out some so we're doing this request in return."

"Huh, I can't think of a specific demon sealed in Mikado," Jonathan said. "All the demons were sealed into Naraku at one time. However, the lower levels of that place are now flooded. You could probably search the upper levels as well as the catacombs."

"Who're you looking for?" Hikaru asked.

Hallelujah rubbed his neck. "Well, uh, he didn't say who, actually. But he said we'd recognize his aura since it was similar to his own."

"The Demifiend has a weird light to his spirit," Toki said. "I haven't seen the like in any demon. I think we're looking for that."

Resting her chin on her hand, Hikaru said, "Hmm, well you could check out the catacombs but I doubt the one you're looking for is there. Or if he is, the Demifiend already knows about it."

"Why's that?" Nanashi asked.

"Cause I heard that Issachar fought the fiend David there," Hikaru answered. "The Demifiend is the leader of the fiend clan, apparently, so if this sealed demon was in the catacombs, David would have spotted it while he was there."

"Well he wasn't sure the demon was here," Hallelujah said. "But he thought he might be, either here or the Abyss."

"Then you'd know the sealed demon was around if there was a weird light around?" Adam asked, setting his brush aside.

"Should be," Hallelujah said.

That got Adam exited. "I know where there's a weird light in Mikado!"

"Huh, you do?" Jonathan asked, puzzled that his son would have heard of this but he hadn't. The others around the table seemed surprised too.

Adam nodded. "Yes, I heard about it from Mr. Brooke, the old man who comes to school once a week to give history lessons. There's an outer village called Ikben that's one of the furthest from the capitol, like Kiccigiorgi, and just beyond their rice fields is a place called the Forbidden Tomb."

"Really, there's a forbidden tomb around here?" Hikaru said, her eyes wide.

"Yes, Mr. Brooke said that he visited the area when he was young. And nobody in Ikben would go near the tomb. Those who do will say that it gets really cold around the stone monument there and if you happen to be there at night, there is a strange light that seems to come from it, and it gives people nightmares if they look at it too long. And sometimes, people have gone there only to vanish entirely. They don't find a trace of those people. But nobody knows who's actually buried in the Forbidden Tomb. They just know they shouldn't go near it."

"Wow, I wanna see that place now!" Hikaru said.

"I imagine whatever's there is quite dangerous, especially if it is a sealed demon," Jonathan said. "If you mean to look into that, maybe you should take Hikaru with you. She's more powerful than she looks."

"Huh, it would be something to look into," Hallelujah said. "Though we should ask around here and see if there's any other leads too."


	70. White Forest

**Chapter 70: White Forest**

"Your changes will amount to nothing in the end."

"We can't know that."

"History is merely a pattern of events, a pendulum always swinging in the same directions. As soon as it hits one extreme, it is bound to swing to the other. Trying to stop it in the center is futile as someone will set it back to the extremes."

"Then one person's actions and choices can change things. Our efforts weren't futile."

"It can only be changed in prescribed manners. Nothing is new; everything has been done before. And the world is too far destroyed to be worth saving. Let's end this suffering for everyone."

"No!"

"We knew you would not listen. Then stay here to reflect upon your futility. We will not allow you to interfere anymore."

"We won't let you destroy the world! Right Flynn?"

Issachar's fingers squeezed Flynn's hand. Flynn couldn't see him anymore, only white and faint shades of trees, paths, and others. Not even Shesha on his shoulders was clear, not even himself. But he felt them there. He felt his own breath, his own heartbeat. There was an echo to the heartbeat too… a piece of his soul that he'd trusted Issachar to keep.

From that piece, he felt a clear sight unburdened by knowledge beyond what a human normally knew. Lessons learned, an expanded view from what he'd once known. Issachar wasn't singing, but Flynn could still feel that. You might think you alone suffer, but you don't. Many others suffer, yes, but suffering could end. Broken hearts could be mended. What you saw of a person wasn't often the whole truth of them, same as what others saw of you wasn't the whole truth of you. People deserve second chances, time to heal, and understanding. They didn't deserve to be fought over by others who saw them as play pieces to own.

Giving back Issachar's gesture, Flynn said, "I've said it before and I'm not changing my mind on it: your plans don't work. If they did, we wouldn't be here now. And I'm glad things worked out that way."

Things grew less faint, taking on familiar pale forms. And the White were still using his cracked image to speak with them. "We will find others who agree with us. There are always those who seek an end to despair. Besides, your plans have gone awry in the time that you've been away."

"That was inevitable," he said, concerned about it. But it should still be workable, especially with Issachar's help.

His White image moved a hand, shifting the land around them to show a room in a Luxuror's home. Specifically, Jonathan's bedroom where he had his chest and arm bound together in bandages. He sat there reading, seeming unable to do much more. "The one first named the Hero of Law took Chaos enough to heart that he pushed himself too far. Now weakened and only able to do few things, he would fall easy to the promises of a demon who could restore his strength."

He'd probably tried to take on that request for free Amaterasu in order to get the mirror. Flynn had given them the right information; what had happened? As he felt bad about it, Issachar said, "I doubt that."

And as he spoke, the image shifted. Jonathan was still injured; that might be something that did happen and couldn't be undone. Now, he was sitting with his two children to read a book to them. Marie was nearby too, sewing and smiling as she listened in. Jonathan seemed different there than any other time Flynn had seen him. It was a time of love and happiness that he'd never gotten before.

"Right, he knows what's important to him," Issachar said. "He's chosen a different role for himself, and that should be respected. There's innumerable reasons that the world should be saved, this being a fair number of them."

"This happiness won't last," the White said, dismissing the image and calling on another. "None do. The one first named Hero of Chaos took Law enough to heart that he is now holding himself back. He seeks the teaching of Scriptures and will be fooled by the words of angels."

The image was something he'd not expect out of Walter from other times. He was in the monastery library discussing something with an angel. However, that angel was Heart of Law, not Merkabah. Piles of the Mikado Scriptures were on the floors around them. What were they doing?

Then the image shifted just like with Jonathan. Isabeau was with them now, talking with him while Merkabah was taking another volume of Scriptures out. There must be more than they could tell going on. Next to him, Issachar seemed to be listening. "I see," he said, smiling.

"What do you see?" Flynn asked.

"He's hoping to find the true words of God within the falsehoods that were accepted as Scriptures," Issachar said. "He will step back in what he's doing as a samurai, but not because of Scriptures. He and Isabeau are going to have their own family, so he's holding back for her sake. He's chosen a different role because of what's important to him too."

Nodding, Flynn said, "That's fine then. At this time, I always find myself with one partner instead of the whole group. This time, the others are alive and have chosen paths that won't turn them into sacrifices. That's good, what I wanted."

The scene briefly turned back to the pale forest again. "You aren't the one who will forge the future anymore, though."

"What?" Flynn asked, alarmed at that. Had things already shifted to Nanashi? That would mean the Divine Powers were rising and there was that warning that Krishna was acting as Lucifer…

The scene then shifted to the near past, when they had been riding the wagon back from Kiccigiorgi after the ceremony to name them samurai. "You asked Issachar to take over for you, and thus the balance shifted onto him," the White explained. "You're no longer in control."

"But that was just taking his title as captain of our group," Issachar said, glancing at him.

Warmth, hope with clear vision… and people would follow him, likely easier than they did with him because Issachar would readily talk to people, as well as listen to what they had to say. There was still much that Flynn should do himself, but he chuckled on realizing that the burden was mostly gone. "I didn't realize it then. But, I wouldn't change it now. That's good."

"What?" His White image was perplexed.

"He's just spent a few weeks in two other worlds and changed their futures for the better," Flynn explained. "And better than I had done with those worlds before. When we get back home, I know he'll do the same there. This is the path I was never given, but I took it for the sake of many people, not just myself. We will make a better future than what was possible before, and what you've done proves that my hopes were right."

"Things will still go wrong. Another generation will undo all that you've done."

"Leave him alone," Issachar said, ready to let go if it came to a fight. "You're not his despair anymore, just an image of it."

"We are the despair of all humanity, much of it dead from the last war of angels and demons," the White said. "You can't pacify all of the dead, nor speak for them. And the majority of the souls of humanity want their suffering to end. You are the minority that continues their suffering for your foolish dreams. Reflect on that; hear their voices as you remain in this place, unable to do anything more." It then vanished, likely fleeing deeper into the forest.

"Ah, I don't know an answer to that argument," Issachar said. "It is a burden to pacify the dead and I've heard how many people once lived in the world. But we should do what we can, especially if we can return back home."

"This is the Expanse and we can loosen the White's grip on it now," Flynn said. "It's what I've done before, by defeating the images of the White here. I think that helps."

"It does," someone else said. As normal, Stephan appeared there with them once the White had left they alone. "It would be difficult to pacify all the souls that have yet to find rest, as they said. However, there is a way to break the hold the White have over the restless souls. That will allow many of those souls to find their own peace, especially as you've increased the influence of the Great Will."

"I've not heard of that before, but it sounds good," Flynn said.

"Yes, how would we do that?" Issachar asked.

Stephan smiled. "Don't worry about it. I am an agent of the Great Will like yourselves, along with another who was drawn to your home world because of your struggles to find this new path. He's the one who can free the souls of the dead, provided you destroy the images of the White watching over you now. Once you do so, I can introduce you to him."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Flynn said. After all, the image of himself didn't have the same power he did.

"Good, but you've just come out of another difficult battle," Stephan said as he healed them. "That should help. Feel free to come back here if you need more recovery; I'll be waiting on you."

Aside from his image being among the White, this was the same ordeal as always. Strong demons wandered around the forest, attacking them if they got in sight. But given how focused Issachar had been lately in training himself, they were no trouble. He even took the time to upgrade his gun skills through negotiating demons here to join him and fusing them into better ones. They weren't pressed for time here, meaning his work would pay off later.

They even ran into Issachar's image. "You know we speak truth," it said.

"Only a small part of it," Issachar said. "And you don't try thinking beyond that."

"We know enough to know that the world is unbalanced against humanity, that these wars will continually occur. What you do solves nothing as another generation will have to fight this war again."

"That's no reason to give up, as we can give them a better situation," Issachar said.

"We could even get the non-human players to give up," Flynn said.

"That's unlikely and you should know that," the image said, then attacked. But as he imitated Issachar when he'd been unskilled and untrained, he was no more difficult than the other normal images.

Defeating that image was usually enough to break the White's hold on the Expanse. Not this time. Flynn had been watching for a different portal while traversing the labyrinthine paths in this forest. None had seemed new. When they got back to the central opening, his White image was there waiting on them. "Are you sure you're prepared for this new time?"

"No," Flynn admitted. "But we're as prepared as we can get. We have to move forward now, without you interfering any further."

"You can still be taken down without a blow," his image said, pointing to him.

Shesha hissed. "Not while I'm here."

Flynn nodded. "I might need the extra protection now, but I'm not giving up on my plans yet. If I can't do this, he can."

"So you are not enough. Still, you must be stopped because you're blocking the will of everyone else." The image sent thunder reign at them.

He sent the spell back at the White to prove that he was stronger. And there was an audible shattering when Issachar followed up with a gunshot. But when the image should have vanished, it brought itself back together. The scenery around them changed too, becoming a mix of Lucifer's Palace and the reactor room where Walter had knelt down to sacrifice himself to the demons. Flynn's blood turned cold for a moment, recalling the sounds and the unsettling presence of that Lucifer. But that wouldn't happen now.

"You've committed many sins," the image said, casting again. It seemed to be stronger than before. "I will be your reckoning."

"You're too narrow-minded to be a judge," Issachar said.

"I only need to see the truth." Its next spell was one of Lucifer's; it was definitely stronger now, more than any of the others. But it was shattered quickly yet again.

And again, the White reformed. It brought with it the memories of the angelic domain Purgatory, where the four heralds had twisted Jonathan's honor along with Heart of Law to their own malicious designs. Knowing how that Merkabah tended to act, Flynn cast antitchton. The image still appeared close to breaking. However, he had a gut feeling that he wasn't doing as much damage to it now.

The shade of Pluto suddenly moved ahead, trying to knock White Flynn back. As it did, Issachar told him, "Hoy, Flynn? I feel like this one won't stay defeated unless you're the one who wins, like against my image a while back. I can damage it because I'm guarding your hope, but while I have that, you might not be able to defeat this image fully. If I return your hope, though, the image might get stronger. I might be able to defeat it temporarily if I don't, but it'll come back. Do you think you're ready to defeat this false image of you?"

The answer should be yes. They needed to break the White's hold over the Expanse. As a personification of despair, the White might always linger. But they could be torn down to the point of not being able to act in the world on a large scale anymore. They should win this battle.

Yet Flynn felt a terrible sense of dread of this plan. His body tensed and his nerves threatened to panic. If he said yes, then as hope was the other side of despair, the White would have a connection to him in spite of anything Shesha and the lotus could do. If he said no, then the White would be back to their full power in spite of them defeating the other images. Would everything fall apart because he'd grown too broken to face this?

Then Issachar moved even closer, in spite of the battle going on around them. He took his shoulder and started to sing softly, wanting to offer that support as well. Something more than Issachar's feelings came through this time. Sorrowful regret in pushing him on, yet knowing that the White had cruelly meddled in events in single-mindedly pushing their insane solution and would continue to do so until their power was broken. If he pushed through now to do what he felt was right, then he could step back for a time and let Issachar handle raising the hopes of the people. They would know when Flynn's power was needed again.

Then the golden pentagram came back to him, appearing around them. Yes, he had activated the bonds between the divided fragments of Satan's soul to achieve a miracle. It was responding now to his need. Flynn closed his eyes and saw things from the others. Jonathan was stuck at home now, but didn't curse his weakness as he appreciated what blessings he had. Meanwhile, Walter was faced with his life changing to one where he had to accept responsibility; he seemed to like it, though, considering taking on more than was being given. Merkabah was searching for truth rather than accepting what was Law, something that could be a great boon to the future. Strangely, Hikaru was off with Nanashi and his friends on some other search. It was worrisome and yet reminded him of the time when Gabriel had called him out to obelisk Plaza. Whatever that group would uncover could swing the balances greatly again.

For the moment, they all knew he was facing a challenge he wasn't really ready for. They couldn't be there to support him like Issachar could, being home instead of in a different realm. His friends prayed for him, hoping that the two of them could come back home safely no matter what obstacles were in their way.

He could draw on their strength. Nodding, Flynn said, "Sure, but keep hold of the chalice."

Issachar agreed, putting away his weapons to call the Chalice of Hope out. The spirit of hope he had wasn't as bright and vibrant as Flynn was used to it being. To Issachar's song, it brightened more than it was and returned to him. It felt for a moment like there was some hole to him, a feeling that he'd had from time to time while Issachar had his hope. Then the lacking was gone and his dread began to recede. There were others counting on him; he didn't want to fail them. His own future counted on this too as he needed to be free of the White's manipulations.

Flynn attacked his White image again, shattering it a third time. The glow around it turned red around the edges as it reformed. "It doesn't matter how much hope you gather as your failures have compounded over many lifetimes," the White said, reappearing in a non-human form. It had six arms, a godly build, two blades of light that it quickly summoned, and even a ghostly lotus curled in one hand close to its chest.

Although surprised, Issachar kept singing to protect him. Shesha hissed softly, then reappeared in a larger form around Flynn's feet. Flynn steadied his grip on his katana, trying to the ignore the image of a crucifix in the new scenery. "That's what I looked like when fused with Krishna to become Vishnu," he told the others. "And I have failed before, which led me to realize what I actually wanted."

Yes, no victory was certain. Only failure.

"This goal cost me more than I anticipated," Flynn said, focusing his attention on the White. "But I cannot fail, especially now that my friends know and have decided on my path instead of those offered to them. I will make this the truth!"

"This path cost you more than you could pay," the White said, then attacked him with both swords.

Memories of the past said that the attack should come inhumanly fast. But the White was moving slowly, as if trying to fight through water. Flynn noticed that it was Issachar's song giving that resistance. Of course, that was a song of hope and love. He blocked the initial swing; his White self was already moving to thrust through with the other blade. The resistance gave Flynn the time to block the second and third attacks as well. But although he knew how to use a sword well enough for this, that wasn't his strength. He used the katana to blast the White with antitchton instead.

That caused the image to shatter with a scream. It did not reform. This time, the trees in the forest began to rustle to a wind. Color was returning too, fainter than a real forest but better than before. A young girl came out of the trees and ran up to them. "You did it!"

"Yes, that was easier than I expected," Flynn said, letting her hug him at the waist.

Stephan appeared nearby too. "Once you believed you could, there was no question of your victory over the White. This is the realm of the human conscious after all."

"Then this place is free of the White then?" Issachar asked.

"For now," Stephan said. "As the remainder of humanity is in Japan, you'll need to change the views of the people to completely overcome the White. This should give you plenty of time to do that. You're free to return home now and I can make sure you get there. But first," he shifted his glasses and somehow shifted the scenery with it, "here's the one who helped you in the background to weaken the White. This is Aleph, the avatar of the Amala Network."

"Are you the one I met before?" Flynn asked. He looked much the same, in that strange outfit while he knelt by a table with several books on it. And there were many more books all around them, in a vast library that seemed to go on forever in the glance Flynn gave down one of the aisles. He quickly looked back to the table since it was disorienting.

"Hmm." Aleph took a moment still looking at the table before looking up to them. "Somewhat. I recall the memories of that life if I focus on it because I did live it. But I've lived through a vast number of lives since. Go ahead and sit down; this space is completely under my control and you're safe here."

"This is an amazing place," Issachar said as they accepted his offer. The girl sat down next to Aleph with a hidden smile; he patted her shoulder. "It seems like you have every book that ever was here."

"That is a nearly accurate statement," Aleph said. "The Amala Network encompasses all in history and possibility. The knowledge of all books and more is indeed here, but the books themselves are illusions I made so the omniscience doesn't overwhelm my visitors. As I am human myself, I only know fragments of what's here at a time. Excuse me if there are things I fail to know for trying to focus on what may be important to you."

"That's fine," Issachar said. "Did you loosen the hold of the White over the souls of the deceased?"

Aleph nodded. "Yes. It does not free all of them from their long wait for a final rest, as some are still weighed down by their own problems. But the majority are in the care of the Great Will now, due to the way we freed them from their ties."

"That's great, thank you," Issachar said. "You must be really powerful."

"In some ways, but I have my limits," he said. "I need to work through my allies for most things. I should inform you, the Demifiend that has shown up in your world is one of them. When we came to your world in this time, we were going to avoid having too much influence on matters. But Naoki's decided to get involved in a way that will end up opposed to you, at least on the surface."

"What's he doing then?" Issachar asked.

"I had guessed that he came looking for the real Lucifer," Flynn said. "I don't mind if he were to free him because Lucifer might be easier to deal with than the other forces involved, particularly if that book is right and Naoki can influence the Lucifer of our world to change."

"You know, I still haven't had time to read that yet," Issachar said. "Although it seemed interesting."

Aleph seemed to be thinking of something. Steven said, "It's a decent reference on what he's like, but Naoki would claim otherwise because it wasn't something he wrote himself."

Nodding, Aleph said, "You could make some estimates on him from it, but he can be unpredictable even to me. He can indeed influence Lucifer, especially if he is the one to free him. That makes your other theory correct, in that it would be better to have Lucifer active over the alternatives even though he will still be a dangerous influence over humanity. Due to his chosen role, though, Naoki will not be helping you openly. He will be helping you without you realizing it, as will I. Remember that to some beings, this is still just a game. Play along to how he acts as the Demifiend, please. If we feel you need to know something, Stephan or I will contact you."

"All right, we can do that," Issachar said.

"Sure," Flynn said. Ultimately they had the same enemy. But for the game, they would have different roles.

"That's one thing I wanted you to be aware of," Aleph said. "Another is why we came to this time and place in particular. I'm sure you know of this already, Flynn. Issachar, you may have started seeing the large picture through the things the White have been showing you, also in something you learned from Shesha. Amala is not simply one world and history; Amala is any and every possibility. However, something has been going awry and many worlds are falling into similar cycles."

"And the gods have been falling into hating humanity, particularly creators," Issachar said.

Aleph nodded. "That too. This has been going on since my initial lifetime. At the time, I was like you both, given the responsibility of being the Messiah, the one to guide the future. Most of my choices ended up with me being cursed beyond death to record the entirety of the conflict between Law and Chaos. That is the destructive cycle that has gripped many worlds."

"So it's many worlds being fought over by angels and demons?" Issachar asked.

"Yes, far more than there should be. Worlds that are deemed as being mundane get magic and demons dragged into them to force them into this cycle as well. Worlds that are deemed magical are being given the technologies to make such wars more dangerous. Steven, myself, and Naoki all decided to get involved on a large scale to find ways to break these cycles and free the worlds from this madness."

"You only have to focus on your own world now," Stephan said. "You've already helped two other histories to progress to their own freedom, which is more than was asked of you."

"Oh good, so they did turn out better?" Issachar asked.

Aleph pulled one of the books of of its stack and opened it up in front of them. "Yes, and you've become legends in both as an inspiration that people want to follow."

"I just wanted to help them while we had the chance," he said, embarrassed at it but interested. Flynn smiled; that had been a part of their dreams long ago, if not how they thought they'd come true.

Aleph shifted through a few pages of these legends. "You may end up helping more worlds than those because Flynn's experiences and plans have shown us how we can break these cycles more effectively. We came to witness how things go before we attempt to trigger similar processes elsewhere."

"I was just thinking of myself and my friends when I decided on this," Flynn said, reminded of when he'd been in the monastery's cells and forced to think things over. "It just happened that some of us had been placed in important positions in the game. I don't even know why I've been repeating this life for certain."

"That would be because of another being who keeps reliving this life because you are a part of them," Aleph answered without hesitation. "They're also not satisfied with how things go. One could say this is ultimately their plan for freedom, and it happens that you held the key to that."

"I see," Flynn said, realizing what he must mean. "That's good, I can accept that."

Aleph smiled, the first expression he'd shown here. "Good. Now, there's something I'd like to tell you because you might not notice right away. Defeating the White has unsealed your transformations. Issachar, you can change back to a human again, but if you hold off on that for a moment, I have an idea for you."

"Sure," he said.

"And Flynn, since Vishnu has recognized you as one of his avatars now, you can change to that form whenever you like without fusing with anyone else."

"I don't know about that," Flynn said, uneasy with the idea.

"You are strong enough as you are," Aleph said. "But do not discount the potential psychological effects on your enemies."

"Maybe." But would it affect him too?

"It's your choice," Aleph said. "Now for you, Issachar, as I said, I am powerful in some limited ways. I wanted to reward you for what you've done for the other worlds; the only thing you got out of that for yourself is the ability to summon a few special demons. Circumstances present a unique option, one that I can only offer now. I can swap the way for transformation works so that you're a man as an angel and a woman as a human."

"Really?" Issachar asked. Flynn was surprised too. Although, he had a hunch on what Issachar would decide since this was being offered.

Aleph nodded. "Yes, because of your current situation along with how you see yourself, it's possible right now. It would be trickier once you transform back, so this would be the time to change yourself."

As Flynn thought, it didn't take Issachar long to consider it. "Well, does it matter to you Flynn?"

"No, it wouldn't change how I feel," Flynn said, taking his hand.

Smiling, Issachar said, "Yeah, and it doesn't matter to me. But it would matter to some others, so I feel it would be better if I was a woman as a human."

"Then that's how you wish to live from now on?" Aleph asked.

"Yes," Issachar said.

"Very well," Aleph said, closing his eyes and putting a hand up in front of him. Lines and strange symbols followed the movements of his fingers. "Taking the remnants of the transformation seal, vital information about you within the Amala Network can be changed… your sense of self will not reject the sex change… there, it is done."

Issachar briefly glowed like he did when he transformed. He was still an angel when he came out of it, just a man now. "Thank you, Aleph, this helps a lot," he said, excited about it.

"You're welcome," Aleph said, smiling again. "That was what I had to tell you for now. Do you have any questions for me? If it's not something I've accessed recently, I may need some time to locate the information within the Network."

Flynn could think of something and searched through his gauntlet's battle records for it. Meanwhile, Issachar asked, "Well, of what I know, it seems like restoring Masakado to his normal self as the guardian of Tokyo and Mikado is going to be important. How do we do that?"

After a moment, Aleph took away the book of legends and brought out a map of Tokyo. He pointed out a spot. "This is where Masakado's shrine is; I'll mark it on the maps in your gauntlets. It is in sore need of repairs. Luckily, there has been an effort to begin repairing areas of Tokyo that are in use. You should negotiate with those in charge of that to get a work crew there. He can't be summoned other than in his JDSDF form until the shrine is repaired. And you're correct, it would be better for him to be summoned normally. His JDSDF form can be unstable. Would you bring out the chalice you two got from him?"

"Sure, it's been helpful," Issachar said, bringing it out to set on the table. "But he didn't get to say what it was for."

"You've had good intuition on how it could be used," Stephan said. "That is properly called the Chalice of Hope."

"Yes, so you found an ideal alternative use," Aleph said. "Flynn can give you better specifics, but with that chalice, you need to raise the hopes of the people in you as their hero. This can be done through fulfilling their requests and speaking with them. Those hopes will be gathered in the chalice into a new Spirit of Hope. That will give Masakado the power he needs to recover.

"In past timelines, it was also necessary to retrieve the Spirit of Spite and the Spirit of Goodwill. But that was for removing the Firmament from over Tokyo. That required destroying Mikado, so you've already improved matters by bringing the Firmament down without harming anyone. However, I believe that gathering them will help in summoning Masakado and securing his position as the guardian of the people."

"That should be done differently," Flynn said. "But if that would involve Walter and Jonathan now, that could be difficult."

"It could be done without them if you take this," Aleph said, putting a hand on the table. When he lifted it, there was a ring with two gems on it. "Place it on the chalice and that will allow the chalice to form those spirits as well."

Issachar took it; there was a latch that allowed him to slip it over the handle of the chalice. "That's good, but how do we gather goodwill and spite?"

"Goodwill will take encouraging people to help others, building their trust and faith in each other," Aleph said. "And Spite holds a different meaning than you might expect. Goodwill is a will to help others; Spite is a will to help yourself. To encourage Spite, you need to encourage others to have confidence and do some things for themselves. As with Law and Chaos, Goodwill and Spite should be balanced for humanity to bring out our best potential."

Hearing that, Flynn felt a sense of relief. "I see. Getting Goodwill and Spite this way should prevent all hope from falling on a single person, which is what caused problems with the Divine Powers in other timelines."

Aleph nodded. "Yes, I took that into consideration. Keep the chalice with you always, Issachar, even if it's in your gauntlet's storage. Once you have the three spirits strong enough that they detach from the chalice and follow you instead, as well as Masakado's shrine repaired, you can go to the shrine to pray for Masakado to return as the protector of Tokyo and Mikado. I'll call you back if this is not enough, but we should try that first."

"Sure, I'll do that," Issachar said, putting the chalice away. "I have other questions, but I can find answers on my own or with others I know."

"That's good," Aleph said.

"There is something I'd like to confirm with you," Flynn said, showing him the entry he'd got on the Lucifer they'd fought in Infernal Tokyo. The stats on the demon were high enough to make it believable, but the summoning app only identified him as '?' "Beelzebub told us that this was the real Lucifer. I'd like to know if that's right and if the real one in our world will show up like this."

"Hmm… Stephan?"

Stephan touched his glasses; the gauntlet's screen flickered as he did. "Yes, that is how Lucifer will manifest in your world under current conditions. He can change that appearance and even his powers if he regains his identity. But as long as that's missing, he's stuck like that. I'm unable to tell you where he is currently as some knowledge is best discovered for yourselves."

"I understand, but thanks for telling me that," Flynn said. Having this battle data would help them be prepared in case they had to fight him again. "That's all for me for now."

"I wish you both well in your plans," Aleph said, then gestured across the table. "That door will send you back home at Ginza, at a similar relative time to when you left."

"I'm counting on you," the girl said cheerily.

"Sure, we'll get things done," Issachar said. Flynn nodded to agree.

On going through the door, they came out of a store at the crossroads of Ginza. The white obelisk was still there, now tied up with golden chains. Where would it lead now? The same place? If the chains kept things from coming through either way, it would be good.

Issachar changed form and soon laughed. "This is great! Some people are sure to be shocked, but this means we don't have to hide things anymore."

"Sure, I'm glad for you," he said. "We should tell our friends that we're back first, and visit at least Jonathan."

He nodded. "Yeah. Then, would you want to get married now?"

Chuckling at his enthusiasm, he said, "I don't think right now would work out."

"Oh, well yeah, but," he laughed at himself.

"We could be busy for a while on summoning Masakado," Flynn said. "But when there's time, either before or after then, then sure."

There was still a chance that the White could be back to bother them. But they were gone for now, hopefully for good. Things would surely get better now.


	71. When Hell Freezes Over

**Chapter 71: When Hell Freezes Over**

Hope met them early in the morning. In the time that they had been working in Tokyo, his hair had grown whiter, making him seem even older than he was. "Then you're not certain of this?"

"Right," Isabeau said. Since she was speaking with two men, she refrained on reporting what she'd discussed with her mother and the midwife. "It's too early for us to know, but it's very likely."

Hope nodded to that, thoughtful. "We've had a few other women since you decide to stay on despite getting married. There's been complaints about the safety of the women and their children. However, those women have proven themselves many times to be dutiful and honorable. I can see you're taking this seriously too, both of you. In that case, you may continue serving at your discretion for now. But in a few months, you'll be pulled back to safer duties like being a guard." Then he nodded to Walter. "And since you would rather accompany her, the same goes for you."

"That should work," Isabeau said.

"Sure, I don't mind," Walter said.

"While you're in here," Hope said, taking out a file to pull out a map, "there is something the two of you could help me out with. We've been prioritizing keeping the villages and castle safe for the past few years. It means that only a small portion of us have been fighting demons in Naraku, mostly prentices and a few others who don't often go below the second level. You both have been fighting tougher battles, so Naraku should be simple for you now. Would you go in and map out how the dungeon has changed since Mikado was moved? We know some of the lower areas are flooded out, but I don't have many reports from below the second level."

"If we can get some others with us, I could dive in a few of the flooded areas if that helps," Walter suggested.

"I'm fine with that," Isabeau said, right before they got a notice from their gauntlets.

'Master, you have a message from Flynn,' Burroughs said. 'It seems like he and Issachar have returned home.'

"Oh, Flynn and Issachar are back," Isabeau said since it seemed he hadn't contacted Hope.

That made him smile. "Good, I hope they're well. Did they need to meet with you?"

"Yes, actually," she said. "But we'll see to mapping Naraku again."

"Thank you, go on ahead." He then got a message, presumably from one of them to report in.

They quickly agreed to meet up at Jonathan's house as he was still under house care. He was waiting in a parlor with some books nearby; Marie was playing a piano in the room while a pair of servants were setting up a quick brunch. "Good morning," Isabeau said to him. "How are you doing?"

"The pain is lessening and that's about it," Jonathan said, smiling. "Good morning. I'll try to stay up, but the medicine I got from Tokyo makes me sleepy.'

"We'll let you know anything if you doze off," Walter said.

Not long after brunch was set up, Flynn and Issachar arrived. Flynn seemed better, if how alert he seemed without being tense was a good sign. And Issachar was so cheerful that he must not be too worried about Flynn. Although, it was clear that he'd changed, being that he was a woman without being an angel too.

After letting them check on Jonathan first, Isabeau couldn't help asking, "What happened to you, Issachar? That's quite a change."

"It was a gift someone offered me," he said, beaming about it. "It's a permanent change, but it lets us get married when we get the time for it."

"Congratulations, that's wonderful for both of you," Jonathan said with a smile. Despite being unable to do much, he seemed to be happy any time she saw him.

And why not be happy now? "Yes, it seems natural for you."

Issachar nodded. "Thanks, but I did want to talk with you about anything I should know. I've only been a woman as an angel, where it doesn't really matter."

There were a lot of things that she was taught as a girl not to speak of around men. But he really should know of them now. "Sure, we can go talk a little later."

"So uh, are we supposed to call you a man or a woman now?" Walter asked, rubbing his neck.

"It doesn't matter to me," Issachar said. "Especially since you're all good friends. Though I'll tell other people to call me a woman now."

"Then what happened with you both?" Isabeau asked.

"Well it sounds crazy, but we've seen how history may have gone if different choices were made," Issachar said, then began telling them of the other worlds. Sometimes Flynn added things he knew from even more histories that he'd lived through. Their stories were of strange worlds, but she was sure they'd be telling the truth here.

Then they had to fill the two in on what had gone on. "We've been trying to revive Amaterasu with the information you gave us," Jonathan said, picking up his gauntlet from the side table. "We cleared two of the domains, but our last foray into the third domain was disastrous."

"I thought we were doing alright in lasting longer there," Walter said. "But the domain's master jumped us; we had to flee within seconds."

"It happens," Flynn said. "I'm glad you survived."

In the meantime, Jonathan had called out the two recovered treasures. "You should speak with Futotoma, but could you finish this request off?"

"Sure, we've been training in a really tough domain recently," Issachar said, taking the treasures to put away in his inventory.

"It's an important request," Flynn said. "If we get it done early, Amaterasu might help out as an ally greatly. The mirror should help as well."

"Thank you," Jonathan said. "I feel bad for failing to keep my word, but there's not much I can do about it. We also did as many requests in both lands as we could. At the moment, the samurai have a good reputation in Tokyo."

"Good, you've helped a lot in doing so," Flynn said. "What's the current situation with the demons and angels?"

"It's gotten confusing, with little conflicts breaking out all over," Walter said.

Isabeau nodded. "Right, it's not a clear two sides anymore, especially with the demons. Thanks to Hikaru, we have a fairly good idea of the various sides, so you'll want to speak with her for more details on the demons."

"All right, then where is she?" Issachar asked.

"She accompanied a group from Tokyo to look into a place called the Forbidden Tomb," Jonathan said. "They're some of the friends we've made over there: Nanashi, Asahi, Hallelujah, Toki, and that photographer Nozomi. Naverre and Gaston went with them too. For this week, they've been my guests here while they researched some sealed demon here in Mikado."

"A sealed demon?" Flynn asked, interested in that. "Who are they looking for?"

"I heard it was a request straight from the Demifiend," Jonathan said. "Which is worrisome, especially since he asked them to find a demon with a similar aura to his own. But it seems safer to cooperate with him at the moment."

Flynn nodded, now thinking over it. "That's prudent. I know who they were sent to find, almost certain of it. If they simply inform the Demifiend if they find him or not, it should be fine. I hope they don't try to unseal him themselves; that will be dangerous."

"You should send them a message, then since they should reach the area in a couple of hours," Jonathan, to which Flynn nodded and started writing one.

"Um, back to the demon factions," Isabeau said, sitting back in the couch. "The Demifiend and his clan are still in control of the Ashura-kai; they've been working on reconstruction projects around Tokyo, including building a bridge between Tokyo and Mikado, over the new river there."

"Really?" Issachar asked. "That sounds good, but demons can fly or swim, or even leap across a river."

"It could be useful to let him build that bridge," Flynn said. "Although, that means we need to negotiate with him about rebuilding Masakado's shrine."

"Do you think he'd agree to that?" Issachar asked.

"It shouldn't be hard, unless he decides to be difficult about it," Flynn said.

"Hmm, so what else about the demon factions?" Issachar asked.

Since she'd already started it, Isabeau went on with explaining. "Well, it's confusing, but I think there's two more major factions among the demons. Krishna seems to be leading both, one set of demons as Lucifer and another set as himself. The group following Krishna himself have been calling themselves the Divine Powers; they might be connected to the Ring of Gaea now, although the Ring seems to have divided into factions itself. Among the angels, most of them are following the false Gabriel and her allies from somewhere outside of Tokyo and Mikado. But there are a few like Issachar who are following the Great Will and oppose the false angels."

"Sure, but you can count that side on one hand," Walter said. "There's two normal ones, including the summoned angel I've been working with. And then there's Merkabah, who's been reviewing our Scriptures to find the words of the true God. She's doing that partly to stay hidden as the false angels keep pestering her to join them."

"She's not going to their territory," Jonathan said. "Although she's told me that she wants to confront Gabriel and her allies at some point."

"That should happen," Flynn said. "But not any time soon. There's a lot we still need to get done. Jonathan, when you recover enough to get around at least, you could see about helping Naverre or Fujiwara with some diplomatic measures."

He nodded. "Sure, I think I could help out there."

"We also need to do some diplomacy with demons, and see about recruiting more angels to the Great Will," Flynn said. "We don't want any kind of demon controlling humans. However, some demon clans are naturally cooperative and could be made into allies of equal standing. Walter, Isabeau, you should be able to negotiate with those demons on those terms, and take on some simpler requests."

"At least for a few months," Isabeau said. She'd decided that she'd serve as long as she could before. But now that she had a possible pregnancy, she wondered if that was the best course. She did want to set a good example for what a woman could do, but she had seen what could happen with both Walter and Jonathan, Flynn too.

"That's fine," Flynn said. "Issachar and I should be able to handle the major efforts. For instance, one thing we need to get done is win a series of summoner tournaments in Tokyo. That takes close to two months when they begin. Once those are through, the major conflicts should heat up. Unless one of the other sides can drive the Demifiend away from the reactor, I have a good feeling about that."

"Then we'll take care of finding the mirror before the tournaments start," Issachar said. "Is there anything else we should take care of early?"

Flynn nodded. "I took a request from Nanashi a while ago that I haven't had a chance to take care of. We can look into that after we rescue Amaterasu."

* * *

The rice fields of Ikben Village were huge, made up of many flooded terraces. "Wow, there's so much of it!" Asahi said, looking down at the tiny new plants in the water.

"They need to grow a lot because people eat a lot of rice," Toki said. "It is impressive."

"It's really amazing to see all these different landscapes," Nozomi said, catching back up to them. "There's a lot of different places across Tokyo, but not to this extent."

Hikaru giggled. "There's way more landscapes in the world, very different from these! It's kind of a pity that there aren't any ships left, not even just to get over to the Asian coast. You'd find so much to gawk over."

But how long was this walk going to take? They'd ridden a wagon for a long time and now they had to walk a long ways to get past the rice fields to the Forbidden Tomb. At least it gave them plenty of time to talk; this area was peaceful and the weather was nice. It felt like there was nothing to worry about, just a long walk… these people must walk a lot and work hard.

After the sun started to approach the horizon, they passed by the rice fields to find the monument they were looking for. It resembled the Obelisk back in the castle city, a tall pillar made of black stone with a base that held a lot of writing. Unlike the castle one, this obelisk showed its age with all the weathering. Nothing was growing within twelve feet of this obelisk, though, not even grass. And when they got within the dead circle, a chill ran over her whole body.

"Whoa, there's definitely something weird going on here," Asahi said, shivering. If they were going to stick around, she should dig her jacket out of storage.

"It's trying to drive us away," Toki said, going over to look at the writing.

"No kidding," Nozomi said, stepping back out of the dead circle to take a picture of the monument. "Everything about this place is just begging you to keep away."

After a moment of looking at it, Hallelujah shifted over to his demon form. He'd told Nozomi about it earlier as she was the only one of them who didn't know about his secret. Nozomi was a relaxed kind of person, so she was fine with it. Asahi felt cheerful about that; there were lots of good people in the world, she was sure.

"There isn't an aura of death like around the fiends," Hallelujah said. "But there are things similar to the Demifiend here. There could be a demon sealed here, the one he told us to find."

"Hmm." Nanashi was trying to read the monument too and looked concerned. He'd gotten a message from Flynn earlier, warning them not to unseal the demon if they found it. Being here, Asahi felt like they might not need the warning.

"Can you read this?" Toki asked, moving to the other sides.

"No," Nanashi said, checking with his demonica.

"What is it?" Asahi asked, going closer even though her nerves wanted her to get away. There was strange writing on the base. "Huh, never seen letters like this before."

"None of these are legible," Toki said, looking up to see if something there was a hint.

"It's in Hebrew," Hikaru said, crouching by one of the sides. "It says, hmm… the doorway will open on nights when the moon doesn't shine. So new moon or an eclipse."

"That's a really old language, isn't it?" Hallelujah asked.

She nodded and got up to check the other sides. "Yup, and pretty much dead cause no human alive can speak or read it."

"It isn't going to be a new moon for a while," Nanashi said. "We could take some pictures of this tomb and give that for our report."

"Or we can trick the doorway into opening now," Hikaru said. "From the stories, I guess that the doorway might close if someone goes through it or it's just unstable. But I can keep the door open if you want to check on this sealed demon yourselves."

"We should do that," Hallelujah said.

"Is it going to be dangerous?" Nanashi asked.

"Probably," Hikaru said, stopping at one side and pointing at it. "This side suggests that opening up the doorway won't undo the seal. Another says to never release the seal save by God's command, and the last claims that the herald Michael is responsible for this and the herald Gabriel moved the sealed demon here to keep a closer eye on it. But it doesn't say who is sealed in here. Must be pretty serious with those two involved."

"If the sealed demon is going to be just past the door, we don't have to take long," Hallelujah said. "Anybody want to go in with me?"

"I'd like to see," Asahi said, thinking to herself to keep brave despite the monument trying to push them away. "Though I wouldn't want to go far in; maybe I can have the summoning program on my phone scan the sealed demon?"

"I'd rather go in if you are too," Nanashi said.

"Hmm, well three should be fine," Nozomi said. "Just be ready to retreat if things seem bad."

"Sure, we won't be long," Nanashi said. Asahi nodded. They just needed to see what was in the tomb, that should be enough.

"Then the rest of you keep off the dead zone," Hikaru said, still looking at the tomb. "And you guys, stand about there."

Once they were in position, Hikaru waved her hand in a circle facing the tomb. Something like black ink followed her movements; the sunlight around them dimmed. The tomb shimmered under its rough surface before making an archway of shadows in front of it. A burst of even colder wind came from the door.

"Whoa, I don't think we'd want to stay long in there," Asahi said. "But we can handle it. Let's go!"

"Sure, let's be careful," Hallelujah said, heading inside. Nanashi and Asahi followed him.

There was a cave past the shadow arch, one that was entirely iced over and lit by an equally cold light. The only exit out was the shadow arch they'd come through. As expected, it was bitterly cold inside. There were a few frozen corpses nearby. With an unstable doorway, anyone who stumbled in on accident would quickly freeze to death.

Taking up much of the room, there was a giant demon hunched over in front of them. He was stuck in the ice floor up to his waist, with more ice weighing down his large wings. There was a sword stuck in his chest along with giant nails through his hands and wings into the floor. Staying by the archway as planned, Asahi scanned the demon with her phone. She'd already set up the program to do so.

"Those heralds really didn't want to let this guy get away," Hallelujah said, somehow not as bothered by the intense cold.

"It-it's been fifteen centuries that M-Mikado's been around," Nanashi said, more affected.

"Yeah, what about it?" Hallelujah asked.

He pointed to the demon's chest, then pulled his arm back to wrap around himself. "He's still heavily wounded."

"Oh yeah," Hallelujah said, going closer to the demon. "He seems dead, but most demon corpses vanish on defeat. The other corpses in here aren't deteriorated either, which might be from the sheer cold in here."

"I've got the scan," Asahi said, trying not to stammer from shivering. "Let's get out."

"Yeah, we should," Hallelujah said.

Once they were out, Hikaru closed the doorway. "You guys seem frosty," she said with a smile.

"It was awful in there, so cold," Asahi said, going out of the dead circle to get out of the unnatural chill. "Much longer could've killed us."

"Oh dear, are you alright?" Nozomi asked, coming over to her. "Show me your fingers."

"I still feel cold," she said, holding up her hand that wasn't gripping her phone. Looking over herself, she saw that her fingers were paler than normal. But they didn't seem to be affected by frostbite. "I think we got out just in time."

To double-check, Nozomi took her hand to look at it closer. "Hmm, yes, that must have been close. We should check over you boys too."

"All right," Nanashi said, coming over to them. He was also pale and still cold, but hadn't taken any lasting damage. Hallelujah was always pale in his demon form, but as Asahi noted, he hadn't been affected by the cold at all.

"What was inside there?" Toki asked.

"We definitely found him," Hallelujah said. "I don't know where exactly that doorway went, but it was an entirely closed up cave of ice, like some glacier. And the demon was frozen right into the ice, even nailed down so he couldn't escape. Whatever battle he went through must've been rough too even though he feels powerful."

"He felt powerful despite his imprisoned semi-dead state," Nanashi said.

"Well you were in the Abyss," Hikaru said, still checking on the area around the tomb. Maybe making sure the doorway was securely closed. "I wonder if that was the real Lucifer then."

"Huh, really?" Hallelujah asked. "I mean, maybe…"

"Given who asked us to do this, it's not unreasonable," Nanashi said. "What's the scan data say?"

She'd already been checking it, finding a lot of weird things about it. "Um, well the demon's name is just a bunch of question marks. And for some reason, his HP is rated so far in the negative that it's breaking the display."

"Seriously?" Nozomi asked. Asahi nodded and showed her the scan data.

"Man, that's so dead that if he got any deader, he'd be alive," Hikaru said, coming over to see for herself. "You'd get some wacky insanity if you tried that. That could be fun."

"Or very dangerous," Nozomi said.

"But dangerous can be fun," Hikaru said, checking the data. After a moment, she nodded. "His name might be unknown because he doesn't have an identity. But a demon without an identity shouldn't exist in a form that would maintain itself like this for so long of imprisonment. Given his look and those stats, I'm pretty sure that's the real Lucifer. I'd know for sure if I saw him myself, hmm…"

"How can you be that sure of it?" Gaston asked. "Although logically, that makes sense from who sealed this place and the apparent extremes taken to keep him imprisoned."

"Cause I was a false Lucifer when someone else woke me up with his identity," Hikaru said, going back in the dead zone. "Hang on, I'll check. There's some folks that'd give me an earful if I didn't." She sighed and shook her head while recasting the spell to confuse the tomb.

"So then Lucifer was sealed here in Mikado for all this time," Naverre said. "That's crazy! We were called a holy kingdom blessed by God."

"Well he was literally nailed down and sealed so he couldn't wake up," Nozomi said.

"The doorway might've been moved here when Michael, Uriel, and Raphael were captured down in Tokyo," Nanashi said. "But he had to have been defeated before that since Michael was credited with the victory."

Hikaru came back out and closed up the archway. "Yeah, that's him. And man, they really didn't want to take chances with him getting freed without their notice."

"How's that?" Asahi asked.

After double checking the tomb, Hikaru came over to them. "Well you guys saw that sword in his chest, right? That's what sealing him from being revived. Normally demons can recover themselves in the Abyss even if they die there. Lucifer has a high enough presence in human imagination that he should have revived on his own by now. But minus his identity and with that sword sealing his spirit, he is stuck there. The sword has an extra trick to it too, in that no demon save an angel can touch it. A human could wield it, though, even to remove the seal on Lucifer."

"But humans can't last more than a couple minutes in there," Asahi said.

"Which means that you'd need an angel or a half-demon accustomed to the cold like Hallelujah here to remove the sword sealing Lucifer," Hikaru said. "And you'd have to wait for a new moon unless you know the right tricks. And! Those giant nails pinning him down even further? They're set to kill any human who tries to mess with them if they manage to survive the cold."

Asahi glanced over at Nanashi, Hallelujah, and Toki as something came to mind. Toki was the one who ended up saying it first. "The Demifiend is also a half-demon."

"If we tell him Lucifer is here, I'm sure he can unseal him," Nanashi said.

"We're obligated to tell him, though," Hallelujah said. "At least, I am since he's done so much for me and he gave the request to me."

"Yeah, he might kill us off if we make him mad," Asahi said.

"Maybe," Hallelujah said, seeming nervous.

"Well don't think about it too hard," Hikaru said, waving off their concerns. "Report in on your request and start preparing for things to get more dangerous. That's the responsibility you agreed to upon becoming Hunters, right? Even if you failed to report in, things are dangerous already. Waffling is only going to lose you time."

"Makes sense to me," Nozomi said. "You kids are pretty good, but you'll need to get better to keep up. Me too, I think."

"Right, we should report in on this," Hallelujah said.

Despite agreeing to that, Nanashi seemed distracted as they walked back. After a few minutes, Asahi went over and tugged at his sleeve. "Hey, you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," he said, although he was serious in thought.

"You don't seem fine," she said. She tried to get a good look at his face; he still seemed pale. Maybe it was just being in that creepy tomb. "What's on your mind?"

"I remember this place," Nanashi said, looking back to the rice fields. "I explained things earlier because I don't remember that tomb. If it had been there before, it should have been familiar."

"That's odd," she said. There were more important things to worry about, though. "Anyhow, shouldn't you pay more attention to the present? You've been spacing out a lot lately."

"I'd like to," he said. "But these memories come back like I'm reliving them. I was just thinking…"

After a moment, she tugged at him again. "Thinking about what?"

"Angels are a pain to work with," he answered.

Back in the village, it had grown late enough that the wagon driver didn't want to head back. They were given a guest house, furnished with simple cots and wooden boxes that served as tables. A young woman was in the room lighting the fireplace. "I'm terribly sorry; I cleaned up the rooms but forgot the lights. We don't have any lamps here, so this will have to do."

"That's fine, we'll just have to be careful with it," Nozomi said, glancing around. This was a house made of wood and straw, save for the clay bricks around the fireplace.

"Um, well," she picked up some kind of shovel. "If any ashes escape across the line about here, brush them back in before you go asleep. And close the grate; it should keep the fire contained. It doesn't hurt to check it through the night if somebody wakes up every now and then."

"All right, thank you," Nozomi said. Once the local woman was gone, she checked over the rack of tools by the fireplace. "Never had a fireplace, but it doesn't sound too hard."

"It makes this place nice and cozy," Asahi said. "Much better than being near that tomb."

Nozomi nodded. "No kidding. Getting a picture to do that place justice would take a lot of thought. Visually, it's not that imposing."

"It's peculiar," Toki said as she checked over the cots. "Asahi? Did you decide what you're going to do?"

"I'm not sure," she said, sitting on one of the boxes. There weren't any chairs in here, not even stools. "It's just, there's good and bad things to both sides. I could do both at once, but I'd have to pay more attention to one than the other."

"What are you talking about?" Nozomi asked.

She seemed like a nice person, so Asahi felt like it was fine. "Oh, well you know how the Ashura-kai requested that everyone under eighteen start taking classes with these laptops? When I took the initial exam, it offered to give me some extra medical courses to become a doctor or a nurse. I'm already trained as a Hunter medic and I like taking care of people, but it would take a lot of study to follow those courses. And I'd love to be a Hunter too cause I like adventures like this. But Nanashi, Hallelujah, and Toki are all better than me at fighting demons, and Nanashi is better than any of us at being a demon summoner. I could study the courses and stay a Hunter, but then I wouldn't be able to do as much work."

"That does sound like a tough choice," Nozomi said. "We could use more Hunters and doctors, although we have far fewer doctors available. What are you truly passionate about? I chose photography with being a Hunter to get me places."

"Um, well I don't know," Asahi said.

"Are you also worried about not working with Nanashi anymore?" Toki asked.

Immediately embarrassed, she said, "H-hey, what makes you say that?"

"You're always worrying over him and getting him up in the mornings," Toki pointed out calmly. "Even today, you kept checking on him. It's fine, he has been acting odd the past few days."

"Well he's been distracted by something," Asahi said. Toki knew about it, but not Nozomi. "He's talked with me about it, but I'm not sure how to help him. And I'm sure he's still thinking about investigating the area south of Kinshicho. If he does that, you guys could use my help as a medic because of the poison swamp."

"I was gonna ask him if it was alright to investigate Ginza," Toki said. "I wanted to ask some of my old teachers about a few things."

"Well that could be trouble for me, but it sounds like that could help you out," Asahi said.

"Hallelujah and I can keep an eye on Nanashi, make sure he doesn't get too distracted," she said.

"Yeah, thanks," Asahi said, although she didn't feel certain about it. What if Nanashi felt they were better friends? What would she do then?

Nozomi smiled at them. "You guys seem like good friends. Being separated from them shouldn't be a big deal."

It made sense, but Asahi still felt worried about it. But as they kept talking, she started to think that going with the medical studies primarily would benefit her and many others, including her friends. Her talk with Naverre had already made her think that focusing on the medical courses and doing Hunter requests for resources would be a great plan. Hopefully her Dad didn't act smug about her choice to focus less on being a Hunter; that could still change her mind if he made her mad.

Although the next morning, Nanashi seemed even more lost in thought and wouldn't explain why.

* * *

On getting back to the village, the other guys went to sleep before long. Nanashi didn't feel tired, so he watched over the fire. How did he avoid getting lost in these memories? He didn't want to block them out entirely as he learned useful things from them. But if this kept going, he might get distracted at a bad time… no, he was certain that he would given the frequency of these memories.

The fireplace remained calm, the flames inside flickering mildly. How to keep from getting distracted… maybe he'd known that kind of thing before. His eyelids lowered, trying to focus on this idea…

"It's an illusion," he said, ignoring the black flames around them. There was some demon causing this in the passage down to Tokyo. Of course, the agreement was that they wouldn't go past a certain level. But to keep Mikado safe, they needed to fight demons here. He was teaching some youths about how to be samurai, as the defenders of Mikado were now called.

"But there's nightmares in those flames, sir," one of his students said.

"It's hard to look away," another said.

"But you mustn't fall for the distractions of demons," he said. "It can be useful to know their illusions to identify the lies, but you need to hone your focus. I can show you one way. Focus on my words since they're real; hear them within your minds. Then push the illusions aside like curtains."

Push them aside like curtains… and focus on what was real. The memories were real, Nanashi felt sure of that. So were the flames in the fireplace. He focused on seeing the present fire while listening to himself in the past. His vision seemed fuzzy; Nanshi tried rewinding the memory and listening to it again. The fire cleared up as he recalled that lesson. Good, this was working.

Curious, he tried to recall something else. What should it be? Perhaps another lesson from the past, from himself or someone else…

Instead, he recalled something sideways. For a moment, it was clear as day in his awareness: a grinning donkey of a demon and peacock feathers, an attack that cut clear through his cheek into his mouth with flames burning all around him. Nanashi shifted his focus back to the fire. His throat clenched up in fear, trying to distract him too. He couldn't breathe… he ceased living.

Nanashi gasped; he was still breathing. The flames continued to crackle. In his mind, he remembered being nothing. A light drew him through the dark, bringing him back from nothing. Nanashi opened his eyes, looking into the flames while trying to follow this memory. He followed the light until it became a path, winding downward in an eerie broken landscape. Along the way, someone called him. A strange figure stood to the side, searching for a soul who would stop. It seemed he wore a horned hood over a skull, but that hood went seamlessly into the rest of his skin. His life was about to belong to Dagda.

That presence was watching him. Waiting for a moment to speak up.

Feeling his blood turn cold, he looked to where he felt the precense. He caught a glimpse of Dagda before the god vanished. How long would he persist in trying to convince him to kill God? And that question led to another: would he try to convince someone else if he did give up? Dagda was willing to kill in order to get his puppet.

Dagda was outside the guest building now. Nanashi got up and followed him outside. Unlike in Tokyo or Mikado Castle, it was almost completely dark at night here. A crescent moon hung near the horizon, accompanied by many twinkling stars in every direction but where Tokyo was. It was very quiet and still as only he and Dagda were outside.

"What do you want?" Nanashi asked.

"You to work with me, of course," Dagda said. "You're doing well on your own, but your skills will develop much faster with proper guidance."

"Your goal is still more than I want to deal with," he said.

"If you want to protect others, then getting rid of the main manipulator is for the best," he argued. "You'll see that for yourself, hopefully soon. But tonight, I want you to remember that sword sealing Lucifer."

"What about it?"

Speaking like it should have been obvious, Dagda explained, "If that weapon is enough to seal Lucifer in the Abyss for this long, it likely has the ability to seal any being. The main challenge would be sealing your target somewhere like that tomb, where it's unlikely that others will come across them. But for my plans, that shouldn't be a problem."

"But to use it, you'd have to release Lucifer," Nanashi said.

Dagda snorted. "He's nothing but a tool; releasing him or keeping him sealed won't matter. But getting possession of that sword will."

"Then what happens if someone else releases him, like the Demifiend?" he asked. "How are you going to get the sword from him?"

"Hmph, no one is completely invulnerable," Dagda said. "But often you need to act smarter rather than stronger. If someone else takes the sealing sword, I've already gotten details on the sword itself. We could find someone skilled enough to make another."

"Like a dwarf?" Nanashi asked, recalling a man in Kinshicho who recruited dwarves to craft various objects.

"They're the ones I'd ask first," he said. Then he snapped his fingers, calling out a book. "Since you spotted me, I'll go ahead and give you this spellbook. You still have to figure out how to make use of it, unless you agree to train under me."

"Thanks," he said.

"That's all for now," Dagda said before vanishing from sight. The spellbook remained floating where it had been.

"Not even going to chance sticking around for questions, huh?" Nanashi asked, taking the book. There was power in the book; that much could be seen in how it floated. What was inside?

A lot a blank pages, it turned out. But the first quarter of the book was dedicated to spell construction and a list of magic runes that symbolized all kinds of things. There were elements that included agi and bufu, even dia. There were also separate runes for 'fire', 'ice', 'cure', and far more. Trees, earth, cold, heat, hate, love, seventeen different runes for poison… and after all the runes, there was a single spell listed: a protection from abyssal cold such as what he'd experienced in the Forbidden Tomb.

The thing that came immediately to Nanashi's mind was constructing a spell to protect against poisons. If he could do that, then he didn't need Dagda's help beyond this. He could get his own goal accomplished by himself.

* * *

A/N: This is a brief musing on pronouns and such, in case anyone was wondering.

This chapter explains how I've been handling pronouns with Issachar being genderqueer, and how it will continue. It depends on the POV of each section. Issachar and his close friends will continue using masculine pronouns, as they acknowledge who he is and what he's doing. For those who don't know him well, they'll be using feminine pronouns as that is what they perceive him to be in his human form now. This helps Issachar overcome some constraints of society that he's been troubled by, although he will have to learn new constraints in living as a woman.

One reason that I'm handling him this way is that Mikado would not have the language for non-binary individuals, or even those outside the norm in other ways. Tokyo still has that language, I'm sure. And English currently doesn't have much for genderqueers either. I've looked into various cases and arguments and so far, it seems like pronouns are currently an individual's choice aside from borrowing 'they/them' if one's uncertain of another's preferences. I've already used 'they/them' for canon Merkabah here, although that's for different reasons. With Issachar, using perception and knowledge to decide on pronouns made the most sense. I just hope it's not confusing to read.

Though doing this makes me think that I should try out other stories with different genderqueer characters to work with alternate pronouns and see which ones feel organic.


	72. The New Path

**Chapter 72: The New Path**

After taking a couple of days to settle some matters, Issachar and Flynn headed out to take care of the last domain for Futotoma. It was a long winding domain, although Flynn assured him that it shouldn't be as large as the first area of Twisted Tokyo. Issachar used his angel form because he could detect demons better like that. Given their friends' story about the domain master, they didn't want to be taken by surprise.

The domain master was Alciel, one who would be more vulnerable to a fighter over a mage. Jonathan and Isabeau both tended to using magic, but Walter shouldn't have had a problem. Although, Issachar wouldn't have blamed him for being distracted last time. He was cautious as normal, but not too worried. He shouldn't have a problem with attacking Alciel; Flynn wouldn't because of his sword and knowing almighty magic. But this was still a powerful demon who could kill them if they weren't careful.

"Over there," he said, pointing down one path in a crossroad. "It's coming."

Flynn nodded, glancing around before he cast thunder reign down the halls. That defeated or scared off demons that could ambush them while fighting Alciel. As he was not affected, Alciel chuckled from beneath the floor, rising up to attack them. Issachar watched the ornate crown rising up until he could shoot at the top of the giant head approaching them. The demon remained below the floor most of the time, only coming out to attack.

After an annoying amount of time waiting, Flynn shook his head. "What a coward."

Alciel roared, raising previously hidden hands up to shove the walls of the domain aside. He then pulled the floor downward. While Flynn was unsteady from that, Issachar got in the air and shot at Alciel's fingers. That gave them more chances to hit the demon due to it being further out of the ground. When it was defeated, it left behind a bronze item that appeared like a shield which was polished enough to reflect things.

When Issachar picked it up, it showed him as a human rather than an angel. "This must be the mirror we were looking for. Let's head over to Ginza."

They didn't go straight to the shrine, instead going to the terminal to return to Mikado. Jonathan was feeling better this morning, so they brought him to the shrine near Kasumigaseki. Inside, Futotoma came over to them. "Ah, you've returned quickly once you had them."

"Yes, but I couldn't do it on my own," Jonathan said. "The last domain nearly destroyed me."

Futotoma nodded. "I saw it through this mirror. I'm glad to see that you have the honor to come return our treasures; thank you." He then bowed.

"I said that I would," Jonathan said.

"Here you go," Issachar said, giving him the real mirror first.

"Good, place them over on the altar." After checking over the treasures, Futotoma nodded. "That's them, thank you. The seal's already been weakened thanks to the domains being destroyed; you got all three of them in good time too. All that's left is to break it entirely." He stood in front of the altar and chanted quietly. Cracks appeared on the dark painting above the altar.

A warm light filled the room when the seal shattered, accompanying a beautiful woman with golden eyes. Smiling, she said, "Thank you, all of you. I'm sorry for falling for that trap."

"Don't worry, we're glad that you're safe," Futotoma said. "How are you doing?"

"I feel weak, but," she looked over at a window and nodded. "The sun's shining on this place now. I should be able to recover here. Although, what are you doing with Masakado's sword?"

"He accepted me as his summoner," Flynn said. "Although we need to repair his shrine to properly summon him."

"Ah, I would love to help you with that," she said, putting a hand to her cheek. "If we could…"

"We were going to ask the Demifiend for help since he's had the Ashura-kai recruiting people to repair various parts of the city already," Issachar said. "We're not sure what he's going to ask for that, but he has the best resources to get it done."

"The Demifiend, hmm?" Amaterasu said, thinking over something.

"He's been a dangerous influence over others," Futotoma said. "He's claimed that death rules this world. While mortals should be aware of their fates, he's been making them live in fear."

"Do you know him?" Issachar asked, wondering if that was why she was thoughtful.

"No, not myself," she said. "But it seems like in another world, I knew him. For me to remember, it is a world that is now lost. It shouldn't be too hard to convince him to repair the shrine, especially if you mention that I'd like it done too."

"Sure, we'll do that," Issachar said.

"Then here, you may borrow the sacred mirror to reveal the truth," Futotoma said, taking it off the altar to give back.

Next, they headed into Kasumigaseki and saw Jonathan back home. Flynn also wanted to inform Fujiwara of some of the things that happened and get his thoughts on what was going on. The Hunter leader was enthusiastic about their plans for summoning Masakado, agreeing to add more demon hunting challenge requests to help with encouraging others. "We could make completing such requests a prerequisite for the tournament this year," he added.

"You guys have a tournament?" Issachar asked, although he'd heard it from Flynn.

"Yes, we've been discussing how to handle it," Fujiwara said. "In past years, the Ashura-kai and the Ring of Gaea helped to put on the tournaments. They both would invite demons into the audience and encourage competitors to kill those who lost."

"Why would they do something horrible like that?" he asked. "You'd risk losing nearly everyone who joined."

He nodded. "Yes, and often we did. But the Ashura-kai would offer a large reward and the demons got into a frenzy in the audience. With the Ring of Gaea putting on propaganda that only the strong deserved to survive, we ended up losing a lot of good people. I've considered canceling the tournament, but then the other two groups would take control of it and possibly make things worse."

"Commander Hope and the other samurai would not agree to killing the losers," Flynn said.

"Could you use the propaganda to convince people to not do that?" Issachar asked. "We don't want to waste lives."

"We should be able to," Fujiwara said, twirling a pencil in his fingers. "I hope so; the loss of the Firmament might help. We'll need a lot of people to be convincing others of this. Normally, it should be starting up in a couple of weeks. We could delay the start in order to get people talking, perhaps to June."

"Both the other groups have changed, so maybe they could change their minds," he said. "The Ashura-kai could be a hard sell, though."

Fujiwara nodded. "It's a long shot with either side, but couldn't hurt to try. The Ring is now splintered, although the main group is still in their temple. While I'm not sure how they'll feel, we should try convincing them to give up the kills. Convincing those who aren't in either group may be most important."

After exchanging some more ideas, they left Fujiwara as he began setting up tournament prerequisites. They headed out to Ichigaya for their next meeting. Unlike elsewhere, they were greeted by a massive racket of a battle. A group of angels and strange beasts were fighting against the Demifiend and matching dark beasts. The beasts were fighting fiercely, enough that it was better to stay back. Meanwhile, the cherubs and thrones of the group were throwing in their own attacks, holy arrows and bursts of fire.

The Demifiend stood in the midst of it all, only moving by a small fluttering of his cloak. After nearly a minute of doing nothing but countering, he stole power from the earth to wipe out all the beasts and nearly all the angels. "Tell those who sent you to come face me themselves," he told the sole survivor.

"Y-you will fall," the cherub said, then fled into the sky.

"Was he just humoring them?" Issachar asked quietly as they came out from behind cover.

"Probably," Flynn said.

"Who's out there?" the Demifiend called out after he'd vanished and reappeared near the entrance to Ichigaya.

"It's us, we wanted to ask you about something," Issachar called over.

"Ah, you both," he said, giving them a moment to come closer. "Don't waste our time. What do you want?"

"We want to repair Masakado's shrine and heard that you were sponsoring the restoration work around Tokyo," he said. "There's others who want it done too, including Fujiwara and Amaterasu. Would you work on the shrine?"

"She's around again?" the Demifiend asked.

"Amaterasu?" he asked, to make sure. "Yes, our group has been working on freeing her from being sealed."

"I see, that would be why I hadn't found her before," he said. "You two are from Mikado, so you may not know, but it is said that Masakado's shrine affects Tokyo. If the shrine is taken care of, Tokyo will prosper. If not," he gestured to some damaged building around them, "disaster is certain to fall."

"Well he is the guardian of Tokyo, isn't he?" Issachar asked. "That makes sense."

He nodded. "It also means that if his shrine is restored, he could be restored as the guardian of Tokyo. With Amaterasu restored too, they could cause trouble for myself and any demon or angel who isn't a local." Just as Issachar was wondering how else to handle this, the Demfiend chuckled. "But I owe the both of them; I wouldn't be where I am without them. So it doesn't matter what they may think of me. I'll add those repairs to the docket, but it can't be done right away."

"What's causing the delay?"

"A domain, what else? As I said, Masakado regaining his position as guardian of Tokyo would cause problems for many others. The domain wouldn't be a problem for me, but tell you what: you take care of the domain and I won't charge you for requesting these repairs. I may make some requests for materials needed for repairing the shrine, but those will be general quests through the Association."

"Sure, we can handle a domain," Issachar said. "It's at the shrine then?"

"Yes, but you'll have to search around for the entrance. It's not obvious."

"Then you've looked into it already?" Maybe it had been when he'd wandered around as Naoki.

"Perhaps, or perhaps I just heard of things," he said. "May your battles be memorable, not like the one just now."

"Before we go," Flynn said, "what are you doing in the cosmic game in our world? I don't expect an answer out of you, but I wanted to ask."

"You're an amusing hero at times," the Demifiend replied, seemingly genuine. "If you think about what I've said and done, my intentions should be clear. I don't mind telling you that I won't let just anyone defeat me. But that's it for now."

Since he wasn't giving them much time, they got the domain request on their gauntlets and headed on. The various battles and meetings had brought them to the mid-afternoon, which was enough time to head south and try to reach Tennozu. Flynn was worried about the people living in the shelter there. In other times, the Ashura-kai blocked off that section of Tokyo to keep control over the warehouses. They left people they didn't want at the Tennozu shelter with no support: the elderly, the sickly, traitors, and protesters were all supposed to be there. They would get involved in a deadly cult of human sacrifice. But in this time, Gabriel had been there. What was there now?

The streets grew increasingly foggy as they got closer. It was cold and yet tinged with red. "Is there usually a fog around here?" he asked.

Flynn shook his head. "Never seen a fog like this. I don't like it."

When the fog completely enveloped them, a dark figure approached them. "What are you humans doing here? This is a forsaken place."

"We came to figure out what happened here," Issachar said. "Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter as I'm just warning away reckless souls," he said. "Although, Flynn? Do you need help with running the terminal network?"

"No," Flynn said. "You must be Mastema. Did you cause this fog?"

"This isn't my doing." Since he'd been identified, the dark angel came closer. "I have been trying to use it to find the one who caused it. Unfortunately, they have yet to return."

"If you can't do that, then I have no reason to want your help with the terminals," Flynn replied.

"It's through no fault of my own, I assure you," Mastema replied. "And really, you should get assistance from one who truly understands how such networks work. Otherwise, higher forces will take advantage of it."

"The network is in good hands now and I still think you're an idiot," Flynn said.

Mastema sighed at that. "Won't you give me a chance? I knew from the start that you were a promising hero; you have built up quite a reputation. But whatever you're after, you're going to have to choose someone to side with."

"He already has," Issachar said, knowing that it was good to keep most demons, even the angels among them, in the dark.

"Not in a way you would understand, miss," Mastema said, annoying him. Isabeau had warned him about this; he'd just have to keep patient and not lose his temper over it.

"She understands more than you would think," Flynn said, emphasizing that he meant Mastema in particular. "If you want to prove that you are worthy to help us out, you ought to tell us more about what's going on here."

Mastema chuckled at that. "I have to earn your trust, is that it? It should be as clear as day who you should put your faith in, but I understand. The truth has been warped out of shape for a long time, making it hard for humanity to put their faith in anything."

"That doesn't explain this fog," Issachar said, waving his hand through it.

"Never mind, he's going to keep being evasive," Flynn said, heading down the street. "Let's get to the shelter."

"Right, things should become clearer there," he said, following after.

"Now hold on," Mastema protested, trying to keep in front of them. "See, this fog is very similar to that caused by the personification of despair…"

"No it isn't," Issachar said.

"Hmm?" Mastema seemed bewildered. "How can you be so confidant in that?"

"It's red," he explained. "The fog caused by the White is purely white, in a pale landscape. It tries to make you feel lost and without hope. While this fog might be caused by a similar force, it's clearly not the White. We'd know. This feels different."

Since he was talking about it, Issachar shifted over to his angel form to get a better feel for this fog. It immediately tried to choke him, as if he was something obscene to the eyes of the one who caused it. Flynn was quick to grab him and keep him from collapsing on the spot. Thankfully, the chalice emitted a golden shield in response, clearing the fog from around them. It made it easier to see Mastema, although the angel was even stranger now that he could see the stark black and white of him. The only bit of color to him were his blue lips; that only made it clearer that Mastema should not belong to their world.

"You alright?" Flynn asked quietly.

"Yeah, now I am," Issachar said, steadying himself again.

"Wh-what is the meaning of this?" Mastema asked, growing hostile. "You may have the look of an angel, but you don't fool me. Not with that clear demonic marking on your face."

"It was caused by angels, but they didn't intend this transformation," Issachar said. "What are you doing in our world?"

"I am doing my Lord's work, as always," he said. "Hmph, humans have ascended to the ranks of angels before, but you are an abomination that should be erased from existence."

"Are you going to try that?" Flynn asked, his spirit taking on a dangerous edge.

The red fog had been trying to break the chalice's shield, causing silent sparks around them. On Flynn's threat, though, it immediately retreated. Mastema stilled, briefly trying to brush off his immediate unease with a smile. "Well if it's not my orders, I can't really do much…"

"You're thinking about trying," Flynn said, stepping between them. This was the same kind of mood he'd been in when fighting Gabriel and Demiurge, Ancient of Days, and Infernal Tokyo's Lucifer, although Issachar felt like Mastema was not as dangerous as the others. It might not be good for Flynn.

At least Mastema recognized that he was out of his depths here. His smile vanished. "Well… I don't like this, but my Lord's wisdom is infinite and I must remain His servant, doing his good work. I was meant to bring His light to this world, but it seems that's not to be. I don't know how you awakened as a Godslayer, nor do I want to know. Since you are, and so is that illogical Demifiend, and given what else I've seen, it's clear that this world is doomed to ruin at the hands of humanity. But since I am being called to leave, would you at least allow me to inform you of some critical knowledge about the state of your world?"

"It's your choice," Flynn said.

"Ah, no it isn't because my will belongs to my Lord," Mastema said.

"That's just an excuse," Issachar said. "If you're going to tell us something, just say it."

"You don't understand, being confused humans," Mastema said. "Fine, I had another reason for coming to your world. Last time I spoke with you, Flynn, you told me about Gabriel being a false angel with a twisted form. You stumbled close to the truth in that. In reality, the Gabriel that you've encountered both is Gabriel and isn't the Gabriel of your world. She and her three fellows originated in a world from long ago, even by standards of all Creation. God became silent and withdrawn to them. As a result, they went mad and led to their world's destruction. Their souls survived and as a result, they've been drifting from world to world, ruining all of them by forcing their ideals of purity and faith on those worlds."

"They're still false angels," Issachar said.

"So is this one," Flynn said.

Mastema nearly snapped at that, but his caution remained. "If only you knew the real state of Creation, then your world could be saved. Still, that is true, they are false angels. They've been cursed by the very God they claim to follow, hence their corrupted bodies. They've taken over the identities of themselves in this world to keep their authority, as they have in other worlds. If their cursed selves can be evicted from your world, it may restore their native selves. But given the depths of insanity and depravity that your world has fallen into, God may give up on you and let this world die. I could have led to your salvation, but now your chances at a future have grown even slimmer. If you…" he faltered.

And for good reason since Flynn had taken his katana's handle and could draw it in a blink. "Leave, now."

"Very well, I give up," Mastema said, a true fear hidden behind his mask. A starry portal briefly enveloped him as he made his escape.

"Hoy, Flynn, calm down," Issachar said, taking the hand on the katana. "You'd scare most anyone like this."

"Sorry," he said quietly. It took him a moment to relax his hold. "At least he's gone entirely; he shouldn't be trusted."

"Maybe, but I feel like he was telling what he perceived the truth as," he said. "Like there's a true version of Gabriel from our world somewhere. Maybe she would be another angel of the Great Will if the false Gabriel wasn't around."

"If you believe it, it may be so," Flynn said, rubbing his forehead. He took a deep breath to further calm himself, then turned to him. "Then, what do you sense of this fog?"

Looking outside the shield, he noticed the fog was still withdrawn despite being thick further down the street. Issachar walked forward a couple of feet; the line of the fog didn't move until Flynn moved. "Well, I'm not certain, but it might be caused by one of the fallen faces of God."

"This?" Flynn asked, alarmed at the suggestion.

"It'll be all right," Issachar said, trying to soothe him. He took one of Flynn's hands again. "Just look at it. It feels of disgust and hatred now, albeit a cold hate. Once it recognized you as a threat, it's been trying to keep away. Though if it is one of the faces, it doesn't have a full presence in the world yet. It does know that you're dangerous to it, much like Mastema did just now."

After a moment, Flynn nodded and seemed calm on the surface. "I see… does it happen to feel like Beelzebub? The demon that accompanied Lucifer in Infernal Tokyo."

He shook his head. "No, there was a distinct rot and powerful corruption to Beelzebub. That's not here."

"Then we should get to the center of this and figure it out. I can think of two places to check; we should continue to the shelter first."

"Right, let's go," he said.

Before long, Issachar could tell where the shelter was due to a strong flow of spiritual energy from underground. It went towards a place that Flynn confirmed was the other location he thought of, a shrine nearby. Something was being called into the world, which meant that someone had to be doing the calling. While it made him feel hopeful that the people of Tennozu were likely still alive, the fog and the spiritual calling were equally of concern.

"I wonder," Issachar said as they got in the elevator, opening up the messaging app in his gauntlet.

"About what?" Flynn asked as he pressed the button for the underground shelter.

"We don't have a contact for Aleph, but maybe he'll notice if I write something," Issachar said, starting up a new message. 'To Aleph, avatar of the Amala Network: What or who is being called here in Tennozu?'

"We'll give that a moment, then I could call on Trojan to see about sending it a different way," Flynn said.

When the elevator doors were opened up, they were greeted by the chanting of prayers. None of the red fog was down here, although it still felt like something hateful was here. Two dozen people were kneeling at the other end of the main hall, their attention focused on an arcane design and cryptic text written across the back wall in red markings. Another five of them were sleeping against the walls while an old woman sat by a basket as if she'd just woken up and wasn't ready to join the prayers yet. They were all frail and weary; there was a feeling of famine too, barely enough food and water to keep living. There were also things that Issachar knew Flynn wouldn't be able to notice: spiritual chains around their hearts.

"This seems like a form of summoning," Flynn said, going over to them. Only the old woman glanced over at him.

"It will end in their deaths," Issachar said.

"Hoy, what's going on here?" Flynn asked, crouching down by the old woman.

"It's of no concern to outsiders," the old woman said, devoid of any feeling. Her eyes seemed equally vacant.

"She won't be able to tell us anything," Issachar said. Flynn still checked on her; she didn't react at all, merely watched him.

'Master, you have a message from Aleph,' Burroughs said.

"Ah, I got him," he said, checking it immediately.

'Issachar: The summoning is to bring the Meggido Satellite into your world, along with an angel of destruction to operate it. The people of Tennozu are being subjugated through the basket of manna there, as that is their only source of food. Actually, the Megiddo Satellite is from the world I originated from. This proves that Mastema spoke the truth to you; the Gabriel you've met, along with Michael, Raphael, and Uriel, were in my world long ago. Megiddo can wipe out all life on a single world, human and demon alike, in less than a minute.

Fortunately, we can stop the summoning. Your song can reach these people and stop their prayers; I can ensure that they survive that and are freed. Flynn can destroy the summoning seal on the wall once the prayers are disrupted. You'll both then need to go to the shrine where the prayers are being gathered and destroy the matching seal there. The angel of destruction may still come through and become a problem, but they shouldn't be a threat of instant extinction like Meggido.

Also, I know you were trying to reach me, but you don't need to be so formal with me. I trust that you'll take care of things. -Aleph'

"We have to stop what they're summoning," Issachar told Flynn. "It's something that could end all life in the world. When I disrupt their prayers, you break that seal over there."

After looking over it, he nodded and stood up. "Sure." The old woman watched him go, but no one stopped him.

These people weren't allowed to choose what they were doing. Still, there was a sense of obligation. When he started singing, Issachar knew that they'd fallen into starvation and desperation. Gabriel must have given them some hope of being saved when she'd arrived and given them food. But there were two enchantments on the basket. One produced the manna, which was enough to live on but not as good as normal food. The other enchantment was the subjugation. He undid the subjugation, as a magical source of food could still be useful.

Then he focused on the people of Tennozu. They'd been saved before, but it was by someone who wanted to use them as tools. The God they were praying to did not love them and would not spare their lives. But they were still worthy of living, of being loved. They needed to stop praying to save themselves. They needed to stop praying to save the world! Those who had abandoned them here were gone. A better future was waiting for everyone.

His song made them start thinking again, as if waking from a dream. The summon seal rippled in response, trying to keep it together. In doing so, it made itself clear to Flynn. He burned it straight off the wall. Some of the people gasped or cried out in alarm; others were too dazed still to grasp what was going on. The old woman near the basket asked, "Were we really summoning something that could destroy the world?"

"Yes, but it's not your fault," Issachar said, thinking. Although they were in a shelter, this place wouldn't have the protections that Naoki had given the other shelters. None of these people were in any condition to fight should a demon get in. "You were being controlled like puppets."

"Mercy," the old woman said, burying her face in her hands.

"Is there anything else we need to do?" Flynn asked, coming back over.

Issachar nodded and used his gauntlet to summon Pluto. "We need to get in to the shrine to break the other half of the seal. Pluto, keep guard over these people."

"Certainly," Pluto's shade replied, taking stock of the area before heading over to the elevator to stand guard there.

"Um, you need to get into the shrine?" a man said, starting to get up. He nearly stumbled, but Flynn offered his support before he did. "Thanks, I, somebody should go with you. The other angel told us to lock it up when they left. Um," he looked around, but it seemed he was the only one energetic enough to get up this soon.

"Are you well enough to go over there with us?" Issachar asked. "We can handle any demon that tries to stop us."

"Sure, I think so," he said, heading over to one of the rooms to fetch some keys. He could have just handed them over, but since he wanted to come, they let him lead the way.

The fog had thinned out more around the Tennozu shelter. Around the park that the shrine was in, however, it was still thick and even redder. The shadow of the shrine became visible as Issachar spotted a glowing circle on the ground that matched what had been on the wall. He put a hand in front of the local man before he crossed it. "Whoa, hang on. This seal is much larger than the other one; it's right there ahead of us."

"I don't see anything," the man said.

"Neither do I," Flynn said.

"It's there," Issachar said, right as a blast of wind came from behind them. Bracing himself, he kept the man from being blown onto the seal. Flynn tried to look back to see if there was a demon behind them.

It was quickly clear that the wind was caused by the red fog being drained into the seal. From the look on their faces, the seal must have become visible to the other two as the air cleared. It shattered when the fog was gone, releasing a massive white and gold chariot that bristled threateningly with spikes and cannons. Inhuman screams briefly filled the air before four distinct horses were summoned and chained up with light. Very distinct…. One black as night, one red as blood, one white with many eyes, and the last so pale that its bones could be seen.

The one riding the chariot was a giant of an angel, completely covered in armor of white, black, red, and gold. It had wings of swords and a halo of harsh red light. "Tremble ye mortals," it bellowed in a voice much like Pluto's. "For upon arrival on this Earth, I herald its end. I am the Last Crusader, here to bring holy war to purge this world of all impurity for ever more." Last Crusader then yanked at the reins, sending its chariot off into the sky.

"A holy war to purge the Earth?" the local man said, terrified at the idea.

"Well if it wants a holy war, we'll figure out how to defeat this Last Crusader," Issachar said, clenching a fist for a moment.

* * *

The Last Crusader… a new element of Law that wanted to end the world. Krishna as Lucifer… a new element of Chaos that also wanted to end the world. And there was the Demifiend as a possible Neutral element that promised that death would rule the world… although he was theoretically neutral based on how the fiends would be pissed off that Last Crusader stole their horses and Krishna abused Lucifer's identity. Flynn considered the conflict while back in the Tennozu shelter, trying to fit these pieces into a new puzzle. His best hope in making his plans work was in hoping that Naoki would keep his claim over Ichigaya and the Ashura-kai. At least until the tournament business was done.

Death ruling the world… based upon how many people died during the last major war, it wasn't a far-fetched idea. If someone fought and defeated the representative of Death with the hope that life could survive the worst disasters and tragedies, all those who witnessed or heard of the battle could feel more secure in hoping for a better future. Maybe Naoki realized that? Because some things he was doing now were of better benefit to the future… though hope could still be dangerous as the Divine Powers had proven.

Maybe…

Flynn came out of his thoughts and looked over to where Issachar was talking with the Tennozu survivors. "I know, Pluto seems cold and ruthless when you first meet him," he said. "But he's actually quite compassionate towards others in spite of his logic. Actually, he can take any poison and purify it into life itself, creating plants and animals with that."

"Aren't you exaggerating?" someone asked him.

Issachar shook his head and smiled. He was back to being a human, but one might still feel a halo of warmth around him. "No, I've seen him do that with an entire world." He went on to tell part of his adventures in Blasted Tokyo while Pluto quietly kept guarding the area.

"Hey, that lady is something else, huh?" the man who'd gone to the shrine with them said. His name was Lloyd; he'd told them on the way back.

"She's come a long way," Flynn said.

"And you're a lucky guy," he added.

"Pardon?" That didn't seem connected.

Lloyd chuckled. "Well she clearly loves you a lot. Don't lose her."

Smiling, he nodded. "Of course not."

After some time of telling stories and encouragement, Issachar came over to him. "Hoy, do you think we could stay here for the time being?"

"Why here?" he asked. If they were to stay somewhere in Tokyo, Kasumigaseki might be a better choice if Fujiwara and Skins agreed to it.

"These people have been abandoned, even by someone they thought would save them," he said quietly. "It feels bad to leave them now, even if we get some other Hunters to guard them. We could help them get the new Ashura-kai's protection and some food from Mikado, then take care of things in other places while returning here to rest. That would give them more hope than just leaving them on their own while they're still recovering."

"That would help," Flynn said.

"And the commander told us that we have to change our dorm arrangements again," he added. "He's also trusting us to work on our own, so as long as we report in regularly, moving here for now should be fine, right?"

"That would work out nicely," he said. "I was hoping for some time alone with you once today winded down."

"Sure, we did a lot today and could use a break," Issachar said. "One of the women here offered a room for us to stay in, so I'll let her know we'll take it, and then contact the commander about it. We could take turns going back to the dorm to start moving our things here. You just take it easy."

And there had been several stressful things today too. "Thank you. You do so much for me lately."

Smiling warmly, he leaned in closer and whispered, "That's because you're wonderful and deserve all your hopes and dreams to come true."

Smiling back and feeling like everything was going right again, Flynn whispered back, "No, you're wonderful and beautiful, and deserve anything I can do for you."

"Just wait a bit," he replied, then laughed and headed off to take care of matters.

This new path already brought out many unknown factors, but seemed promising for a far better future.


	73. The Last Holy War

**Chapter 73: The Last Holy War**

'Nanashi- Sorry I took so long to get back to you; there's a lot I had to get done. But thanks for letting me in on what you found in the Forbidden Tomb. We will have to be alert to Lucifer returning to the world. For now, I was going to start looking into Minami Sunamichi for you. -Flynn'

'Flynn- I was glad to hear you're back; Jonathan seemed worried about you when we were visiting. Actually, I have been figuring out how to use magic without learning it from demon whispers. I wanted to use it to help investigate the area myself but first, I need to figure out a spell to protect against strong poisons. See, I managed to speak with Pale Rider about Minami and he claimed that he didn't know what happened there. But he did inform me that the most suspicious area, the factory, is full of deadly poison. Part of the Ginza underground is also full of a weaker poison, according to Toki. Her, Hallelujah, and I are going to train for a while there so I can figure out this magic. It'd be better if you were to help me out when I get the spell working. Is that okay? -Nanashi'

'Nanashi- Sure. Issachar and I are doing some work towards the tournament in a few weeks, but we'll help you out when you're ready. About the poison, I know that a demonica suit can protect against hazardous environments. I have one and it shouldn't be hard to get another for Issachar. But they're made for adults, so I doubt there'd be one your size. -Flynn'

'Flynn- Alright, thanks. I'll work out this spell and if it's trouble, you two could start investigating with the demonicas. -Nanashi'

* * *

From the top of the cocoon, the four of them sat quietly and contemplated the situation. Too many people saw them as equal to demons despite how clearly wrong that was. In fact, a good portion of humans saw working with demon as preferable to working with angels. Even those who still acted faithful to God would call them false. The only support they were getting was from a group in Tennozu enchanted to keep in prayer. It wasn't as good as genuine prayer, but it was better than nothing. Any way one looked at it, things were bad.

Michael had been quietly in prayer himself, asking for guidance from God. He'd asked for that perhaps a million times. If it took a million more, or even a billion times asking, as long as he got an answer, it'd be worth it. There were some thoughts running through his mind that it'd be best if they could just give up on this world. Were those instructions from God? He should be certain about it, but he wasn't; that was the only reason he didn't bring it up.

According to Uriel, the rest of the world had returned back to the majesty of God's creation, a natural state untainted by humanity. Their prideful creations were gone, their sinful cities were gone, their ignorant shaping of the land was gone. It was only here, with Mikado and Tokyo, that signs of humanity remained. All they'd need to do was wipe out the population here, destroy their structures so thoroughly that only dust remained. Then the world would once again be pure and worthy of God. But they had to be sure that it was God's will.

Everything they did and said was God's will working through them. Michael knew that, trusted in it. Then why did he feel doubtful? Uncertain? Having doubts was a sign of corruption. He couldn't be corrupt as an angel. It had to be some influence of demons, trying to make him become one of the fallen. But he wouldn't fall…

Then someone flew out of Purgatorium, shining with Heaven's light. The great chariot landed on top of the cocoon, letting a giant armored figure off. "Hail, fellows!" he called in a boisterous yell. "I am the Last Crusader, and I come for the glory of God! We will bring holy war against the impure and unfaithful! Humanity in this world has fallen too far; we shall demolish their lies, crush their blackened souls, and tell their tale to other worlds so that humanity shall not fall elsewhere!"

Who was this? Michael knew of crusaders; they were often violent and ruthless, but they were useful for enforcing faith and destroying infidels. "Is this God's will?" he asked.

"If it weren't, I would not be here," Last Crusader boasted. "But I barely arrived here by the path I was given. I was meant to bring the Meggido Cannon too. Some intolerable fools disrupted the fervent prayers of those who called me here. As I am not meant to give up, I left Meggido behind to make sure that I arrived! But if I were to gain control over the Yamato Perpetual Reactor, bringing Meggido into this world would be no trouble."

Then it had to be true. "We will do that, in the name of the Lord," Michael said.

"It's not going to be simple, not with the accursed Demifiend in control of the Reactor," Raphael said. "But if it is God's will that humanity be extinguished so this world may start over, then we will do all we can for His glory."

"If we can end the menace of the Demifiend as well, that would be best," Gabriel said. "What are God's plans for this war?"

"Just as I said," Last Crusader said. "Take the Reactor so we can bring the Meggido Satellite to this world and wipe out all the infidels."

"I had some thought of that before," Gabriel said, looking relieved.

They didn't have specifics. But that was normal. "If that is God's Plan, then it shall work," Michael said. "He will have trusted us with the details, as usual. We don't have the prayers of Mikado, nor those that called you, so we should seek out others to bring more of God's power into this world."

"Perhaps we should use our might to instill the fear of God in them," Uriel suggested.

Shouts and screams interrupted their discussion as four dark shadows burst out of Purgatorium. The four Riders of the Apocalypse held no fear as they blitzed a storm of spells at them. "You will not escape our wrath, you dirty horse thief!" War shouted, quick to draw his word against Last Crusader.

"Nay, I only claimed them as my right!" Last Crusader bellowed back, taking the two largest swords off his wings to fight back.

"Uriel!" Michael called, wanting to make sure of something before assisting Crusader. "See if there's any other fiends here or in Purgatorium."

"Got it," he said, flying off with a trail of sunfire after him.

"I know what should be done," he said to Gabriel and Raphael. "Let's get these fiends weakened; don't destroy them and don't let them escape back to Purgatory."

"Right, I'll keep the barrier strong," Raphael said.

"I'll back you and Crusader up," Gabriel said, already calling on God's blessings over them.

Although he took out his sword, Michael focused on attacking the strongest of the four Riders, shifting targets once he'd weakened one. Uriel soon reported that it was only the four Riders and that Raphael had Purgatory locked off on both sides. Good; it must be God's work since this was a perfect opportunity. They had to start cursing and silencing the Riders to ensure that they didn't start healing each other. And Crusader seemed like he might destroy one without listening to their strategy.

Michael waited until War had to dart out of Crusader's range or be destroyed. "In the name of the Lord, cease this battle!" he shouted, calling on the authority of God to do this. It had to be God's will. "You four have roamed freely for far too long! We are calling the last holy war upon this Earth, so submit to your fated roles! In the name of God!"

"In the name of God!" his fellows echoed, with Crusader joining in a second later.

"What the hell, no!" Conquest called back, resisting with all of his might.

"You let us roam free," Death said, also trying to get out of the calling.

"You will submit to your Creator!" Crusader bellowed.

Chains briefly appeared, snatching the Riders to cut their will back to where it should be. Yet they continued to struggle fruitlessly; they'd grown corrupt too in being loose before their time. "Let's put them in the cocoon, that will fix them," Michael said. "Crusader, there's one more of their number that should be reined soon. Go get Trumpeter too."

"Aye, for the glory of our Lord!" Crusader said, saluting before returning his swords and heading back to his chariot.

"With them, humanity will have the fear of God before their souls are extinguished," Michael said, smiling slightly at the thought.

* * *

Naoki reviewed the data that Hallelujah and his friends had gotten on their excursion into Mikado. Photos, written accounts, status reports from the demon summoning program; most of it confirmed that Lucifer was trapped in a glacier in the Abyss, with a portal directly to his icy cell outside Ikben Village in Mikado. There was a vast frozen wasteland within the Abyss; he'd been there before. Because of that, he felt that any demon searching the Abyss was unlikely to locate Lucifer even if they searched the arctic area. Any sign of his power or spirit could be hidden with the ice.

There were some odd pieces within the reports, though. One of them was from someone who claimed to have held the missing identity of Lucifer until Krishna stole it. Heart of Chaos. Did that mean what he thought it did? If this really was 'Heart of Chaos', they would be a legitimate threat if he had to fight them. Not as much as they could be whole, and he had defeated them before. They were someone to take seriously; Heart of Chaos wanted a meeting with him, along with Heart of Law. It seemed wiser to accept that meeting than not even if he'd have to be on guard.

The other oddity… 'Naoki- It's good information. Nanashi there is a cyclical soul and has lived many lives before in service to the soul of Tokyo. If he says the Forbidden Tomb wasn't there until the three heralds were sealed in Tokyo, it's because he was there at the time. I've confirmed it with the Network: the entrance was originally outside of the Tokyo area, created at a time that matches Lucifuge's testimony of when Lucifer went missing. Gabriel moved it to its current location when her peers were sealed. That is as much as I will confirm to you at this time, save that it would be to your benefit to meet up with Heart of Chaos and Heart of Law as they request. -Aleph'

"That settles that issue," he said to himself. He'd seen that Nanashi had been a marked soul when he met with them in Kinshicho, one set aside to some important role. They'd be another group to keep tabs on.

"Well hello darling," a sugary voice said from behind him before a bony arm was put across the back of his shoulders. "Have you called to invite me as the first member of your harem, hmm?"

"No, never," he replied.

"I told you so," Matador said, coming over to lounge in a chair nearby. "Otherwise he wouldn't have called on me too."

"Such a pity, but I would be the first, right?" Mother Harlot asked, patting his shoulder before finding somewhere else to sit.

"I said never, but if I had to pretend, yes," Naoki said, turning his chair to speak with them. "Beelzebub should be coming too."

"As you asked nicely," Beelzebub said, appearing on his name being spoken. "What's the…?"

"DEEEEEMMMIIIIII!" Chemtrail burst through the walls in a panic. "Bad news, bad news! They're gone, whisked away by the shadows to be brain-bleached into apocalyptic oblivion!"

"I thought this was going to be a serious meeting," Beelzebub muttered while Matador shook his head.

"I didn't invite him," Naoki said, waving a hand to Chemtrail. "Calm your jets a little, Chemtrail. Who's gone?"

"The Riders and their drummer boy, they chased after a horsenapper," Chemtrail said.

"Oof." Someone else stumbled in through the hole Chemtrail had made. Alice quickly got to her feet and brushed off her dress. "He's right, Mr Demi! I saw it too."

"The Riders and Trumpeter?" Naoki guessed. "What happened to them?"

Alice came over to his side. "I was playing games with Mr. Trumpet when Chemy came over in a fright and said that some meanie kidnapped all the Riders' horses. They'd all gone after the meanie straight to where the heralds are camping out and disappeared. Then the meanie came out with a massive war chariot drawn by all the horsenapped horses and fought the three of us. The meanie, um, Last Crusader, he said that there was a holy war and the Riders and Mr. Trumpet had to go serve God now. So now the angels have them all captive."

"Fucking hell, this is going to suck," Matador said.

"Can they subjugate those five?" Beelzebub asked. "It seems strange that they'd try."

"If it's Michael and the others, they will do anything to win for YHVH's sake," Naoki said, thinking rapidly over this. There was strong precedence for the side of Law summoning those five fiends into a holy war. But for them to do that, they had to intend on making this their last war on this world, at least for a thousand years. They had to intend on starting the Apocalypse.

"This is a DISASTER!" Chemtrail said, kicking his feet in anger.

"I told you to chill," Naoki said, quieting him again. "It would be good if we could break into their sanctuary and free those five. However, I would plan for how to recover them should YHVH subjugate them. They would only be calling on them if they wanted an Apocalypse. And if that's what they want, we should bring it to them." He smiled and gestured to Mother Harlot. "Right, Jezebel?"

She cackled at that, pulling her veil across her face. "Yes, that would be lovely. But you should know, I need Lucifer to be the one calling me in that role. You've proven to me that you are a worthy substitute in most cases, but not for that, no."

He nodded. "I know, but that's why I originally called you all in. I've located Lucifer."

"Wonderful, then we should get him back," Mother Harlot said, eager along with the others there.

"He'll be without his identity, but we'll need to move on this swiftly," Naoki said. "But as you're here, Alice," he offered a hand to her.

Since she was already by him, she quickly snatched it up. "What is it, Mr. Demi?"

"Since we're short-handed now, would you like to come back into the Fiend clan?" he asked. "Beelzebub is already aligned with us about Lucifer, and Lucifuge should be cooperative now. I would like Belial and Nebiros to be working with us too, and you would be a great help in that and more."

Alice grinned and hopped in place. "Yes! It'll be fun to play with Mr. Red and Mr. Black again! And you too, Mr. Demi!"

"Thank you," he said.

"What about Mara?" Beelzebub asked.

Mother Harlot cackled at that too. "Oh ho ho, don't you worry about him. I'm sure he'll be trotting right along if I go ask him."

"Go ahead and recruit him then," Naoki said. "Alice, Belial could be tricky to convince this time around, so go find Nebiros first. We'll discuss how to get Belial back later."

"Okay, got it!" she said, quickly running off.

"Then the rest of us should get going, to the Forbidden Tomb in Mikado," Naoki said.

* * *

There was a lot on Nozomi's mind, so she headed out to wander the streets of Tokyo while considering what was going on. Finding Lucifer, what Hikaru said about the world beyond Japan, Asahi's worries, the emergence of new groups like the Divine Powers… life could change suddenly, she knew that all too well. But ever since the Firmament came down, everything seemed to be changing at a faster rate. Or perhaps since she'd encountered Flynn and Issachar near Ueno? Those two seemed to be involved in a lot of changes.

Although there were always demons wandering around, Nozomi felt like walking the streets when she wanted to think. Maybe a part of that was hoping to get distracted with something to photograph, she couldn't deny that to herself. Fighting these battles did keep reminding her of important things, though. She was a Hunter and as such, it was her duty to protect others and bring what peace she could to the streets. Her duties also included hunting the few demons who left edible foodstuff behind. Even with Mikado's support, there was still a need for demon meat. But more space in Tokyo was being salvaged for farms, so that could lessen in the future.

"Oh hey!" someone called as she finished off another battle against a horde. It was a high pixie. "You're pretty strong!"

"Yeah, Nozomi's great!" Nepea cheered.

"I do what I can," she said. "Is something the matter?"

The high pixie nodded. "Yeah, but you should be good. We're trying to call on a great lady to help us fairies out. We don't want to be involved in all this crazy war stuff."

"That makes sense," Nozomi said.

"But we need a summoner to get the great lady to come," the high pixie said. "Could you come to the cathedral to help us?"

She nodded; the fairies were troublesome at times, but when it mattered, they were of great help. "Sure, I don't have anything planned today. Let's go."

The cathedral was a beautiful building, one she'd photographed many times. The inside was gorgeous, full of light as if its very spirit glowed. Inside, around a dozen different fairies had gathered. "Hey guys, I got a good summoner!"

"I've met her before," a goblin asked.

"Oh, were you the fellow in the Shinjuku parking lot?" she asked, as that was the first incident that came to mind.

"Sure, your demons were an enthusiastic bunch," the goblin said. "You should be good to summon the lady, but I'm worried that the angels will try to stop us."

"Why would the angels stop us from summoning a fairy?" Nozomi asked.

"It's not just that she's a fairy," the high pixie said. "We were once persecuted by angels who wanted to eliminate us entirely, long ago. Our Lady Danu suggested that we blend in with them peacefully instead. That's what she did; she acted as a saint to the religion that the angels organized and we pretended to be harmless. With Lady Danu as Black Maria, we got the angels to stop harassing us. But nobody comes to pray to Black Maria anymore and we want to go in hiding with Lady Danu to protect us. So we need a summoner to bring Black Maria here, which will let us bring Lady Danu back!"

"But that could bring the angels here trying to protect Black Maria and keep her for their own!" another nepae said.

"It could be hard to bring Black Maria here if the angels are going to interrupt," Nozomi said. "Hang on, let me see if I can call some of my friends to fight off the angels if they show up."

"Oh yeah, that's probably better," the high pixie said, seeming embarrassed that they hadn't thought of that.

Fortunately, she got Flynn and Issachar to come by the cathedral quickly. She'd heard that they'd gotten in some serious trouble recently, but they seemed fine when they came in. Fine, except that Issachar was suddenly a woman. "Thanks for coming by, though it seems like we should catch up on things after taking care of this," Nozomi said, smiling at them. They were still a very cute couple; maybe they'd agree to another picture that they'd feel better about sharing.

"Sure, so you needed us to protect you all?" Issachar asked. His voice seemed ambiguous now, maybe by magic. She'd have to see how he explained this later.

"That's the gist of it, if trouble shows up," she said, then told them about what they were doing.

Both of them agreed to it without hesitation. "Any of you fairies that don't want to fight ought to take some cover just in case," Flynn said.

"S-sure, they might send somebody powerful," a pixie said.

Once the fairies had hid away, and the two samurai in position to cover the whole cathedral if angels showed, Nozomi turned back to the high pixie. "I've used many different demons, so hopefully I have the ones to summon her. Black Maria, right?"

The high pixie nodded and flew to her side. "Sure, and I know some combinations that should work. Show me your compendium and I can point out who will work. And, you'll need this." She offered a hart-shaped charm made of wood and amber. "That'll make sure we get Lady Danu and not a shade of her or Black Maria."

"Good," Nozomi said, taking the charm before opening up her fusion app. The high pixie quickly pointed out two that she felt were best in combination. Thankfully, she had the macca to cover the summoning cost and the high pixie agreed to pay her back the macca used.

As she was resummoning the component demons, a group of thrones appeared in the cathedral. Each of them glowered right at her, intent on not allowing this summoning to take place. It had to be because she was trying to reach Lady Danu rather than Black Maria. Thankfully, Flynn and Issachar quickly had them distracted, then dispatched. Another wave appeared after the thrones fell. How far were they going to go?

Nozomi put in the fusion request, causing the app avatar Mido to exclaim, 'Woooooow, I feel like something truly special is going to happen now!' He cackled and started the animation for the fusion. The wooden heart grew warm in her hand, wiggling like it was trying to sprout back to life.

After the usual flash, a dark lady barely visible past her long veil appeared on her smartphone's screen. "Who is trying to wake me?" she asked. "You have a good heart…"

There was a cherub still in the room, fighting the other two. Nozomi brought her phone close to her face to whisper, "Lady Danu, the fairies wish to speak with you."

"I see." She then summoned herself out of the phone; she gave off an air of great sorrow and compassion, as if her own heart was broken but she would reach out to others in need. "Why are you disturbing the peace of this place, angel?" she asked.

The cherub immediately stopped fighting; thankfully Flynn and Issachar paused as well. "M-Maria! We came to stop these infidels from disturbing you."

"They do not disturb me," she said soothingly. "They wish to speak with me, as a saint. You would not stop those seeking help from finding it, correct?"

"But there's no hope for them," the cherub said. "We are beginning the last holy war. God has commanded it, as Michael has proclaimed in his stead."

"I was never to be involved in your wars," Danu said. "I was instructed to listen to those who called upon me. I must do this. Please, call off this violence and allow me my duties."

"Ah, if they have called you, I suppose we should not interfere," the cherub said. "I apologize; I'll return to my other duties and inform the others not to disturb you."

"Thank you," Danu said, then waited for the cherub to leave. "The last holy war? This is worrisome."

"Then they might be even more drastic than in the last?" Nozomi asked. The last war had nearly wiped out humanity, so who knew what the angels were up to now.

"Almost certainly," Danu said. "You've taken the extra steps to speak to me personally, so what is it you've called me for?"

"As I said, I called you because the fairies here wanted to talk with you," she explained. The ones who had been in hiding were starting to peek out to see if it really was safe. "I don't have anything I'd need to call upon a saint for."

"I see," she said. "Then what is it you little ones want?"

"Lady Danu, we want you to return to us and help us find someplace of our own in this world," the high pixie said. "We don't want to be involved in all these wars, but you heard what the angel said. The demons are being crazier than usual too. Even though we have native magic again, we're still running from place to place trying to keep each other safe. We need your power so we can make our own place and keep it safe!"

"You must have tried all that you could to see about summoning me," Danu said. "I was staying here because the humans were coming to pray to me as Black Maria. I could only comfort them in these times, but it was enough for them. Unfortunately, I've not heard from them in some time."

"We looked for them, hoping they might help us," the goblin said, getting chimed-in agreements from the rest. "We couldn't find them either."

"So will you come back to us, please?" the high pixie begged, even bowing.

"My dear children, I would like to," Danu said, putting her hands to her chest. "But I am no longer a warrior. While I can separate a place for us, I would not be able to do much if the warring ones decide to invade our place."

"You used to be a good one, though!" the high pixie said.

"Perhaps, but," she looked at Nozomi, the extended a hand. "From what I see in your soul, and the compassion you've shown here, you would be ideal to help us. Would you become our fairy queen?"

"Wh-what?" Nozomi stammered, startled at the request. "Me, a queen? I'm not really the sort. I don't mind helping out others and protecting them, but this is strange. Besides, I had to call on these two to help fight off the angels."

"But you're a good fighter and summoner too," Issachar said, now up near the altar with Flynn. "And you've got lots of allies around Tokyo, like us. If things get out of hand, you always know someone to call on."

"I suppose so," Nozomi said. But to take on a responsibility like this? She usually did her own thing, free to go wherever and do whatever.

"Aw come on, Nozomi," her ally Nepea said, balancing her sphere on Nozomi's shoulder. "Lots of fairies like you already! You'd be a great queen!"

"I'll be with you as well if you become the queen," Danu said. "We will need to take lead of the fairy clan at times, given how carefree some of our members are. But you'll be with us as a protector; I can bestow some of my power to you as well so that others recognize you and you can use fairy magic as well."

"This is still a bit much to be asked about suddenly," Nozomi said, putting a hand to her forehead.

"You can have a small time to think, but we should decide on this by the end of the day," Danu said. "I do not know how long my request will keep the angels from becoming suspicious."

"If she needs a moment to think, may I ask you about something Lady Danu?" Flynn asked.

Nodding, she turned to him. "Yes, what is it?"

Flynn put a hand on Issachar's shoulder and said, "The two of us intend to fight against the angels and demons, to stop their war along with their dominance over humanity."

As some of the fairies around them gasped or murmured in response, Danu replied, "That is an ambitious goal for humans. And yet, I believe you. The connection between you is strong enough that it's difficult to tell, but I feel one of you is certainly destined to change the future. You both together should be able to forge whatever future you want."

"What I'd like to talk with you about is the future past that war," Flynn said. "There's no telling what will happen. But eventually, we humans will need to rebuild civilization to make sure the future is a better one. This world has changed already and it may be that magic remains. Whatever happens, I would like for some of the demon clans to be allies to humans in the future. Neither side dominating the other as happens now, but all being equal. Would the fairies agree to being equals to humans, working together?"

"I don't see why not," Danu said. "Many fairies are mischievous, but treat them as friends and they will prove to be good ones. If there was a formal agreement between humans and fairies to be friends and equals, we would be happy to go along with it."

"Yeah, that sounds great!" the pixie said. The other fairies in the room agreed with that too.

"Good, then we'll talk to other humans and get them to agree," Flynn said.

"Fairies and humans as equals, huh?" Nozomi asked, impressed at the confidence he had in that. Not only did he plan on winning a war, but he planned on a future past that. "Well if you're going to do that, I don't see why we couldn't begin on it. Having a human already working with fairies should help both sides get along."

"Then will you help us?" Danu asked.

She nodded. "Sure, I'll be your queen. It'll be a different job, but I can handle it. I can think of a place for you all to live too, as there's a park with a lake that should be easy to close off. We'd need to fight off some demons already there. Would you two help out with that?"

"Sure, no problem," Issachar said as Flynn quietly agreed.

"Thank you, Nozomi," Danu said, then put a hand on her head. "Then, I acknowledge you as the Queen of the Fairy Clan, to lead and protect us. May your compassion and wisdom guide all."

For a moment, it felt like the warmth and light of the cathedral poured into her. Parts of her mind awakened, things she hadn't been aware of before. She knew all who were in the cathedral now, even a couple of fairies who were still hidden away out of shyness. Along with that, there was something new she noticed about her friends here. It must have been what Danu was talking about. Something in the souls of Flynn and Issachar reminded her of a scale, particularly the balance. They were balance… Issachar even had a balance of male and female in him that accounted for how normal he seemed despite his change.

Danu changed as well, discarding her form as Black Maria. She now manifested as something older, a spirit of life and nature. Her body was made of plants rather then flesh, crowned with flowers on her head and scepter. Cheering, the fairies thanked them with a charming enthusiasm. Hoping that she could keep them happy, Nozomi led the group out to the park she'd thought of.

Due to the layout of buildings and rubble around the lake, it would be easy to block off a few roads and make it difficult to access the island where much of the park was. There was a terminal station near the bridge across the lake. Thankfully, Flynn said that the terminal could be made private so that any who wanted to go there would need the permission of the fairies. A few stronger fairies could keep guard in the lake and on the bridge, so the park should be a good place to let them live in peace.

Unfortunately, the trees of the park had withered due to the Firmament. "The dead trees still make this place creepy," her Naepae said.

"Couldn't we restore them with fairy magic?" Nozomi asked. Fairies were known for living in wild places like forests; making this place enchanted should be no problem.

"Certainly," Danu said, handing her the scepter. "You're aware of magic now. Channel it into this forest to awaken it back to life."

"I don't know much about magic and all, but I'll give it a shot," Nozomi said, taking the scepter in both hands. The light within her was strong. If she could make this place match how the fairies and Lady Danu felt… but how?

Closing her eyes, she recalled seeing some pictures of this place before the war. The ancient tree just ahead of them was a cherry tree, regarded as a guardian spirit as it had thrived for so long with the city around it. This place had been especially beautiful in spring, with pink and white blossoms all over the trees. Even in still pictures, it seemed like a magical place. This should be the perfect dwelling place for fairies, even other nature spirits that could be here peacefully.

What followed felt so natural that she didn't realize she was doing it until it was done. She took the light within her, placed the end on the tall staff on the ground, then filled the whole area with all the ideas and feelings in her mind now: the fairies promising to be friends and equals to humans, the soothing light and spirit of the cathedral, the photos and memories of spring blossoms. Life burst into being around her, bringing the trees from a deathly wither to a vibrant pulse of being. Sweet and earthy scents filled the air as the trees and the earth took on their flowers permanently.

It became such a beautiful place that Nozomi could hardly believe that it had been her own power that had made it so.


	74. Bar Chatter

**Chapter 74: Bar Chatter**

K's Tavern was always full of chatter and gossip. Over the years, K had grown accustomed to the gossip rolling through in a predictable cycle. Maybe new demons would show up in Naraku, maybe somebody would make a name for themselves briefly. But for the most part, it was the same topics recycled through the seasons. But ever since the fifth level of Naraku had been broken past to rediscover Tokyo, genuinely new gossip would filter in.

"So does that tournament the Hunter Association is talking up really kill off the losers?"

"They're saying no."

"I heard that it used to, actually. They had demons that would encourage it because those demons believed that those who lost were weak and deserved to die."

"Well they're insisting on dropping that idea for the tournament now. Even put it up for a vote among them."

"Why would you need a vote for something like that? It'd be ridiculous to kill off people just for losing a battle for show."

"They're different than us, right? But it's because demons ruled over them when Mikado was directly over them. Nowadays, they're doing their best to shake off the demonic influence and be independent of them. I've been doing some work around Tokyo and that's what I've seen in them."

"Well I hope they forbid something as cruel as killing off losers, because a tournament like that sounds pretty interesting. It'd be a great opportunity to show off your skills as a demon summoner and fighter."

"It does, I admit. But are you good enough to compete like that?"

"H-hey, if this does happen, then I would try it out! It'd be a relatively safe way to test yourself against some good opponents, right? Some of the younger samurai are quite good."

"I wouldn't mind trying my hand at it myself, actually. Though I'm sure I wouldn't go far. If we did have the samurai participate, then I'm sure we'd have Flynn and Issachar participating."

"Right, those two are basically living legends! I've seen 'em fight myself a couple of times and let me tell you, their skills are monstrous. And Flynn's got the most powerful magic I've ever seen! If either of them participated in a tournament of samurai, they'd win for sure."

"But which one of them would win if they had to fight each other?"

"I have no idea, although I can't really see them fighting each other except as a show of skill. I heard some rumors that they're engaged now."

"Well they are always working together, whenever I see them or their reports."

"But wasn't that Issachar a man once? She even looks masculine for a woman, a bit anyhow."

"I don't know what's up with that, it's strange."

Although he'd been listening to the group quietly, K felt like he should talk up. "Hold on there, don't discount Issachar for something like that," he said. "She's a true samurai through and through. Doesn't even think twice about helping others, no matter what the danger it puts her in. She's even living out in Tokyo now to make sure a group of defenseless folk gets back on their feet. So if she's shown up as a woman now, why judge her for it? Her deeds speak volumes; even you called her a living legend."

"All right, I get you," the old samurai said, embarrassed at getting called out. "There's odd things around those two, but yes, I'd still call them the greatest samurai alive now."

"Right," K said. "And because of them, we might need to rethink what we call odd or strange."

Another one of the group nodded. "Sure, years ago we would have called anybody who read a lot odd. But now everybody's an avid reader it seems."

As the conversation meandered on, K took a moment to ponder back over this tournament and its rules. How were the people of Tokyo discussing this? It would be good to know that.

* * *

"Why do they even need to make that a rule?" one of the Hunters at the Association bar asked when the topic was brought up. There seemed to be more people than usual around, perhaps because the construction crews were practicing on smaller existing bridges before tackling the new bridge to Mikado. "It should be common sense not to kill somebody just for losing."

"That's what everybody always said as the past tournaments came and went. But it was a completely different matter once you got to the stadiums. There was this bloodthirsty air to it all; I remember it well. You had to really push yourself to not give in, and then everybody would boo the winners who showed mercy."

"Wasn't it because demons made up most of the audience?"

"So I've heard."

"Wait, what? I hadn't heard that at all. I thought they wouldn't have let free demons into tournament stadiums."

"They were there, believe me."

"Right, didn't you ever watch the broadcasts and wonder how there were such huge crowds at those events? There's lots of little shelters here and there; those of us who travel around noticed that there were a fair amount of survivors everywhere. That still doesn't explain how the stadiums could have packed houses and lots of people would only watch from bars and other places with working TVs."

"Those demons would rile everyone up. I've heard from people who were in those audiences that it felt like some fever dream had passed when they left. And maybe they'd realize that they'd been acting nothing like themselves in that crowd."

"I hope they can enforce these rules now. Then I'd really start believing that we can free ourselves from being controlled by demons."

"Well I've heard some talk that they're gonna hire a beefier security staff. Maybe it's to stop that mob mentality."

"They could even put the losers of various rounds up to it, you know? Because they've got prerequisites to meet now rather than just being registered with the Association."

"Oh yeah? What kind of prerequisites do they got?"

"You have to successfully complete a certain number of requests and missions over the preceding month, so throughout May coming up. And it might just be that taking certain requests has heavier weighting in becoming qualified for the tournament."

"How's that?"

"I've been doing some work around Akihabara and word is there that they're gonna put out a big request sometime soon about taking down the massive domain over one of the stores there. There's a load of electronics and supplies there that have basically been untouched this whole time because demons have been camped out in there since before the Firmament went up. That store's got multiple domains too, all snarled up into a big mess. Folks there claim that if you come help with the domains, it'll count double for the requirements."

"I think they'd just like it that way to pull in people to do that kind of work. But hell, I'd give it a shot if it was weighted."

"I was thinking so too, even though those samurai folks are likely to be involved there. They're a powerful bunch, been taking out tough demons and domains left and right like they're nothing."

"Maybe you ought to try harder so that those fellows don't outdo you."

"Hey! I've been doing just fine, getting my work done all the time."

Listening quietly and keeping a watchful eye for any possible fisticuffs breaking out, the barkeep hoped that this year's tournaments would take on these rules too. It only made sense. They should have been more careful with the lives of their most talented before.

* * *

"Why hello there, Samyaza, you're looking sharp as always."

"Hey, Adremmalech," Samyaza said, tipping his hat. He was using Abe's form, but left his real identity noticeable in case of things like this. "Is Lucifer in? I need to report in to him."

"Sure enough I was just on my way to do so myself," he said, patting his shoulder with a hoof. "I heard that the angels were calling for Armageddon, so of course I'm not going to miss out on that!"

"Oh yeah?" He wasn't too thrilled about the idea of being involved in an event like that. Sure, morals among humans were supposed to break down and such, but everyone would be too obsessed over the fate of the world. Samyaza preferred quieter times where he didn't have to fight difficult battles to get what he wanted.

Adremmalech laughed like the donkey he was. "They are so confidant in their prophecies and fates, but that's all rubbish. We've got authority over Tokyo and we're making some headway into Mikado as well. And with the humans having access to magic, they're going to have the power to fight back against their angelic oppressors, as well as keep things interesting to us."

"If we kick the angels out, that would make this a much better world," Samyaza said. "Well let's not keep Lucifer waiting."

Soon after they got in, Adremmalech whinnied over something. "Oh my word, Lucifer, you've added such a wonderful flair to your look! Love the color, and that jaunty little feather there."

"Hah, I felt like you'd like it," Lucifer said with a grin. "We can talk frivolously a little later, though. How is the scouting going, Samyaza?"

"We've got a good idea about the lay of the land around the angel's stronghold, but not much on the stronghold itself," he said. "All the lands and waters are being watched over constantly by lesser angels. They hound anyone that they vaguely suspect is trying to break in, with replacements pouring in once you defeat a guard. But if you get a big enough commotion going in one area, a few stealthy folks can get in."

"So it's going to take a powerful strike force rather than an army to overtake them," Lucifer said, thinking.

"Most likely," Samyaza said. "I got in close on some lies and trickery a few times but the thing is, they got a potent barrier around them. None of us have been able to pin down a source, so they must be generating it from inside. And we can enter the barrier like any other domain, but the area reeks of heavenly power and light. Once you're in, you can't hide."

"It's the sort of thing that most of us wouldn't be able to stand, I would guess," Lucifer said, looking thoughtfully at him.

He nodded. "Sure enough, the other guys balked and headed right back out no matter how much they boasted before going in. I was able to tolerate it, but was quickly assaulted by other powerful angels and had no time to locate an exit. You can see their giant-ass cocoon outside if you get up above, but on ground level, the barrier acts just like a mirror. Reflects spells, images, and everything. I think they've got some extra scouts who just watch the mirror zone of the barrier to spot anybody who manages to get that far.""

"Once we overcome that barrier, the cocoon shouldn't be a problem," Lucifer said. "Of what I've heard, it's no fortress."

"Sounds like what we need is a weapon to shatter that barrier to bits," Adremmalech said. "I could think of a thing or two that could do so."

"Yes, that would be most sound," Lucifer said. "I'll call back most of the scouts on that mission, then, save perhaps a few others that might be able to pass through the barrier domain and get us a better report on what's inside."

"You want me to stick to it, then?" Samyaza asked.

"Not at the moment," he said. "You're familiar with the Ashura-kai, aren't you?"

"Sure, although not it's current form under the Demifiend," he said. He'd heard enough stories to know not to go back.

"Nevertheless, you have a connection to them," Lucifer said. "And you're familiar with the Ichigaya base?"

"Sure enough."

He snapped his fingers, then offered an envelope he'd summoned. "Then I would like you to head there to deliver this to the Demifiend. It's an invitation, along with some thoughts on the tournament that the humans speak of putting on."

While he took it, Samyaza said, "If I go handing this over to him, he will know that my position as a member of the Asura-kai is a cover."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he knows when he first sees you," Lucifer said. "But if you can manage, before you meet up with him, I'd like you to take a look around the Ichigaya base now. He's transformed it, but since you know the structure as it had been, you may be able to locate ways to move through there. You should do your best to find a path to the Yamato Reactor; just don't push your luck."

"That should be easier than finding a path through the angel's domain," Samyaza said. "Are you looking to take claim over it?"

"It'd be nice," Lucifer said with a smile. "The Demifiend should be on our side, but I just can't be sure of him. He's been working with Beelzebub there, along with other demons who've been acting suspiciously. I believe he's even tricked Belial into working with him over me, since he left abruptly and hasn't returned when he swore that he would remain loyal to me. And not that long ago, he's installed a toll on demons passing from the Abyss to this world."

"Really?" Samyaza asked, surprised.

"Yes, it's so annoying," Adremmalech said, rolling his eyes. "I had to pay for myself and all my legions, and the gateway isn't always open now. I even told the gatekeeper I'd been summoned by our lord himself here, but no, they just would not listen. You'd think he'd realize the importance of having free passage to this world to keep humanity in check."

That gave him an idea. "Well hang on, passage is restricted now? In that case, that'd explain why the angel guards slowed for a bit. They must have found some way to circumvent that already."

"Hmph, then we should figure that out too," Adremmalech said. "We don't want the humans to start thinking that they're in control. With the heroes roaming about, if the Demfiend keeps passage restricted back to old levels, then humans are going to lose their fear and respect."

"Right, the humans are getting bold enough that they've adding rules to cut down on our enjoyment of the tournament," Lucifer said.

"I heard of that," Samyaza said. "Wasn't sure if it was real or not, banning loser kills and audience judgments. Are they really doing it? Cause that just kills the authenticity and excitement."

"They're really doing it, not heeding our input," Lucifer said.

"That sucks."

"Which is why we need to take control of the reactor," Lucifer said. "That would help with powering a weapon that can take out the angels' barrier too."

"Alright, then I'll snoop around Ichigaya," Samyaza said. "I'll take it a bit slow to find that path for you, then get right back to you."

"Good, I expect your success," he said.

The first obstacle was right at the door, with an incomprehensible Ym that was acting as a guard. It gripped both doors with its tentacles so that anyone who wanted in or out had to go through it. After checking where a back door had been (it wasn't now), Samyaza approached as Abe and told the Ym that he was there on business. Ym babbled nonsense at him for several minutes before letting go of the door and letting him in. Taking that long meant that the Demifiend and anyone else stationed here probably knew of his arrival.

The entrance was definitely different, a massive hall that shouldn't fit into the old structure of Ichigaya. Samyaza waited there a moment while studying the room, in case someone would come fetch him. When no one came, he headed over to check out the doors. Black vines would retract at his touch, allowing him through. Then they entangled themselves so much behind him that they became walls. The rooms past the entrance were meant to disorient those unfamiliar with the place, taking on unnatural angles and shapes. At least one hall appeared infinitely long, stretching out to a distant point of darkness.

When he finally found the stairs, twisted vines blocked him from going down. These vines had eyes, watching him the moment he got into their sight. Samyaza touched the vines and noted their similarities to wormwood barriers. To get any further, he'd need something to cut the wormwood vines or some key to cause them to retract. Of course, the Demifiend would know the importance of what he held and guard it jealously.

The sound of a little girl singing startled him, causing him to step back from the barrier to the stairs. The eyes didn't seem interested in finding her, though. They kept watching him. After a moment, the little blond-haired girl skipped into the hall. She seemed out of place even once he noticed that she had the aura of a demon rather than a human.

"Oh, hi mister!" she said on noticing him. "What're you doing around here?"

"Hello, I was asked to deliver something to the Demifiend," he said, smiling down at her. "But I got lost in this place; it's very strange."

"It's like a funhouse in here!" she said, twirling around before she curtsied. "I'm Alice! The Demifiend lets me play around here, he's really nice. But if you want to find him, you're in the wrong place."

"I've figured out that much," he said. "I'm Abe; I used to run with the Ashura-kai, but things have happened. Would you help me find the Demifiend?"

Alice nodded. "Sure, sure. You need to come this way today." She headed off to a nearby door and led him back into the entrance hall.

As it turned out, if he'd just gone through the opposite side, he would have come upon a more organized area that had some semblance to its former self. It was in better shape, furnished with thorned wood pieces in red and black. In one room, they found the Demifiend in a human form playing a game of chess with another humanoid demon. The Demifiend looked like some tattooed punk while his chess partner had a blue suit and a tidy appearance. Actually, the blond man seemed familiar, but Samyaza couldn't put a finger on who he might be.

"Mr. Demi, I found a guest!" Alice said, going over and grabbing the arm of his chair. "He says he's Abe, one of the Ashura-kai."

"Oh really?" the Demifiend asked, raising an eyebrow at him. "I got a report that you were MIA, presumably dead."

He could recall that? "I've been through a huge mess lately, to be honest," he said. "Haven't even gotten updates from the group, so thought I'd drop in finally. Oh yeah, and I was asked to send a message along." He passed over the envelope.

"You should have gotten word," he said, taking the envelope in one hand and waving with the other. In response to that, Samyaza's phone chimed. "I've given all of you the option to stay on or leave freely, along with a document of the changes to the group. If you wish to stay, you must agree to those changes. You can review it if you like, but that would only matter for your human guise here."

"Eh, oh yeah, sure," he said while Alice giggled. She'd probably saw right through him too.

As the Demifiend read over the message, his chess partner looked up at him. Samyaza briefly met his eyes, but looked away quickly with alarm knotting through his spirit. That man didn't seem like anybody. One should be able to identify at least a demon's clan on looking at them, but grasping him was like grasping at air. And yet, Samyaza had a realization that he was completely overshadowed here. Any of these three could quickly overpower him if they wanted.

"It's about time he reached out," the Demifiend said, setting the message on the side of the table. "If you're playing errand boy, you may as well reply for me. I don't think that club is the neutral grounds he makes it out to be, but I'll meet him there. We can discuss the tournament and other matters there. But one thing first…" he waved his hand again and Samyaza found himself thrown into the wall, "he must hand over Lucifer's identity or we will tear it right out of his heart. You can tell him exactly like that, can't you?"

While Samyaza dropped to the floor and tried to grasp his breath again, Alice tilted her head. "Hmm, I dunno if he can throw anybody like that. Doesn't look strong enough."

"He strikes me as little more than a skirt-chaser," the third demon said, taking the message to read himself. "But even such demons can be useful."

"I'll give him your words, at least," Samyaza said, getting back to his feet and trying not to cringe noticeably.

Although after he sent the message along, it might be better to lay low and go unnoticed.

* * *

Even though there were no Reds to be had anymore, Club Milton was still a hotbed of demon activity. Krishna had easily taken it over, using it to attract demons to his causes and entertain them. Demons and humans alike still came every night to put their cares behind them and lose themselves to ecstasy of one form or another. When he entered, the staff bowed to him and followed whatever orders he gave them. He would take the highest table to watch over all, with visitors willing to bribe him with favors or gifts to get some time with him. If something was to his disliking, it would immediately be removed, with replacements made a priority.

It was greatly satisfying. True, he could bring out such favor and attention with the right charms and a sparkling smile. But to have it merely for being there was magnificent. The whole town of Shibuya was swayed by this now. Some humans who were not the sort to come into clubs would come in because they wanted to meet him.

"I apologize, but I'm waiting on a special guest tonight," Krishna told one man who approached his table, waving him away.

"S-sorry, but we need to get a reply back tomorrow," he said. "Should we really agree to these rules for the coming tournament? It would make it harder for you demons to attend."

"That is a pity, since I know of many who were looking forward to it this year," he said. "But you know, if we must decide now, I'd pass along an agreement. It sounds like they might cancel it if anyone objects and nobody wants that. We can show our dissatisfaction later on when it's too late to cancel."

"That makes sense, thank you," the man said, bowing before he left.

"Yes, since we can't have too many of you dying before we can divorce your souls from the tyrant," Krishna said to himself once the other was out of hearing. "The angels have been a complete pain in that way, forcing us to protect you when we should be forcing you to beg for our protection. Hmph."

All of a sudden, the energy of the club was disrupted. There were dozens dancing, drinking, and chattering all through the place, but there was a moment of stillness and unease that didn't belong. It was quickly covered up and forgotten by most. Looking to the entrance, Krishna saw that his guest had arrived. He was a shadow in a dim place, followed by an abyssal glow that less sensitive eyes would miss. A man in a suit followed him in, somehow fitting into this place even though by all rights he should stick out like a sore thumb.

One of the club bouncers brought them right over to his table. "Your guests, sir," the bouncer said before retreating.

"Thank you," Krishna said. "It's good to finally meet you in person, Demifiend."

"Are you going to return the stolen identity now?" he demanded.

"Now now, don't be so hasty," he said, smiling and softening his tone. Aggressive types often didn't know how to handle that. "We could achieve greater things by working together, don't you think? We should, given how the angels have been lately with declaring Armageddon. Not that it will do them any good; they have no greater or lesser chance than winning as before, so this just proves their desperation."

"You've noticed?" the Demifiend asked, sitting on another part of the curved bench as best he could as a being of shadow. The man with him sat down as well, quietly watching.

"It's all propaganda in the end," Krishna said. "They were the ones who wrote the prophecies, and they're the ones who have utter blind faith in them. And through that blindness they will fall."

"Their prophecies can't even be fulfilled," the Demifiend said.

"Really? I hadn't taken you for a studious sort. What makes you say that?" He kept his gaze on the Demifiend, showing that he was listening and beckoning him to lower his guard.

"An important piece is missing," he said. "They can't compensate for that lacking. If you've read the prophecies at all, that much should be clear."

"But if we have that piece, we could crush them," Krishna said, not sure what he meant.

The Demifiend snorted. "Good luck with that. It may be too late for that measure. The path has been decided; we would need another option to open up to aim for that."

"If we need another option, we can always make one," he said. Then his eye twitched. Krishna glanced aside and saw that the other man was still observing.

"Is that so?" the Demifiend asked, making Krishna pay attention back to him. "Technically, there is a near infinite amount of possibilities. One needs only find the right nth option to get what one desires. However, it takes an extraordinary measure for a demon to truly make a new option."

"So they say," Krishna said, realizing that a change of topic was required.

Before he could bring something up, the Demifiend looked him in the eyes. "Then what would you suggest for a new option to solve this problem?"

What even was the problem? But Krishna knew right away that asking that was a mistake. Not being able to offer an option was another. Anger curdled his blood, spite that he'd been put in this position so easily. Instead of letting that out, he said, "I have been working towards making the humans respect us again. You haven't been making that easy with how strictly you've controlled passage to and from the Abyss through the reactor."

"Anyone should be able to work around that," he said dismissively. "Those who take the reactor's passage deserve to be charged for not thinking of another way through."

"Well it's become an obstacle that many complain of," he said. "It's going to interfere with our efforts to win this war. If we work together, though, I have plans for a weapon to break down the angels' barrier with the reactor's power."

The Demifiend shook his head. "Don't. You'd be poking a hornet's nest when we should let them fall to their own foolishness."

"What nonsense is this? They're the ones who've declared this is the last war. We ought to crush them before they have a chance. We certainly can, easily enough by the looks of you."

"I have," he said as if that wasn't to be doubted. "Just not here and I don't intend on that yet. It's not worth the effort when we could be working more on earning the respect of humans, as you said."

"Wouldn't you earn that by defeating the angels?" Krishna tried a bit of charm to his tone.

"Perhaps, but the angels will be more furious when they realize that I'm ignoring them," he said.

"But I heard they stole some of your clanmates from you," he said.

"They can save themselves, when the time is right."

The other man finally spoke up to ask, "Are you looking to the present conflict or to the larger picture? Rising up to the angels' challenge of one final war is merely playing into their hands."

"Exactly," the Demifiend said, gesturing to Krishna for something. "We would all be best served if you simply returned his identity. I do not believe that you are the original thief; pass it over quietly and we'll let you go here and now."

They had him surrounded; where they'd sat down hadn't even registered with Krishna somehow. Perhaps it was because the Demifiend seemed to be a mere shadow in a cloak. Infuriatingly, he realized that what they said was probably smartest. Hand the identity back over and stop trying to play both roles at once. But this was his power now. Why should he give it up? Especially if they were just going to take things quietly. They ought to be fighting this war too.

"Why should I if you're going to just sit back and let things happen around you?" he snapped. "You can't prove anything, not when he's some vagrant nobody."

"But you can tell, can't you?" the Demifiend said. "You know better, whoever you are."

"I know better than you!" He blasted them both with fire, blowing the table away and causing screams from nearby. The demons around got excited and jumped in at the chance of a brawl, only for the entire club to freeze over sharply from the nameless one's attack. Even with that, the bloodlust in the room sparked into a frenzy.

Krishna tried to confuse those around him, to make the battle more chaotic. Then the Demifiend blasted him right through the chest, seemingly with little effort. Another one of those might destroy him. He used hellfire again to set the area on fire to cover him getting out of the corner.

He shouldn't flee; he was powerful and clever, he could defeat anyone now. But it wouldn't matter if he was defeated. He'd find some way to ruin them… although perhaps keeping Lucifer's identity was enough to do that.

And there should be other means to get the weapon working too.


	75. Clash of the Wise

**Chapter 75: Clash of the Wise**

'Trojan, would you help me out? An unauthorized program is attempting to make changes to my program files. It could be detrimental to Master Nanashi.'

'#Woot! #GotchaBabe.'

'Thank you, here's where they are.'

With the pathway open, Trojan quickly got to where the interloper was trying to alter the demonica's files. Burroughs was doing her best to obstruct them, but was limited on what she could do as an AI. Trojan had lived in this demonica for a while now, so it knew how the programming should be. Finding what was being changed, Trojan fired a string of gibberish at the source of the changes. It could remove any garbage that remained.

Trojan got blasted in return and fainted.

* * *

Training in these halls was a test of endurance. They were full of a violet haze; staying here too long would always make one sick. While in here, demons would slip in in hopes of taking a weakened target. But coming here day after day would make it take longer to get sick. It had been a while since Toki had trained in here; the obstacles had been shuffled around as usual. But the battles felt easier than before.

"Is it nice to be back home?" Nanashi asked. There was a faint magical shimmer on him from the protective magic he was trying out.

"No," she said. "I didn't care about things before, remember? But it is suitable for training. How are you holding up?"

"I feel fine," he said. "But the poison in Minami is supposed to be stronger, so I'm still not sure if the spell is enough."

Toki had been considering that too, since this was something Nanashi really wanted to do. "How about you try it against a stronger poison we know the antidote for?"

"Do you know about one?" he asked.

"Sure, there should be some around," she said.

"Uh, are you sure about that?" Hallelujah asked. "Poisoning yourself could go horribly wrong."

"I need to make sure this spell works," Nanashi said, clasping his wrist.

"Don't worry, I know how to administer both," Toki said. "I might find some, but it's in a secret room. Excuse me." She darted off before the boys could think to follow her.

There were a few different paths out of the poisonous area; one of them ended in one of the training dojos. It was used for several alternate tactics, not just poisoning. Behind a wall scroll, there was a key to a hidden door leading to the supply room. Things were dusty in here; nobody had been in here recently. She checked the chemical cabinet first to retrieve the poison and antidote she wanted. Using it would require some gloves and the brush, as it needed at least skin contact to work. Was there anything else here that could be useful?

She spotted a textbook on poisons and their cures; one of her teachers had used it as a reference. Toki decided to take it for Asahi as she might find it useful. While the other poisons didn't seem as good, there were a lot of spare weapons and armor around. Her knives were good, but she picked up a sharpening kit to make them better. And in a box of cluttered things, she dug out a pair of rings that she knew boosted magic. Would it work with Hallelujah's bow? Whether it did or not, both boys used magic a lot. Those would be good too.

Back in the poisoned halls, Hallelujah had shifted to his demon form as he and Nanashi were taking on another battle. It looked simple enough, so she waited until they were done. "Sorry for taking a while, but I found some good things," she said, offering them the rings. "These amplify magic."

"You sure it's alright to take them?" Hallelujah asked.

"It was from a Gaea dojo," she said. "I'm still a part of the Ring and was told that I could take what I liked. Besides, nobody was in there. They shouldn't notice."

"I hope not, but thanks," he said, accepting the ring now.

"Yeah, it'll help," Nanashi said, taking his.

"I thought so," she said, then brought out the antidote to hand to Hallelujah. "Here, this is the antidote. The poison is quicker when used to cut into skin, but still works on skin contact. If his skin turns pink, put that right on. If it doesn't do anything for five minutes, I'd suggest washing it off and putting the antidote on just in case."

"Yeah, but let's get near a bathroom before trying this," Nanashi said.

One they were in a better position outside the poison, Toki brushed on a small bit of the poison. She didn't want this to kill him. Thankfully, his shield held and the poison didn't do anything to him. She even tried it on herself after he'd cast the protection spell over her. There wasn't even a tingle.

"Do we want to go out to Minami Sunamichi?" she asked them.

"We can wait for tomorrow if Flynn and Issachar can join us then," Nanashi said. "We have no idea what's in there, so we may as well bring in some stronger people."

"It'd be a good challenge for us to go without them," Toki said.

"Hey, we don't have to constantly challenge ourselves," Hallelujah said, rubbing his head. "Besides, more people searching a place means we'll figure out what happened sooner. It's a factory, so I'd think that we'll have to look for the computers and hope they're not deteriorated."

"I suppose so," she said.

"Do you have some problem with them helping out then?" Hallelujah asked.

Toki shook her head. "No. I guess I've gotten used to fighting with just you two, and Asahi. When we were traveling in Mikado, I felt like I had to keep an eye on where everyone was since we were more visible."

"It was fun getting to chat with everyone, though," Nanashi said, trying to reassure her. "And we weren't threatened by much out there. The factory is going to be a much more dangerous mission. Maybe we could handle it now, but it'll be safer with the two samurai."

"Are you doubting her ability?" someone called out from above. She came leaping down from somewhere in the ceiling of Ginza's halls, dressed in urban gray camo. It would have been good attire for stealth except that the jacket was too small and revealed a shirt with a rainbow heart on it.

"No, I don't want any of us to get sick or killed in this," Nanashi said. "Who are you?"

"You seem familiar somehow," Toki said.

"Oh yeah?" the woman asked. She had gold eyes like a demon and curly black hair, along with the physique of a brawler. "I don't know who you are, but I'm on any girl's side. I'm Lilith, and I'm not going to let any man keep me down."

"You're Lilith?" Toki asked, puzzled. "But then you should recognize me."

Lilith seemed genuinely baffled at that, raising an eyebrow. "How's that? I just woke up from a long sleep, actually, trying to get my bearings now that everything's changed."

"You were in charge of the Ring of Gaea, disguised as a human woman named Yuriko," she said. "And then you were revealed to be a demon made up of black vines and a mask. You were one of my trainers as an assassin."

"You do have that kind of edge about you," Lilith said, but scowled. "But I wouldn't have agreed to that kind of thing! Hmph, you're still young, not an adult yet. Children shouldn't be trained up as assassins or soldiers; it's not right."

"Uh, well there were only so many who could fight the demons," Hallelujah said. "So we did have to learn to fight. And the angels and the demons have been saying that they're having some great war, although it doesn't seem much like one yet."

"Bah, they're always fighting over the souls of humanity," Lilith said. "Although in most cases, it's the humans who actually decide on things. I might want to stick around to make sure that women don't get the short end of the stick yet again."

"Aren't you a demon?" Nanashi asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, but I was a human at some point. I just got demonized by legends. Hell, I might even just be a legend. But I remember: I'm human and I want to make the wishes of those who called upon me real. I also had to be mostly human to get in here, because the magic around here forbids those who are mostly demon to enter, save by permission granted by humans."

"You seem more reasonable than the other Lilith," Toki said. She might even be good to learn from.

"Yeah, she even encouraged her followers to throw away their lives for her sake," Hallelujah said.

"Sounds like you might've been dealing with my older self," Lilith said. "Thanks for letting me know; I'll have to keep that in mind. So then, what's this Ring of Gaea she was in charge of? It's those fellows in red, right?"

"Right, that's the normal uniform," Toki said. "We sought to become strong enough to be independent of demons, seeking an alliance as equals with them instead. That's what was said, anyhow. We trained demons and they trained us. But Lilith was leading us in secret. She taught that we shouldn't care about the past or future, just to seek power for doing whatever we wanted in the moment. At the same time, he's right, she told us to be ready to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the group and that those who lost were worthless save for a noble sacrifice. We only honored those who died in that way, forgetting all others."

"That sounds screwed up," Lilith said. "Being strong and independent is important, but we should be survivors, not martyrs. Where are they based? I'd like to make it clear that I'm not the same Lilith, and knowing more about what she was up to ought to let me know what I can do."

"The temple isn't far," Toki said. "I can take you all there."

In Tsujiki Hongwanji, a man met them in the entrance hall. "What is your business here, strangers?"

"I'm not a stranger," she said, showing her ring. "These are my friends, and someone who wanted to know more about the Ring of Gaea. This is Lilith."

"Y-Yuriko?" he asked, startled as he seemed to recognize her.

She shook her head. "No, I'm Lilith, not Yuriko. Who're you?"

"That doesn't matter," he said. "I…"

"It does too matter!" Lilith said, going up to him. "Give me your name!"

"Nikito," he replied immediately. "Ah, I was going to say I'm the front guard and that's all you need to know about me. Outsiders aren't allowed in our sacred temple, not unless you're petitioners to join or can prove your strength."

Lilith nodded, then picked the man up by his waist and held him over her head. "Does that satisfy you? I'll vouch for the two boys on my strength too, since they're good fellows."

"Erk, that's not our normal means," Nikito said, trying to steady himself and keep an outward cool. "It does prove your strength, but you'll all stick out here."

"Doesn't matter to me because I'm a demon," Lilith said, glancing back at them. "Do you have uniforms in their size?"

"Going in disguise?" Hallelujah asked, unsure of it.

On the other hand, Nanashi seemed unusually enthusiastic about that from his immediate smile. "It sounds like a great idea!"

"Well they're not members…" Nikito said.

"But I am and she's strong enough to take what she wants," Toki said. "That is in line with our philosophy. They're our guests and I insist that they be treated with respect."

"Are you strong enough?" Nikito asked.

"I could kill you before you could blink," Toki said seriously.

"She honestly could," Hallelujah said.

"Ah, I don't need a demonstration on that," Nikito said. "Fine, we can get some uniforms for the two boys. But would you put me down for that?"

"As you ask," Lilith said, immediately dumping him by the wall. "Where are the uniforms?"

The guard let them get the uniforms and head on to the main sanctuary. It was more than she'd meant to do in taking Lilith here. But it was fun, like in seeing their surprise at the main room with the giant golden statue and the solemn candlelight. As usual, there were people in there. It was a larger crowd than she expected, though.

One man came towards them, but there was a faint feeling to him. He was probably another demon. "What are you children doing here?"

"She asked us to bring her here," Toki said.

"Yeah, I wanted to see what the other me was up to," she said. "I'm Lilith, but not the one who was here before."

"A new Lilith, is it?" he smiled at her. "I'm Maitreya, the new leader of the Ring of Gaea. Were you looking to take back over?"

Lilith shrugged. "It depends. Do they know you're a demon too?"

"That doesn't matter," Maitreya said. Strangely, no one spoke up in surprise or agreement. They'd turned around, but didn't do anything more. "They follow me now."

"Do you really?" Toki asked, going over to one of the women. Strangely, she didn't reply.

"There's something strange about these people," Nanashi said.

"It's not something you need to be concerned about," Maitreya said, oozing with apparent friendliness. But she could feel something trying to put her to sleep.

"Maybe not need to, but I am," Lilith said, putting her hands on her hips and glancing around. She then tossed a blade of wind at a giant gong, making a tremendous clamor that shook Toki's body. It shook the rest of audience as if they'd been asleep. "Hey! So this guy is your leader, huh?" She pointed to Maitreya.

After a baffled moment, the woman Toki was near said, "Yes, what about it? Who are you all?"

Lilith smiled confidently. "I just told you all, but apparently you missed it in being hypnotized. I'm Lilith, but not the one you knew before."

Murmurs rose around the room, wondering about both Lilith and her claims of hypnotism. "Please don't misunderstand," Maitreya said. "I was giving a class on deep meditation, not hypnotism."

"Everybody sure seemed hypnotized a moment ago," Hallelujah said, with Toki and Nanashi nodding along.

"I don't remember these people coming in," a man said. "Actually, I don't remember what we were doing here either."

"So what were you doing with your so-called meditations, hmm?" Lilith asked, looking at Maitreya. "And hiding the fact that you're a demon?"

"He's a demon?" Ripples of shock and anger came from the group.

"Please, I am not a demon," Maitreya said.

"Your spirit is that of a demon," Hallelujah said.

"You're not human nor an animal," Lilith said. "So you're a demon, broadly speaking."

"Generalizing matters always leads to mistakes," he said, clasping his hands together and dismissing the illusion he wore. That revealed him to be like an image from an old book, like a revered saint or angel. "My name is Maitreya, yes. I was once human, but I am now a Buddha, one who has traveled millions of worlds on the path of enlightenment. And as an enlightened one, I seek to bring enlightenment to others." He then bowed.

Lilith raised an eyebrow at him. "What the hell kind of enlightenment comes from being controlled by an otherworldly being?"

"It is meditation, I told you," he said.

"It's not," Toki said, certain of it. "I've learned meditation. It's about self-control. But while it does involve freeing your mind from distractions, meditation is not about being so detached that you don't notice what is going on around you. Or about giving up control of yourself."

"A youth like you wouldn't have the experience to fully grasp meditation, I'm afraid," Maitreya said.

"I do have more to learn, but I'm not stupid," Toki said.

"She speaks with more wisdom than you have been," Lilith said. "I'm not perfectly enlightened, I admit, but even I can see that. You're no leader, just a puppeteer."

One of the older women in the crowd said, "I'm not enlightened either, but I agree with them. Whatever you were doing just now wasn't meditation, and you lied to us too! You assured everyone that you were human, but you're not."

Maitreya shook his head, still acting pleasantly. "No, I am indeed human. I have reached a stage of enlightenment where I have surpassed the limitations of death and human frailty. Lilith is merely a figure of lust of the body, deception, and refusal to submit."

"That was my old self," she said with a frown. "I am a spirit of feminism! I stand for embracing your true self and respecting others for who they are. Though I will admit to still refusing to submit to others, especially men who think they ought to be superior just for being men. You've got to prove to me that you're worthy, and wise because I'm thinking that you're not actually as wise or enlightened as you think."

"My enlightenment should be self-evident," Maitreya said, putting a hand to his chest and seeming peaceful.

"That's a dumb argument," Lilith said, tapping her foot.

"I have the experience of many lives and many worlds, so my wisdom is far deeper than any ordinary human," Maitreya said.

"Would you tell us about your other lives then?" Nanashi asked.

Maitreya seemed amused at that request. "There's far too much to tell; there's no need for that kind of proof."

"No, I think he's got a point," Lilith said to Maitreya. "If you just say you've lived so many lives, so what? That's just what you said. I won't believe it until you gave some examples."

"It really isn't important," Maitreya said.

"I won't believe you either unless you start telling those stories and explaining how they led to your claim of enlightenment," Toki said.

"Right, me too," the woman by her said, getting agreement from the others in the room.

"My my, well I certainly applaud your eagerness to listen," Maitreya said. "But my wisdom and experience are evident in what I do and say. Examining the past won't lead to anything."

"Your bragging undermines your claims, Mr. Enlightened Buddha," Lilith said mockingly.

"You'd dismiss whatever I say, so it's not worthwhile when we could talk of the future and what can be," Maitreya said, soothing tones coming back into his voice.

"Like the Cosmic Egg?" Nanashi said.

Toki had no idea what he meant, but it was clear that Maitreya did. His eyes seemed wider and he had no response right away. "What do you mean by that?" Lilith asked, looking at Nanashi.

"Right, what do you mean?" Maitreya said, more on edge now.

Nanashi stepped forward. While he was short and not built up like the men in the room, he had some kind of strength to his expression that made the uniform seem fitting to him. "The Cosmic Egg is something that you of the Divine Powers are after, an artifact made by the gods that has the potential to change the world drastically, even create it anew. I know about it because I have memories from other lives too," he put a hand to his chest, "including this very life, although events have been changed greatly from what I recall."

"Do you now?" Maitreya said, evidently trying to think of something.

"What kind of proof do you have?" Lilith asked, not as hostile towards him.

"This is the first time I've been in this temple in this time," Nanashi said, then looked over at her. "Right Toki? You're the only person I know who could have gotten me in."

She nodded. "I've not brought you here before, nor told you much about it."

"And how did we get to this room?" he asked.

"We came in through the secret hallway as the fore of the temple is shut off from this main area," she said.

"And the rest of the temple's fore is a multilevel teleporter maze with the furniture and doors arranged to avoid a straightforward passage," Nanashi said. "You need separate cards to operate the elevators too, unless you have a master card that can dismiss and reactivate portals too. There's also a system of underground tunnels that connects the various parts of the temple, along with hidden doors in Ginza. Somewhere underground, there's also a Passage of Ethics to test the hearts of those who pass through, through three sets of two doors, which eventually leads to a large room with six white pillars. That's where the old Lilith worked as Yuriko."

"We didn't see any of that coming in," Hallelujah said.

"Yeah, so is that the structure of the temple?" Lilith asked, looking to the real members of the Ring.

"That's accurate," one of them answered, soon agreed to by others. So you're really remembering this life, but in a different time?"

"Like a parallel world?" someone added.

"Yes, that's one way to understand it," Nanashi said, looking off briefly in thought. Then he looked back to Maitreya. "You… you always took over a part of the Ring after Yuriko was defeated by the samurai from Mikado. In time, you would convince your followers here to sacrifice their lives so that their souls could contribute to the power of the Cosmic Egg. You even took one of my friends hostage at one point to get your way. I've never seen anything wise or enlightened about you, only inhumane acts. Your claims now are the same as those I recall, but I don't recall any stories from you about other lives that supposedly led you to enlightenment."

"That is an absurd claim," Maitreya said. "I lead these people with wisdom; I wouldn't do otherwise."

"How do you lead them with wisdom?" Nanashi asked.

When Maitreya tightened his lips and didn't immediately reply, one of the Gaeans came forward. "He hasn't asked us to sacrifice ourselves, but he has spoken highly of self-sacrifice and reaching for a greater goal. There's also something else that you just reminded me of. While there are folks around who aren't much for discussion, when we do get around to it, he's always sitting there listening to us argue and smiling. And just when folks are ready to get into a fight over something, or just lose steam for arguing, he gives his opinion on things like it's the final word on everything. Nobody before you kids has had the guts to try debating something with him, not that I've seen."

"Right," the woman by Toki said. "He's so smug with his enlightenment that it feels pointless to try. Maitreya did that kind of thing with everyone else who made a bid for taking over the Ring until they all gave up and he became leader by default." She clenched a fist. "But if our lives are worth nothing but a sacrifice to him, he's no better than the old Lilith!" She got some cheers of agreement.

"No, that's not the case," Maitreya said, still trying to sweet talk them with his soothing peace. "I have come to lead you along the path of enlightenment, for a goal of utmost importance."

"For the goal of destroying the world because people no longer worship you," Nanashi said, which turned the room against him even more.

"You're the only one who thinks you're enlightened, buddy," Lilith said. "I mean hell, I don't claim to be enlightened or whatever. I will say that unless you have a woman's perspective along with that of a man, your grasp on wisdom is incomplete. And you are clearly just bullshitting your way through things, expecting people to take you at your word and punishing them if they don't."

"If you really were enlightened, you wouldn't need to hypnotize people to get them to follow you and listen," Toki said. "Hypnotism is for if you don't have control over a situation, as is using magical charm in your voice."

"Hmm, well I can tell when I'm not wanted," Maitreya said, giving a bow and still acting peaceful. "I will have to find others who truly want a guide to enlightenment. You unfortunate souls will have to find wisdom the hard way." He then vanished in a cloud of pink smoke.

"I bet he's actually a sore loser, just good at hiding it," Lilith said, shaking her head.

"I'd believe that," the woman by Toki said with a smile. "Thank you, all four of you. I don't believe anyone realized the trouble we were in."

"It's fine," Toki said, smiling back. "We are not to be dependent on demons, no matter who they say they are. That's what Yuriko told us, and what we should be doing even if she lied."

"You're right," she agreed.

"Lilith," the man who'd challenged Maitreya asked, "you might not be the same one, but would you lead us and reunite the Ring?"

"Naw, cause I'm a long ways from being a human," Lilith said. "But I think I'd like to help you all out, albeit on one condition."

"What's that?" he asked.

"I am the spirit of feminism!" she said firmly. "There are differences in men and women, and there's even those who don't fit neatly into either. But they should be treated equally, no matter what their gender, sexuality, or personal beliefs. If you want me helping you out, then you are to agree that all people should be treated with respect and dignity."

"Sounds good to me," he said.

"Right," the woman speaking with them agreed, along with others in the group. "Things had been slipping when the old Ashura-kai was in control, and I at least would be glad to bring that ideal back."

Lilith smiled brightly. "Great! Then I'll stick around here to get my work back on track."

"It's unclear who should be leading," the man said. "But for the moment, I'm guessing you two boys aren't actually members?"

"They're my friends, so you can trust them," Toki said.

He nodded. "And you both stood against Maitreya as well, so we can make you honorary members. Any arguments?"

There didn't seem to be any. Hallelujah seemed nervous, probably because of his old connections. "Really? Well, if that's going to be part of your new ideals, I'm fine with that."

"Yeah, that's how things should be," Nanashi said.

"The Ring will become what it should have been all along," Toki said, feeling glad that things had worked out like this.

* * *

After getting the new Lilith into the Ring of Gaea, the meeting had turned to who would lead now that Maitreya was gone and Lilith didn't want to lead. There were those who weren't interested, which gave them the excuse to leave. Unfortunately, that led to some of the Gaeans deciding to test their 'honorary members' with some fighting. Hallelujah tried to keep out because he was using a bow in battles, not getting up in an opponent's face like most of the Gaeans. But he eventually got talked into an arm-wrestle match, which of course he lost against the Gaean.

He slipped out of the temple with some magic after that. Maybe he'd find things quiet out here. Maybe not because of demons who would feel comfortable in challenging anyone around here. But he could sit on a bench and sigh. "What am I going to do here?"

"Hmm?" Chiron appeared on the bench too, his head tilted.

"There you are," he said, scratching him by his ears as he liked. "Feel like talking now?"

Chiron didn't seem to as he fell happily against his hip in order to be petted more.

Chuckling, Hallelujah obliged him. "At least I know I can trust you, whatever crazy stuff happens. I should have trusted you more before. I'm sure you'll speak up if you feel like you must again."

His partner hummed happily for a moment, then became alert to something. Hallelujah looked over in the direction Chiron was looking and spotted a man in a white suit approaching. A familiar man. Feeling startled, Hallelujah called over, "Abe? What happened to you, bro? I thought you'd died or something."

"Heh, you should know me better than that," Abe said with a smug smile. "I'm as slippery as a roach when I need to be. But what the hell are you doing here? And dressed like one of the Ring's members?"

"Uh," he gripped the red jacket that was now over his shirt. The large gold buttons were still strange, but it wasn't all that bad wearing it. "One of my new friends has been a member for a long time. She got us these to fit in while we were visiting here."

"Well I wouldn't blame you for jumping ship when Tayama died," Abe said, stopping by the bench. One of his usual lilim companions giggled and winked. "Wouldn't have expected you to come here, but hey, a taste of their spirit should be good for you."

"No, I'm actually with the Hunter Association now," he said, looking up at Abe. There was something off about him. Hallelujah was sure this was Abe, and yet… "Hey wait, I've been meeting a lot of demons disguised as humans lately. Are you one too?"

"Well well, have your senses finally caught on?" he said, tapping his forehead and dispelling his illusion. He was humanoid with some black horns and violet skin, but far stranger than that was the assortment of straps that he was wearing in place of clothing. And high heeled boots, ones that should be completely impractical for anyone. "You got me, kid. My real name is Samyaza."

"Huh, really?" That made a lot of sense of things, like why Abe picked him out to mentor and how he somehow always found him when Hallelujah didn't tell him where he was going. "You're my father?"

"Right you are," he said. "I had to do what I could for you; wasn't easy trying to raise a kid when I had to balance serving Lucifer and acting as one of the Ashura-kai. But you know, I'm sick of it all now."

"What do you mean?" he asked, feeling uneasier than before. Abe had helped him out at times, yes. Gabriel wasn't to be trusted, but she had called him corrupt and wicked. And then, Naoki had confirmed her story about Samyaza but also suggested that a human with a strong connection to a demon could shift a demon's attitude…

"Not you necessarily, just," he waved off to the city, "all that mess. We've got somebody good acting as Lucifer now, but they might just be holding onto the demon lord's identity and I haven't a clue as to who they really are. I think I've encountered the real Lucifer too."

"Really?" Then Naoki must have freed him, as expected.

Samyaza nodded. "There are some demons out there that have such a presence that if you manage to cut them down, or reduce them to having no name or identity, you still feel their power. In this case, that power is completely unfiltered because he doesn't have his identity. On top of that all, the angels are convinced that they've been called to bring Armageddon to the world instead of just their usual wars like last time."

Hallelujah had heard about the angels' claim; he'd even spotted the bright chariot of the Last Crusader in the sky. But hearing it from Samyaza gave him chills. So the last war that decimated the Earth was just their usual?

Not waiting for a reply, Samyaza shook his head. "I really don't want to deal with this all now; the escalation is way higher than I can tolerate. So I've decided to cut my losses and get out of this world. I'm sure there's some better world out there that's more about enjoying life and less about hair-trigger extinction threats. Come on, in another year or so, I'm sure I can show you how to have a real blast."

"I don't want to leave this world," Hallelujah said as Chiron softly growled. "I have friends here."

"You could get a lot better friends elsewhere, and more of them with my help," Samyaza said, putting a hand on the back of the bench. "Come on, do you really want to stay in this craziness? It's not gonna be worth it, trust me on that. Besides, I've done a lot for you over the years, like helping you get this…" he started to reach for Chiron, but the fox demon bit down hard on his hand and made him yelp.

"You didn't help me with friends before," Hallelujah said, feeling a smoldering anger trying to escape out. Memories floated back up of his mother's last days, things he was starting to understand. "You weren't even there to help me with the latest craziness going on, while Chiron and my other friends were. And, you drove my mother insane! I don't want to be around you."

"Whoa, chill out you two," he said, lifting Chiron up and trying to shake him off. It wasn't working. "I'm just offering you a more fun place to be."

"No," Hallelujah said.

"Fine, fine, have it your way," Samyaza said, finally getting Chiron to let go. "If you're going to stick around here, at least do me proud." He then vanished, perhaps forever.

Catching Chiron from falling on the pavement, he asked, "You all right?"

Chiron nodded, soon hopping into his lap. "I came because of your mother, not him," he muttered, barely audible.

"Is that so?" he asked. When Chiron nodded, Hallelujah hugged him. "Thank you. I hope Mom's soul is at peace, wherever she is."

There wasn't a way to find that out now, but he wasn't lonely anymore.

 _A/N: Just about every time Maitreya showed up in Apocalypse, I kept hoping that somebody would ask him to prove his wisdom. There were points where he proved to have cleverness and charisma, but not wisdom. I think it would be possible to have a character who was truly wise, but also a villain out of lacking kindness or sympathy for others. But Maitreya wasn't that, which is a pity._


	76. The Mystery of Minami Sunamichi

**Chapter 76: The Mystery of Minami Sunamichi**

Their quarters in Tennozu were a step down from the dorms, but that was to be expected. The other day, they'd managed to find a mirror to put on the wall in here. Flynn was there making sure his hair was neat when he noticed Issachar frowning behind him. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Oh, um," his ears turned pink at being asked. "I don't feel that great, but it's nothing to worry about. I'll take some medicine and it should be fine."

"You don't sound so sure of that," he said, turning to him now that his hair was fine. "What is it?"

After a moment, he said, "Look, it's a normal part of a woman's fertility cycle and I think that's all you'll want to know of it. Isabeau must've worked through this and we never noticed much different, so I'm sure I can do the same for the next few days."

"Oh, I hadn't thought about that," he admitted, feeling embarrassed himself. It reminded him of something he hadn't thought of for a long time, about an awkward conversation with his father over a woman's moon days and how they really shouldn't be bothered about it. "We were going to use the demonica suits today to help out Nanashi. You still okay with that?"

Issachar nodded. "Sure, I should be fine."

"All right, but don't push yourself too much if you feel worse," he said.

They put on the body armor parts of the demonica, but held off on the helmets when they traveled to Ginza to meet up with Nanashi. He was there with Hallelujah and Toki, but not Asahi for some reason. Instead, there was an almost familiar woman with them, one with black curly hair. But her look other than that was different.

"Good morning," Issachar said, acting cheerful now.

Nanashi smiled back; something had him optimistic today, which was good. "Good morning. Thanks for coming; I really appreciate it."

"So these are the samurai heroes who're gonna help you?" the woman asked, observing them.

"Yeah, this is Flynn and Issachar," Nanashi replied, acknowledging Issachar without hesitation although the other two seemed puzzled at him wearing what was clearly a female's suit. "Guys, this is Lilith, but a different one."

"Then you must be the one Nozomi told us about," Flynn said. "She'd questioned before if Lilith was the patriarchal scapegoat or the newer feminist one."

"The latter's the right one for me," Lilith said, smiling now. "When ideas change, humans often look for new symbols and such, sometimes repurposing old ones. I went along with it when feminists started looking to me for inspiration." Then she shrugged. "But you know, before I fell asleep, ideas were constantly changing and shifting. I got attached to one idea, and then got dragged into a lot of others, to the point where it felt like I was running twice as hard just to keep in place. Then I wake back up and find ideas have backpedaled, hmph." She frowned briefly. "We'd broken a lot of awful ideas before then too."

"But you're already bringing those good ideas back," Toki said. "She's with the Ring as an adviser now, promoting equality without considering identity or beliefs."

Lilith got up and approached Issachar. "That's right, and you seem like a very interesting person. What are you doing as a woman?"

He seemed surprised, but smiled at her. "Oh, I chose to be one so I don't have to hide who I love."

"Well you shouldn't have to go that far to be accepted," Lilith said. "But still, you seem very comfortable with yourself, and that's wonderful! If you need any help from me or the Ring of Gaea, just come ask. I can't promise anything, but I'll do what I can."

"Thank you," Issachar said. "Actually, there's something we've started doing. We want humans and demons to be working as equals in the future, not hurting or controlling each other. Would you agree to that, and could you help convince other demons to agree as well?"

"Sure, I'd love that," Lilith said eagerly. "You can count on me! All the feminine tribes, like the Femme, the Lady, even the Nymph, I'll chat with them and see about getting them on board too. I don't think you'll get cooperation from all of them, but we'll recruit allies where we can."

"That sounds like a good start, Lilith," Issachar said.

"Right, we're looking towards a better future of peace," Flynn said. "We'll make it happen."

That discussion with Lilith seemed enough that the three kids didn't ask about it any further. Flynn operated the terminal so they could all go directly to Minami Sunamichi. With the demonica suits, he and Issachar were immune to the poisonous sludge plodding around in slow moving streams. Nanashi used his magic to protect himself and his friends, although they all avoided walking through the sludge if they could help it. The town was silent and still as usual; very few demons were out and those were no match for any of them.

Nanashi opened the gate of a chainlink fence that Flynn hadn't gone past before. Down a dirt alleyway, they found an immense industrial building that was out of sight of the main part of town. There was a stretch of windows higher up, but even if they were ground level, they were shuttered off with metal. Tall chimneys came from the roof, not letting out anything. A large sign declared this to be an agricultural industries building, which was a puzzling thing.

"How would they be doing agricultural work in a closed up building like this?" Issachar asked. "I've seen the sunlamps Tokyo has before, but how would they have ground, manure, or anything like that?"

"It does seem like a dreary place to grow anything," Toki agreed.

"It could be a hydroponics plant," Hallelujah said. "Before the war, some people figured out how to mass produce some plants with basically water and nutrient additives. It helped out in places like Tokyo because there's not much land to farm and a dense population to feed. There were lots of people who wished we had one active; I didn't realize this one had been around."

"I had thought it was a chemical plant because of the sludge leaking out," Nanashi said, worried. "How does agriculture cause this mess? Especially with the factory shut down."

"Maybe the rumors of a strange demon taking over have some truth to them," Issachar said.

Around a corner, they found an entrance that wasn't blocked off in any way. Sludge leaked out from the bottom of the door. Flynn glanced around at the area around them, in case they'd need to pull the door open and get out of the way. Then Burroughs piped up. 'Master, I'm detecting a lethal atmosphere inside the building. You'll be fine with the full demonica suit, but there's no breathable air for the others.'

Flynn looked to Issachar; they hadn't put on the helmets yet, so he'd heard the alert too and was concerned. "It seems like we won't be able to do this together," Flynn said. "Sorry Nanashi."

"Why?" Nanashi asked, clenching a fist.

"Burroughs says that there's no breathable air in there, and it's lethal," Issachar explained. "Your magic isn't going to be enough to get you through that. Didn't your gauntlet tell you?"

"No," he said, checking it. After a moment, he said, "She says she doesn't detect any problems."

'May I speak on the external speakers?' Burroughs asked. Flynn let her, so she said to the others, "These two demonica units detect the same conditions inside. Sorry, but going inside this building without a full demonica suit will kill any of you."

"Maybe something's gone wrong with your gauntlet?" Issachar suggested. "I don't know for sure, but we definitely can't take you three inside now."

"Hey, they could vent the building out," Hallelujah suggested, pointing up to the shuttered windows. "There should be something inside that controls the windows to let in light and air. Everybody would have to steer clear of this place until it airs out and becomes safe. Then we could go in."

"I guess," Nanashi said, disappointed and looking back at his gauntlet. "Um, there was something weird that happened yesterday. Trojan fainted inexplicably while I was asleep, and the compendium data suggested that reviving him might corrupt the gauntlet."

"Did you try that?" Flynn asked, worried about that.

He shook his head. "No, I deleted him from the roster as it suggested. But I guess I should get it checked out still. How do you summon him back?"

"I'll tell you, but first, I've planned for this possibility," Flynn said. "Let's go to Kasumigaseki. I've already discussed this with Fujiwara, so we should be able to get things set up quickly."

"All right," Nanashi said, disappointed but accepting that it was too dangerous.

As they started back along the large building towards the terminal, Flynn asked, "If Trojan fainted, there might be a key item in your gauntlet's inventory called a wooden cart."

He checked and smiled briefly on finding it. "Yeah, it says it gives permission to summon Trojan."

Flynn nodded. "Good, that makes things easier. It's still going to be trickier than normal to summon him, though. First, you need to have done enough fusions that Mido is willing to let you experiment. You can figure that out by putting 'experiment' into the search field and seeing how he responds."

They had to slow some as Nanashi was trying it out. "Okay, he says he's eager to see what might happen."

Glancing at his own gauntlet, he then went on with the explanation. "Unfortunately this isn't the right time to summon Trojan. He can only be accessed on a full moon. In the meantime, you need to locate a pair of demons under level 10, and one of them must have the data personality type. If you have Demolingual turned on, turn it off and see what demons speak mostly in numbers; they're probably the data type, especially if they speak very logically with Demolingual on."

"That's an odd fusion if the personality matters," Nanashi said.

"There's more to it that's odd," Flynn said. "The demon fusion needs to be an invalid one except on the full moon. Once the time is right and Mido is fine with you experimenting, some invalid fusions become valid. Trying to get Trojan in particular also has a stronger chance of producing a slime instead. The source where I found it had more technical details I didn't understand, but I found it was enough to keep previewing the right invalid combination until the preview showed a static mess with question marks instead. Allowing Mido to force that fusion should result in Trojan."

"No wonder I've never heard of a demon like him before," Nanashi said. "Can you get other Virus clan demons like that?"

He nodded. "Yes, but I've read that some of them will instantly ruin a gauntlet. That's why it's important to make sure your component demons are under level 10; it ensures that you won't get anything but Trojan. Mido does warn you if you might end up with a Virus demon like that, but I only tried that once and didn't actually summon it."

In Kasumigaseki, Fujiwara met up with them in the control room. "So you ran into some problems with the Minami factory?"

Flynn nodded. "Yes, there's no breathable air inside and we can't bring these three inside."

"And my demonica somehow didn't pick up on it, so it needs to be checked for errors," Nanashi said.

"Sure, we can get it examined for you here," Fuiwara said, then gestured to some of the command stations. "Also, our equipment here is able to link up to the demonica suits so we can see and hear what the demonica users encounter. We can also do some extra analysis from here that the demonicas alone don't handle. That should let us get a good picture of how things are in dangerous environments like the factory."

"It should also be useful for uploading any computer data found since these two wouldn't understand much of it," Skins said.

"I've been able to guess my way through computer things before, but that would be faster," Issachar said. "We also should figure out a way to vent out the factory like Hallelujah suggested, so others can explore more later on if need be."

"As long as the controls are intact, that shouldn't be difficult," Fujiwara said. "You three can stay around here and help us on this end. As for you two, go ahead and put your helmets on so we can start linking them into these stations."

Once they were sure that the demonicas were giving clear signals to the base, he and Issachar headed back out to the factory. Flynn made sure to take another look at the sign so that Fujiwara and Skins saw it as well. The door they'd previously found turned out to be an emergency exit, so they moved on until they found the proper entrance. While the area was made up of a large amount of windows and glass doors, none of them were damaged and it was too dark inside to make out much.

"All these intact windows are strange," Flynn said.

"I agree," Fujiwara said. "Demons have broken a lot of windows throughout the city and this factory hasn't been maintained. See if the doors are locked."

They weren't, allowing a rush of the strange air out. As they stepped inside, some lights kicked on automatically. The poison sludge completely covered the floor, gelled in most places instead of creeping along like outside. Bits of furniture that had been broken down stuck in the sludge, although the walls and doors seemed fine. Five doors led off in different directions, including one across from the entrance that led to behind a counter of some kind of storage room.

"Pretty normal for a lobby," Skins said. "Try checking out the office across the way; that's usually where a secretary or somebody would be stationed to keep records on visitors and workers."

"So there should be a computer here you can connect to," Flynn said.

There were a few, thankfully with their components off the floor and away from the sludge. Issachar was able to get one on and find a password on some paper nearby, so he worked with Fujiwara to get the information off it. In the meantime, Flynn got the front doors all opened, looked around the lobby area, and kept an eye out for demons. They should be attracted to the lights coming on. Only one demon came, a mokoi that crept around outside but stilled suddenly about a foot from the door. It then fled.

There was another strange thing in the office: a plant that seemed like a tiny twisted tree with red leaves. It was sitting in a round pot filled with stones, bits of litter, and a crushed toy car. And from its branches, drips of sludge hung to slowly fill a pool under it. "Unless its seasons are off-kilter, I've not seen a plant like this," he said.

"It's some kind of bonsai," Skins said. "It's a hobby to keep tiny little trees like this, carefully trimmed and cared for so they have a certain look. Strange that it's alive with the building being shut up for years."

"Then there might be something living here and caring for this," Flynn said. "Is it a maple tree?"

"Well, let's see…" Skins took a moment to research, so Flynn kept the demonica's view on the bonsai. "We're not really set up to identify trees here. Hey, could one of you kids go run this image through the internet archives, over there?"

"Sure," Hallelujah said, just in hearing.

"Bonsai aren't usually so disgusting," Toki commented.

"Right," Skins agreed. "Normally they're made to look as natural as possible."

An exchange of questions between them still failed to identify the tiny tree. It should be something Aleph could identify. But unless more strange plants cropped up, it didn't seem enough to contact him about. Flynn didn't like it himself. The sludge and the trashy look was cruel to the tree.

Once they got the computer data uploaded, Nanashi had a suggestion. "I think there was a break area they let visitors into. It should be right off the lobby."

"That could help," Fujiwara said. "A break area might have some information about the people who worked there."

And that would be something Nanashi would be interested in knowing. "All right, so one of these neighboring rooms."

"Yeah… that one, I think, the one Flynn's looking at."

"Got it," he said, heading over there with Issachar. It had been quiet so far, but the bonsai suggested that they didn't want to get too far from each other in case whatever else lived here showed up.

The break area had some vending and arcade machines, ones that had held together better than the chairs and tables. Next to the entrance, there was a lost and found shelf with a small miscellany of items. A keycard was among them; Flynn picked it up in case it could still be used somewhere in the factory. But one thing stood out in the room immediately as something Nanashi would be interested in: a large corkboard that was covered in photographs. A sign on the top of it claimed it was 'Who We Work For'.

"Hoy, Nanashi," Flynn said, making sure to look at that sign. "You want to pick out any of these pictures to keep?"

"Oh, yes please," he said, some anxiousness to his voice. Sometimes it could be easy to forget with all the things he got involved in, but Nanaashi was still a kid.

"Sure, let me know which ones," he said, then looked slowly across the board to give him a good look. Meanwhile, Issachar took a check around other parts of the room.

"Um…" On looking over half to them, Nanashi let out a frustrated sigh. "It's all hazy, I'm not sure."

"It was some time ago," Flynn said. "If any of them seem familiar at all… or I could take them all off so you can have a closer look."

"But this is when I lived, but other things…" he sounded upset. "I would've rather gone in, but…"

"I understand," he said. Nanashi could be remembering things from other lifetimes, things which could seem closer than these photos.

"There's still more," Hallelujah said to encourage him. "There should be something you recognize."

"Well I feel like I've seen some, but I'm not sure who's… wait, that one with the pinwheel."

Pinwheel… there was a faint idea of some kind of toy, which led him to a photo of two adults and one child, the last of which had a brightly colored toy in hand that resembled a windmill. "This one?"

"Yeah, um…"

Flynn took the pin out to get a better look at it. The boy seemed right, moreso than other kids as possibly being a younger Nanashi. More telling, the father had a strong resemblance to him; he appeared like a Hunter, although he was missing his left arm from the elbow down. The mother wasn't as strong of a resemblance, but it was there all the same. She looked very joyful in that moment, crouched down by the boy and holding him like they'd been playing together before someone came by for the picture.

"I think that's my family?" Nanashi said.

"Looks like they could be," Flynn said, then turned the picture around. There was a date he couldn't be sure of, but the others should be able to figure out when this was. Along with that, it had three names: Kazuki, Momoko, and Akira.

"Was my name really Akira?" Nanashi asked, still confused on this.

"Possibly," he said, now checking the remainder of the photos. Now that he had one that Nanashi half-recognized, he could pick out the three in other photos. A few back, there was a picture of seven kids of various ages, smiling and having fun with whatever event this was. Akira was the only name of the three to show up on the back of that photo.

"Seems like that was your name," Toki said.

Fujiwara then spoke back up, "Okay, I've got a cross-reference now on the lobby computer. Kazuki was Hunter assigned specifically to the factory here to keep unwanted demons out. And, Momoko was one of three researchers there. She'll be one who would be more useful to find information from, so we'll have to find out where she worked here."

"Right," Flynn said, taking off some other photos of Nanashi's family.

"Wh-who put this set up?" Issachar asked in shock, coming up next to him.

Flynn glanced over at the bottom corner of the corkboard; there had been a messy cluster of photos there, but he'd been observing the rest from the top. Most of these photos were of happy healthy people, but not the cluster. Those photos were of people with discolored skin, wounds from infections, and skeletal bodies. Not only that, but they were the same people as in the rest.

There was some noise on the other end of the line. "Nanashi!" Hallelujah called, seemingly running off.

"I'll go after those kids," Skins said.

"Thanks," Fujiwara said.

"Sorry, they stood out like this," Issachar said, worried about him. "I didn't realize they'd be disturbing."

"Perhaps it's better we couldn't bring him in here," Flynn said, looking back to the normal photos to see if there were any others he should take. "I was concerned there'd be a shock like that somewhere; you all can take care of him over there since it's safe."

"Right, although we may take him home soon if he wants," Fujiwara said. "We should continue the investigation, for his sake and to find out the truth there. Issachar, those photos might be disturbing, but would you collect them anyways? They might still tell us things."

"Sure," Issachar said, being more careful since the grouping was more careless, with the pins holding several photos in place. He checked the backs of the first couple. "Ah, I guess this is a list of symptoms? But why 'good' there? This is inhumane."

"Right," Fujiwara said, disturbed as well. "I reviewed some of the files from the Reds factory, this reminds me a bit of those."

"The dates on all these are the same," Flynn said, setting the photos he had in his inventory. "When is that relative to when you lost contact with this place?"

"That would be… around a year before we did, about eight years from now. Actually, could you take another look at the back of the one with all the kids on it? I noticed briefly that it had ages."

"The gauntlet might've recorded that," he said, checking through the inventory descriptions. And it had, listing Akira's age as eight.

"That makes him a little older than I suspected," Fujiwara said. "Although it makes sense given the severity of the situation in those later photos."

"And there's something else here," Flynn said, pointing out one of the photos still on the board. It had three people in it, seemingly friends. By them, there was a table that had some odd-looking foods on them. "I don't recognize all these fruits, but these white ones that look a bit like bread also look like the manna that's down in Tennozu."

"You're right, they've got that shape and size the same, compared to their hands," Issachar said, looking at the photo too.

"Huh, and that manna was a gift of heaven? From the angels."

"Yes, the ones in Tennozu were from Gabriel," Flynn said. "You could survive on them alone, just barely."

"Would you take that one too? They resemble some dumplings too, so it would help to manipulate the photo to get a better look."

"Al right," Flynn said, taking it. "Was there anything else of interest here? I found a keycard."

"There was another one of those weird little trees," Issachar said, pointing over to it on a counter. "Where should we go now? We could look for the researcher's work place, or figure out what would open up all the windows and shutters."

After a moment of thought, Fujiwara said, "Go back to the lobby and see about getting through the door labeled 'Greenhouse Floor'. It should be the largest space in the factory, which could house the window controls and help us figure out the layout of the building."

"Sounds good," Issachar said, so they headed that way.

The greenhouse was through one of the doors by the lobby. There was a prep room alongside the hall, leading to separate shower areas for the men and women. Alongside one wall, there was a wall of work suits that were a lot more than Mikado farmers would be wearing at work. Fujiwara called them sanitation suits, made to keep bacterias and such from going into the greenhouse or leaving it. However, they were all slashed and caked with dried sludge. A third odd bonsai was in the room too, resembling the other two.

Past a locked door that the lost keycard got them through, they found that the greenhouse was completely dark. Strange sounds could be heard, thick gurgles and splorchs from something falling in the sludge. With a light on their gauntlets, they located a switch panel that turned the lights on. This revealed a massive room that should have held immense steel shelves on giant pulleys that might rotate them underneath the glass ceiling and sunlamps.

However, all the factory equipment had been crushed and thrown aside to make way for a broad red-leaved tree that was coated in the poisonous sludge, constantly dripping it onto the floor below.

* * *

Last night, Nanashi hadn't slept well. He wasn't sure what it had been, or if it had really been someone or something trying to call him. It was a voice at the edge of his hearing, or his imagination. At one point, he had crept out of the room in Tsukiji Hongwangi and wandered around the halls for a while. He hadn't run into anyone else. But, he had stumbled across a terminal in their building, one that briefly puzzled him like it wasn't supposed to be there. Or maybe he'd just never found it in other times.

He'd been unnerved or tired, or both, but he'd gone to the operating panel thinking briefly about going back to Kinshicho. Maybe Toma would have some time to talk with him. Within the list of destinations, though, there had been an unexpected one: Minami Sunamichi. He didn't have that one registered, since he'd not reached there yet.

For a time he wasn't sure of, Nanashi had stared at that name, wondering if he should go himself. He was the only one who had any connections back there, and he had the spell that should protect him. He'd nearly gone too, even selected the name. But he canceled back out shortly after and managed to retrace his steps back to the room he was supposed to be sleeping in. The others had agreed to help them, it was better to wait even if something seemed to be calling him out there.

And it was good that he'd not left. His demonica wouldn't have warned him and he might have ended up asphyxiated right at the door. Rationally, he knew that he didn't need to be there. He just wanted to know the truth about what happened. That should mostly be in the computers and he might not even understand if he had that data. Despite that, Nanashi kept feeling like he should be there. Maybe there was some reason behind all these little nudges to get into the factory.

And then Issachar drew their attention to a set of photos that Flynn had overlooked so far, ones that showed the grim reality on whatever happened.

The bodies were sickening, putrid starved husks of life. Worse still, his hazy memories suddenly cleared up, as sharp as those that were constantly intruding his mind. The stench of death and living decay, the struggle of simultaneous intense nausea and hunger, the uncertainty of if a person before him was dead or alive… and the barrier. There had been some magical barrier around Minami that could be seen through and felt like a brick wall. Over the others near him, he heard adults in a desperate panic arguing with each other in a way that wouldn't solve anything.

And his old friends, the kids who had been in one of the other photos Flynn took… that photo made him recall their faces more vividly. Also their fearful tears, and the times they were all silent because it seemed pointless to waste energy. Then they were silent because no matter how strongly they wanted to survive, it was no longer an option to them. Yet somehow he survived.

There would be other signs of those desperate times in the factory.

That made Nanashi run away. Just out of the room, away from those monitors. Once out in the hall, he sat down and tried to push those memories away again. Those were things he didn't want to remember. If he could, he wanted to remember what happened in the other photos. What his parents were like beyond their last days, what else he might've played with those other kids. Why it all ended too, but that was better in distant facts, not vivid memories.

"Hey, Nanashi." Hallelujah crouched down by him, followed soon after by Toki. "Uh, you gonna be alright?"

"I don't know," he said, putting his arms around his knees. "I didn't want to remember that."

"Nobody would, I would think," Hallelujah said, then sat by him. "What was that?" Nanashi shook his head; that was what they were supposed to find out.

"Did you get ill like that?" Toki asked.

The question helped a bit with pushing the memories aside. "Maybe. I was really sick and starved when Toma brought me to Kinshicho, but it wasn't like that." Sighing, he lowered his head. "Maybe it's good we couldn't get in. But, I really wanted to go there. I'm not sure why; I'd only wanted the answers that other people could find before, but lately I keep feeling like I should go."

"I'm sure you still can go, once the place is aired out," someone else said, making him look up. It was Skins, probably come out to check on him too. "It's going to take a while to analyze the data we've gotten anyhow, especially if they find more intact computers over there. But we'll get someone good on it, so we'll find the answers in time."

"Thanks," Nanashi said, unsure if that was going to be enough. "I was thinking of going back to Kinshicho, actually. But Toki, weren't you trying to find something out too?"

"It's fine, I got an explanation of the methods I was looking for," she said. "I just need to practice them, which could be done anywhere. We can head back."

"Yeah, and I'm pretty much free to do whatever now," Hallelujah said, looking serious on saying that. They'd talked about it last night and he'd seemed unsure what to do after meeting his father. Maybe he'd figured something out. "I'll stick by you, that's better."

"Go on ahead, I'm sure Flynn will get the photos you want back to you," Skins said. "We have things covered here."

"Thanks," Nanashi said again, but he still felt like this wasn't enough.

After seeing the three kids to the terminal Skins got an alert on his phone warning him not to bring Nanashi back into the control room. There was no need to worry about that now, but he hurried back to see what had changed.


	77. Poisonous Trees

**Chapter 77: Poisonous Trees**

"What're these trees doing in here when there's no light or breathable air?" Issachar asked, glancing around. There were stairs heading down but the sludge looked deep here. He'd gotten a good look at one of the tiny ones, so he was pretty sure that they were alive.

"There's some science behind it, but I'm surprised there's no breathable air with the tree there," Fujiwara said. "Unless it's the reason for the toxic environment in more than just the sludge."

"Would this maintenance area be where we'd find the window controls?" Flynn asked, over by a sign on the wall.

"That'd make the most sense," Fujiwara said. "Can you get there?"

"As long as we don't need to go down to the lower floor," Flynn said. There were two entrances to the maintenance area, one that was half covered by the sludge. A walkway made of the metal grates brought them over to the upper entrance.

There was yet another of the trashy bonsai in here, but the only bit of sludge was what was spilling out of its pot. The demonica suits were somehow providing them with air, which made Issachar grateful that they couldn't smell what it was really like in here. From how stale the sludge outside smelled, it might be nauseating inside this factory. That would make him feel worse than he already did, but he'd already decided to work through this. They had promised Nanashi, after all. Although, Issachar hoped that he might have the option to do lighter work on days like this in the future.

At the window into the greenhouse, there was a large panel of controls along with an instruction book. That let them find the window and skylight controls, along with an air purifier. "So is the air in here going to be safe to let outside, or could it cause trouble?" Issachar asked as he looked up information on the air purifier.

"The readings from your demonicas indicate that the air has a disproportionate amount of carbon monoxide," Fujiwara said. "That's usually caused by using certain engines or machines within an airtight place. In this case, venting the building is a safe option. The molecules will change upon being released outside, but in such a way that plants can revert it to oxygen. At least, normal plants, not like those strange trees in there."

"That's good to know," Issachar said, moving back to the window and vent controls to open up the building.

The last parts they moved were the skylight covers. As the sunlight spilled in, something shrieked from the greenhouse room. A large bulge lifted out of the sludge and burst, releasing a demon in a white cloak. It pulled the hood down to look around; its head seemed human, but its body was pale, skeletally thin, and ravaged with sickly scars. If it wasn't floating there, one might think it would die soon.

"What demon is that?" Issachar asked as it turned from looking at the skylights. Flynn shrugged and it lifted a hand towards them.

They both ducked and got behind the panel before a shockwave shattered the window. "Close this building up now!" it demanded in a grating masculine voice.

'The demon has been identified as Enigma Pestilence,' Burroughs replied.

"This is Pestilence," Issachar said, since Flynn and Fujiwara wouldn't hear.

"I've not run into that demon before," Flynn said, some concern in his voice.

"The demonicas should make you more resistant to ailments, which I'd guess Pestilence should have in spades," Fujiwara said. "I can get it analyzed here; try to stall a battle starting until we've got that."

"Close the building!" Pestilence demanded again.

"What for?" Issachar called back without leaving cover.

"Because I'm the master of this area," he replied. "You either close back up or answer me this: what happened to the last survivor? He was here with you before, I sensed him returning."

"Who are you talking about?" Issachar asked, glancing at Flynn.

"We should defeat it before it can find him," Flynn whispered; it came in over the suit's speakers.

"Some child, I know his soul," Pestilence said. "You are going to kill my precious tree here with all that sunlight, I hope you know. It's from the Abyss; it can't take the sun."

"What's a tree from the Abyss doing here?" Issachar asked.

"Because the humans here were trying to grow it when the Firmament was in place."

"Nanashi's gone back to Kinshicho," Fujiwara told them. Meanwhile, Flynn was creeping towards the door, likely to find a good place to react if Pestilence got violent.

Since the windows were broken and he'd have a decent shot, Issachar stayed put and kept talking with the demon. "We figured they were trying to grow plants, but from the Abyss? How'd they get it?"

"Don't ask me, I wasn't the one who got the sapling and seeds to them," Pestilence said, sounding like he was still in the same location. "Might've been a demon, or it might've been some foolish human who managed to get that far. Once they had them sprouted, some demons came to investigate and told them that they didn't have a chance at succeeding."

"But that tree and all the tiny ones are around," Issachar said.

"The bonsai are my creations," Pestilence said, now sounding proud of himself. "And I suppose they did get the tree going, as well as a bunch of other plants of the Abyss before I got here. The investigators eventually told the humans that they owed us repayment for the plants. Initially, they made a pretty generous offer too: they said they'd forgive the debt if the humans summoned the true Ishtar as their goddess.

"But the humans were foolish, claiming that they owed nothing to us. They said that it was their work that had produced the plants and fruits, that they hadn't taken anything from demons to do so. Such a blatant lie. When it became clear that they weren't going to summon Ishtar, I was given lordship of Minami Sunamichi instead and could choose the price they would pay. But a lone child escaped my rule and didn't even spread a disease that I could take advantage of. That child is my vassal and I want him back. The full price has not been extracted as long as he is loose. So where is he?"

Issachar brought up one of his guns and looked over at Flynn. He'd gotten over to the side of the door. Glancing back, Flynn nodded and went through the doorway. "We'll not tell you that," he said.

Getting up quickly, Issachar shot at Pestilence while the white demon screeched and tried to hit Flynn with globs of sludge. Pestilence stayed out over the sludge, moving back to get out of Issachar's line of sight. Flynn was still able to hit across the room with his spells; Issachar moved out of the maintenance room to join him. From the magarudyne that Pestilence threw at them, he was quite strong in magic too.

Fujiwara reported over the radio, "Pestilence is weak to fire, as we might expect. He nulls ice, expel, and curse, along with resisting physical and gun attacks. He also reflects wind and has some unique skills. From the names, I suspect he has ways to be dangerous at range and close up."

"If I use fire, I can almost guarantee that it will anger him," Flynn said. "But it could be necessary. You ready?"

His maragidyne would certainly catch the tree on fire. "Sure."

"Hang on a moment," Fujiwara said. "The composition in the air there could make the building explode if you use fire or electric magic. That's more of a concern than just angering the demon."

"It would be," Flynn said. "Then…"

"He doesn't seem to have much health," Fujiwara added. "But if he is too much trouble, you may need to get him away from the factory or come back when most of the building is vented."

"Let's do what we can," Issachar said. Flynn still had his powerful non-elemental magic and while Pestilence resisted guns, they still worked. They had to be careful with what other demons they summoned, but they did outnumber him.

Just when it seemed they had Pestilence down, the demon dropped completely into the sludge. The sickly slime gathered up at a spot in front of the tree, including what was on the tree itself. After lifting up as a sphere, it burst inward to reveal Pestilence again. Issachar's vision then went violet as the demon blasted them with magic resembling the sludge. It made him feel even worse than it already did.

Thankfully, one of Flynn's demons was able to heal them up and remove the sickness curse. Issachar's vision cleared up and he saw that the factory had not a speck of the sludge in it. It looked grungy, just not as bad as before. Then Fujiwara said, "Interesting, he can heal from absorbing the sludge. It might be worthwhile…"

Now that he was closer, it was clear that Pestilence's face was also pale and thin, the kind of thing that got called a haunting beauty. "Then, you two are survivors as well."

"What do you mean?" Issachar asked.

"Survivors of pestilence that killed off so many others," Pestilence said, reminding him about that severe illness back in Kiccigiorgi, one that Flynn had barely survived. Issachar hadn't even fallen ill to it despite helping to care for those who did. "I hate survivors. I perform my arts to bring humanity down to its knees and no matter how much I think I've perfected something, there's always survivors. But that doesn't make you invincible! I can destroy anyone!"

"But we can find ways our ancestors fought you and make those better with time," Issachar replied.

"No you can't!" Pestilence screamed, his eyes cold with hate. "I evolved my viruses and bacteria to counter your medications and cleaners! And I have long known how to turn your own bodies against you! I am not just lord of this area, I am a master over humanity! I am an agent of Death and I will slaughter what life remains!"

The demon was more aggressive now, sticking closer to attack quicker than before. Fujiwara and Skins seemed to be discussing something that the radio barely caught while he and Flynn were focused on the battle. But just as Pestilence seemed almost defeated again, he fled the factory. "Did he get into another area of the factory?" Issachar asked.

"He might have," Fujiwara said. "However, we think it may be useful to keep letting him go. We've been having trouble getting that sludge under control ever since it showed up. If Pestilence will take care of it himself, then we might be able to push him into cleaning up the city for us by fighting him repeatedly."

"We'll have to keep Nanashi under guard and away from the sludged areas," Skins added. "If he's going to stay in Kinshicho for a while, that won't be a problem."

"I hope he stays safe," Flynn said.

"Yeah, me too," Issachar said. "For now, I think we should make sure that the building is entirely vented out, and keep sticking together in case Pestilence is still here. Then we can figure out how to take care of this tree since it's producing the sludge. Hopefully the sun is enough to kill it."

"Right," Fujiwara said. "We should also find the research area and see if we can't get into their computers too. Pestilence's account matches what occurred, but we'd best get another source. Meanwhile, we'll keep an eye on the cameras around the city to see if the demon drains another area."

By the time that they got all the windows and doors opened, along with downloading more information from research computers, Pestilence had been spotted in the far western part of the city. Since people rarely went that way, he and Flynn had to go chase it down. But it wasn't wise to leave Pestilence alone, even if it was taking care of the sludge for them.

* * *

Research ID: C-328 Momoko

Password: akiraGradius

Report ABY-8570

Subject: Abyssal Rust Manna Tree

We had replicated the growing conditions noted in the Abyss where the samples were initially gathered, but the valuable Tree of Manna would still not grow. While we have gotten other abyssal plants to produce edible fruits and vegetables, the manna tree should be the most productive and nutritionally valuable. What nutritional lacking that the manna reportedly has, we should be able to make up with in modern agricultural technology. But first we needed to get it to grow.

We finally got a Tree of Manna to grow by grafting it with the red-leafed tree that the demons call a Rust Tree. The Rust Tree only produces barely edible fruit, so we will have to carefully test any results before attempting to eat it. If it is safe, then we should have a means to stabilize food resources in Tokyo with the manna. But it would be much preferred if we could get the Tree of Manna to grow on its own. The investigators reported that there had been a Tree of Manna growing in the Abyss alongside the other plants they gathered, thus we should be able to grow it without access to sunlight. With the graft, we need to be concerned with other plants growing around it as the Rust Tree apparently withers under the sun.

Report ABY-8882

Subject: Manna production and Ishtar

The Abyssal Rust Manna Tree is growing exceedingly well and has already begun producing manna. All tests indicate that the manna is safe to eat; it hardly tastes like anything to me, although Ari and some of the children insist that it tastes like mushrooms and rice. But it is food and has been making others around here more cheerful and energetic. There has been some strange residue coming from the bark that is poisonous, so we need to clean the greenhouse twice a day now. I feel like we should attempt a different graft now, although I've given a Tree of Manna seed some manure made from the other abyssal plants to try that. It has now sprouted, albeit it isn't growing as fast as the Rust Tree. As grafted trees can revert or change over time, I feel we need the alternative.

But it is nice to see everyone being more hopeful now, especially the children. Akira came by and tried to beat my score on the Gradius machine in the break area; he did pretty well and I might need to be concerned now about having my name bumped off the top position there if he keeps practicing. He wanted to try some other games, so yes, I did go searching back over the internet archives to find some for him. I know I should be teaching him other skills in order to survive with Tokyo how it is now. But still, I can't help but smile seeing him have fun and we can't always be serious.

As for the other demons who came in and rose a ruckus, we should question the Ashura-kai investigators who got the plants and seeds for us about if they've left out anything about the sources for these. The demons might want to pay for something imaginary. I'm fairly sure that Ishtar is a goddess of the harvest as they claim. However, I recall a conversation with a friend more into mythology from a long time ago, that Ishtar could be like a flighty horny teenager who cursed mortals on the flimsiest of reasons as well as be a benevolent beautiful goddess. I don't think that she will help us as much as they claim, plus they want us to sacrifice a woman to become Ishtar's new body along with hunting down those powerful demons to reclaim the goddess's spirit (or so they say).

Unless the Ashura-kai didn't give us all the information about these plants, I recommend refusing the demons' demands. Even if there are problems, I wouldn't want Ishtar to be summoned in that manner.

Report ABY-9004

Subject: Rust Tree Reversion

This report is being made remotely since the factory is too dangerous to enter since that horrible plague struck down so many. I can tell that the lobby is full of the same sludge that's streaming through the streets as no clean-up has been done for weeks. Thankfully, the alarms in the factory were still going; it seems there's dangerous levels of carbon monoxide inside. It seems odd since the old generators would be the prime suspect in that, but they haven't been turned on since Tokyo turned its power supply over to the Yamato Reactor.

I want to go in to check on the tree as I believe that it must have reverted back to the Abyssal Rust Tree, or something about the graft has made it produce this sludge in these quantities. My colleagues and I were fairly certain that some poisonous qualities must have gotten back into the manna that we were using for food. While we kept testing them, the demons may have tampered with the test. Especially this Pestilence who has been creeping through the town, watching us slowly perish with a smug satisfaction. But no one was strong enough to fight him, from the plague and from the sudden lack of safe food and clean water. I keep freezing up thinking of the things I've seen recently.

I feel like some report should be made at this time. The barrier around town is finally gone. However, there's a large mass of the sludge outside that we'd have to trek through to get to another town. Something is keep the demons away still, strangely. There hasn't been a large number of them since the assault early on in the plague. At the time, I did see many of the demons fall ill to the plague as well. Perhaps they are keeping away from Pestilence. Those of us who are left don't have the strength to escape Minami Sunamichi right now, and of course the Ashura-kai has the terminal on lockdown.

There aren't many of us left: myself, Akira, Ikuba, Min, and Jen. Although the latter two have fallen ill again and might die in a few hours from the looks of things, and Ikuba has been talking about fighting demons again. Pestilence has been telling us that it's our own fault for messing with the Abyssal plants. I don't think it's that easy to blame us. We've been working on this for years and continued our standards of testing for food and environment safety. It is true that we don't know as much about these plants from the Abyss, but I still feel it was an acceptable risk if we had been left alone. The big problems have all been incited and encouraged by Pestilence and that group of demons who claimed to be investigating. They heeded none of our discussions, making relentless and impatient demands. They remind me of loan sharks. Depending on what the Ashura-kai actually did to get us the plants, that might be the truth of things. What we did didn't deserve wiping us all out with such cruelty, especially not the children.

I still want to know what's really going on in the factory now. But more than that, I find myself hoping that at least my son will survive and get rescued. I wish all the children could have survived; we all wanted a better life for them, perhaps even a time when we broke out of the Firmament and out of the control of demons. We did all we could and yet everyone perished for it.

It used to be said that life was just unfair, but this is a level of unfairness that is incomprehensible. Why did all these demons emerge so suddenly and decide that humanity was unfit to survive anymore? Who could ever think this level of disproportionate retribution was fair and just? We weren't given any chance at redemption, at least none that I've heard of. This is all so insane, and yet it is reality.

Yet I still have hope that there is a better future out there we can reach. There's something about Akira that makes me think that way. Maybe it's just because he's my son and I hope that he can succeed where I failed. If I can focus for long enough, I'm going to try cracking the terminal's security. We may have to be quarantined because of Pestilence, but if we get some kind of assistance, we should be able to survive. I hope that is so.

* * *

By the courtyard in the family manor, Jonathan's family had a training yard to keep up their reputation as a strong line of samurai. The equipment there primarily focused on swords since that was the style they passed on from generation to generation. Today, he came across his father teaching his son in that style. Adam was practicing the motions with a wooden practice sword while Mark watched on and made sure he was doing them correctly. Jonathan thought that he should have been doing this. Then again, he was missing around seven years in their lives and his father had had a lot more experience when he'd started training him.

But he could do something. "Mind if I join in?" he asked, taking a practice sword off the rack.

"Sure," Adam said, eager to be working with him. Jonathan smiled at him.

"Don't strain yourself too much," Mark said, also smiling. "But since your energy is back, you should get in some exercise. Adam, how about you try to get a hit on him?"

"Sure, I won't hit too hard," Adam said.

"Well, do your best," Jonathan said, preparing to defend and block him where he could.

Adam had good strength for a child, but he was just starting with his drills and lessons. It was also a familiar style, so Jonathan was able to read him easily and stop his strikes from connecting. Unfortunately, he found that he wasn't able to move as quickly as he should because his chest would hurt around the scar. It turned out fine because Adam didn't think to sidestep or outmaneuver him. Once he had his drills down, then such actions could be taught and encouraged.

When one of the blocks knocked Adam out of a good stance, Jonathan swiftly poked at his exposed shoulder with the tip of his practice sword. "Got you."

"Aw, I was trying," Adam said, getting his stance back.

"Maybe another time," Jonathan said, lowering his sword. "Sorry, it's still hard for me to breathe sometimes."

"Your form's still good," Mark said, then patted Adam's shoulder. "And you're doing fine. You still have another ten years of training ahead of you."

"All right, grandfather," he said.

Excusing himself as he had another class to teach, Mark left and they took care of setting things away. Jonathan felt better once his breathing calmed down. On making sure that Adam didn't have any homework to do, he offered to go on a walk with him around the city. Adam was still wound up and moved all around while telling him about his lessons, games he'd played with friends, and other things that interested him.

They sat down in Aquila Plaza on seeing some of the older samurai practicing as well. They were also talking about the upcoming tournament, something Jonathan was curious to see. As he was thinking that, Adam asked him, "What's it like fighting demons?"

"Well I can talk with you about it," Jonathan said. "Your grandfather couldn't when he was training me. But, no matter how much you practice, the demons can take you by surprise and feel like they're overwhelming to fight. Demons don't fight fairly; some do whatever it takes to win while others go wild just because they're fighting. Even those who say they fight with honor may be fighting with an honor that you are unfamiliar with."

"That sounds tough," Adam said.

"It is. But that's why you've got to practice your swordsmanship continually. With enough practice, you'll be able to adapt to different situations quicker because you don't have to think about how to fight. You'll know what to do."

Adam had more questions for him, of course. While they were discussing about the samurai, Flynn and Issachar came out of the terminal. "Hello, mind if I join you?" Issachar asked, looking tried.

"Sure, go ahead," Jonathan said while Adam hopped off the bench to sit on the ground.

"I shouldn't be long," Flynn said. He seemed tired too.

"Did you two have a rough day?" Jonathan asked as Flynn headed off, probably to report in to Hope.

"Yeah," Issachar said, sitting on the bench by him. "We were searching an abandoned part of Tokyo and ran into a demon called Pestilence."

"Who's that?" Adam asked.

"Pestilence is the manifestation of every disease that's ever been," Issachar explained. "And he could heal himself with a poison sludge that was in many places around Tokyo. He kept fleeing from us to find more of it, so we had to chase him all over the city to finally beat him. The first battle was the most challenging, but then he got really evasive to magic."

"The first battle against a demon is usually the hardest," Jonathan said, partly because Adam was listening with interest. "You normally don't know what strategies work best on them."

"We had some help with Pestilence," he said. "But he had an ideal location for him in the first encounter. See, he was weak to fire and resisted all but lightning besides that. We first met him inside a factory," Adam seemed confused, so Issachar explained, "a place where people used to make many things with machines. Pestilence had set up the building so that it was entirely closed up and would explode if we used any fire or lightning magic. We had to fight patiently there."

"Did you end up getting sick because you were fighting a sickness demon?" Adam asked.

Issachar nodded. "Many times, but it was magical illnesses that we could cure with magic. We'll still need to watch our health for a few days, also if he shows up again because he was really strong. But if he does, it could be the last time since he doesn't have any more sludge to heal with."

"Hopefully he stays away since I'm sure he'd cause all kinds of illnesses in people," Jonathan said. "It'd put a damper on the tournament coming up." Among other more concerning matters, but he didn't want to alarm Adam.

"We don't want everybody to get sick," Adam said. "Are you gonna be in the tournament?"

"Yes, I plan to," Issachar said. "Flynn's still thinking about it, and I might represent the town we're living in now."

"But you're a samurai, so shouldn't you represent Mikado?" Adam asked.

"Well they know we samurai are from Mikado," Issachar said. "And there is some renown that we could earn for the towns we represent. We're staying in Tennozu now and the people there have been ignored for a long time, even though they were in deep trouble. We're helping them now, and winning the tournament for them could help them more. If I didn't represent them, they wouldn't have anyone who could compete for them."

"Remember, a samurai is to help the people," Jonathan said to Adam. Maybe it would help Issachar too. "It doesn't matter if they're Luxurors or Casualry, and it doesn't matter if they're from Mikado or Tokyo. If they need help, a samurai will help them however they can."

"Oh, Mikado has a lot of samurai," Adam said, thinking aloud. "So there's a lot of people who could represent Mikado. But to help the people who don't have a lot of protectors, you're gonna go with them."

"That's right, and inspire them and others to help out too," Issachar said. "When it's closer to time, I'll discuss it more with Hope and other samurai."

"But if Father were to be in the tournament, he'd be a challenge for you," Adam said.

"Right, I think so too," Issachar said with a smile.

Chuckling, Jonathan said, "They hold these tournaments every year as I hear, so next year, I can take part too. I would like to see how well I could do competing as a summoner."

"You could come to one of the competitions in Tokyo, since they hold them in stadiums," Issachar suggested.

"That would be fun," Jonathan said, getting quick agreement with Adam. Being in next year's tournament would be a good goal to reach for.

* * *

When they got back to Tennozu, there was more cheerful noise than usual. A girl ran into him. "Oh, sorry lady," she said.

"It's fine," Issachar said. "Aren't you one of the kids from Roppongi?"

"Yeah!" she said. She and the other kids looked better than before, in cleaner clothes. "But we're gonna stay here now."

The boy who'd been playing around too stopped by them. "Yup, cause they found my mom here. But I wanted to be with my friends, so I convinced their mom to come here too."

"Hey, are you the one they've been saying tells great stories around here?" the girl said. "Can you tell us some?"

He felt tired, but they were so eager. "Maybe one tonight," he said, smiling and trying to brush aside his weariness. "We've been doing a lot of work today, but I can tell you a little something tonight. What are you interested in?"

"Something funny!" she said quickly.

"All right, I know some funny stories," he said. This might not be quite where their plans had intended to go, but it was improving things for these people. That was good reason to stay here.

 _A/N: Pestilence here originally took some inspiration from White Rider from Good Omens, since he isn't Conquest there. It shows in some of his description and how he has some correlation with the Riders despite not being one here. But he took on a style of his own too while I was writing him. I still think that Good Omens could be an alternate SMT verse despite the difference in media, one more on the optimistic scale of things._


	78. Akihabara Labyrinth

**Chapter 78: Akihabara Labyrinth**

The halls of Akihabara always seemed energetic and colorful thanks to those who lived there. Today, though, there was a different energy around. Hunters and samurai had gathered from all over to help out on today's mission; there were even a few with the red and gold uniforms of the Ring of Gaea, although signs of the Ashura-kai were conspicuously missing. They were chatting with each other, with friends they hadn't seen in a while and those they'd not met before. "From this place alone, the future seems promising," Nozomi said quietly.

"It certainly does," Danu said, in a way that she'd only hear. "These peoples together cooperating to clean up this town, it's a stark contrast to the angels and demons declaring a war to end all wars."

"Although it does make me worry what they'll end up doing because most people seem disinterested in such wars right now," she said.

As it wasn't yet time for the official meting, Nozomi joined the crowd, greeting friends and thinking over who she might team up with. She spotted Nanashi, Hallelujah, Toki, and Gaston all over in one corner, chatting with each other. Maybe she should join them; they were all skilled, but they were also all kids. Nozomi was certain that Fujiwara wouldn't send them on one of the more difficult domains, but it couldn't hurt for them to have an adult around as support.

Issachar was in that area too, with a good number of people listening in on him. "See, it doesn't matter if you were chosen by some higher authority or not, because you can always choose yourself to make a difference. It is a tough duty to follow and sometimes you just need to do little mundane missions from day to day. But if you don't follow your chosen duty, then many people who can't battle demons will find daily life an ordeal of survival and temptation. It doesn't mean that they're worthless, no. But you can become their guardian so that they can use their skills to make a difference too. With everyone working together how they're each suited to, we can take back even the world from those who care nothing for humanity."

"Of course, that's how things should be," Nozomi said as others around started to agree.

"Oh, hello Nozomi," Issachar said, smiling as she came out of the crowd. "We were just discussing some things before the meeting started."

"Might as well," she said. "Is Flynn going to be joining us too?"

He shook his head. "No, some friends of ours are going to a meeting that could turn dangerous. He went along to make sure they're safe. He wanted to help out here, though, so the two of us scouted out various domains yesterday to get a better idea of how they're connected. Then I got registered for the tournament and should be here as part of that, but he's signed up to be a part of stadium security to make sure the demons don't overtake the crowd with their wishes."

"If he's doing that, then I'm sure there'll be no need to worry over the crowd going berserk," Nozomi said, partly so her confidence reassured others. "I'm not going to be in the tournament, but clearing out these domains is going to help me secure a new source of film and camera accessories. It's the right thing to do too, in helping out the locals, so why would I not be here?"

"Right, and doing this could uncover more ways of making lost technology," Issachar said, excited at that prospect. "Of course, much of it is still mystical wonders to me and others from Mikado. They seem like they'd make life a lot better, though, if we could get the older citizens to accept such artifacts."

"Is this kind of thing really mystical to you guys?" a man in the crowd asked, amused at the idea.

"Yes, very much so," Issachar said without being embarrassed to admit so. "I was illiterate for much of my life, and so was a majority of people in Mikado. And we could barely understand how things like lights and the gauntlets worked, in part because the angels who controlled us strictly limited what technology we had and how much we could learn about anything. However, I've learned that humans are naturally curious and seek to understand the world around them. It's better to learn the truth of things rather than simply accept them as magic, because then we can be in control of technology instead of it or other beings controlling us."

In her mind, Nozomi heard Danu said, "He has an earnest charisma that's infectious, and a confidence that can inspire those who hear him. I have a feeling that even those who might be prejudiced because he appears as a woman would let him lead if he took charge."

"Given how positive he is, I'm sure that'll be a good thing," Nozomi responded quietly.

Still thinking that it might be best for her to help the kids out, she excused herself and headed over to speak with them.

* * *

Hikaru was certain that the Demifiend would have some important insight into the state of the world. Also that he had already gone and released the true Lucifer, who would also be a valuable source of information if his stolen identity didn't interfere with his memories. But while that was important to know, she also knew that without Lucifer's identity, her focus was unreliable (even if it was getting better). It was very important to research what was going on, including interrogating those involved. That was something she felt she should be doing even if she didn't always feel like working.

To help with that, she had pestered Merkabah into coming along to interrogate the Demifiend and Lucifer. Not that it took much. As the Heart of Law, Merkabah's sense of responsibility was greatly serious. She also had a serious sense of being some impartial judge, so the idea was to her liking. But being here at Ichigaya, Merkabah had her lips drawn tight and her swords shifting as if being ready to draw. "This place making you uncomfortable?" Hikaru asked her.

"It is a powerful focus of Chaos now," Merkabah said, clasping her fingers together. "It blurs the boundary between the Earth and the Abyss. And yet…"

"Yet what?" Jonathan asked. He'd come in on them discussing this meeting and had been curious enough to want to come along. Since he still wasn't in shape to be fighting and they were meeting with at least two powerful beings today, Walter and Flynn soon agreed to come. They were not only here out of curiosity, but also out of wanting to keep their friend safe. Isabeau had also been interested, but it was certain now that she was with child. It seemed unwise then to bring her along to meet with a manifestation of Death.

"There's a streak of human will here too," Merkabah explained. "Don't you feel it, Hikaru? It's not as obvious, but it guides the feeling of power here."

"Hmm, guess so," she said, tilting her head. Magic was powerful here where the Yamato Reactor was, so the sense of being near the Abyss was clear. But as she said, there was an element of human will, such as had once permeated this city. "But the Demifiend is supposedly one of the humans who moved beyond humanity by Lucifer's guidance. He probably hasn't left his humanity entirely behind."

"That would fit with how I've spoken to him before," Flynn said.

"I feel very out of place here, but it will have to be endured," Merkabah said.

At the door, a Ym acted as a physical blockade. "What's to do with strangers?" it asked.

Knowing the others wouldn't understand the guard demon, Hikaru moved ahead of the group. "Hi bud, we before set to now speak to Demifiend today!" she said with a smile. "We allow to go in, yes?"

The Ym flicked a tentacle at her; she blocked with her arm and made it clear that she wasn't going to put up with it messing around. "I hear," it said. "Possibly, high possibly, you be guests. Go forward, to left, one door." It then moved aside and opened one of the doors for them.

"Gratitude be to you," Hikaru said, bowing to it. "Okay, we're in."

"What was that gibberish?" Walter asked.

"An eldritch language that can drive those who try to learn it insane," she explained as they went inside. "Unless you're already a bit eldritch yourself. Or you can just get that Demolingual app and it'll translate without a direct chance of going mad."

"Demons like that can still be a headache to communicate with," Flynn said.

Hikaru led them to where the Ym had directed, into a parlor that seemed like a good place for a chat. The Demifiend was there playing chess with a demon of an uncertain aura, the latter disguised as a fairly normal but attractive man. Also in the room was a demon in the form of a young girl. "Oh, hi Mr. Flynn!" the girl said, coming over to hug him.

"Hello, Alice," he said, patting her back.

"Ah, so you did come," the Demifiend said, then quietly pardoned himself from the game. "In accordance to your request, I acknowledge that this is to be a peaceful discussion."

"Sure enough," Hikaru said.

"Yes, there is much to be sorted out before actions can be made," Merkabah said, formal as always. She could tease her about, but there wasn't a point here.

"I know of you three samurai, Flynn, Walter, and Jonathan," the Demifiend said. "Then, you should be the Heart of Chaos."

"Yeah, but I'm currently going by Hikaru," she said.

"And you're the Heart of Law," he went on. The unnamed demon briefly glanced over at them and for a moment, things were tense with only the verbal agreement keeping the peace.

Fortunately, Merkabah remained calm and nodded. "Yes, but I am currently investigating questionable circumstances in the world. All things should be examined in impartiality until there is enough understanding to make a judgment. Therefore, I intend to speak with you fairly as long as no harm comes to my allies."

"I would expect that given your true nature," the Demifiend said. "That is agreeable?"

Alice was already not paying attention to the meeting, instead going back to drawing with crayons on the floor. The unnamed being turned his attention back to the chessboard, rearranging the pieces to some puzzle. "That is fair."

"I've only arrived recently, but I spent some time gathering information myself," the Demifiend said. "What would you like to know?"

"Perhaps more than you know, but it seems prudent to seek an outsider's perspective," Merkabah said.

Feeling bored already, Hikaru listened for a couple minutes, then went over to join Alice in drawing things. She could still pay attention to the others like this.

* * *

Out of the noisy crowd, Asahi called over, "Hey guys! Oh, hi Gaston!"

"Hello Asahi, good to see you again," Gaston said, nodding to her.

"Did you get in with the support team?" Nanashi asked. It was different taking missions without her, although he felt glad that she found other things to be enthusiastic about. She'd be safe.

Asahi rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but I'm mostly going to be running errands for the medical team as an assistant, probably not as a medic directly unless things get really bad. Although, the doctor here was interested in seeing what the medical training in the education database was like, once things aren't hectic. They were relieved to find out that it is available, so maybe later I can get some job training here too."

"This mission is taking a lot of people working together, so everyone involved is helping to make it more successful," Toki said, echoing what they'd heard Issachar talking about earlier.

"I hope it does get rid of these domains for good," someone else said. It was Nozomi, with a different aura to her today. "Hey, good to see you all here."

"Hi Nozomi," Nanashi said, smiling briefly at her. "Did something about you change? You seem different."

"Actually, it has," she said. "The fairy clan of demons doesn't want to be involved in all the fighting and so they've retreated to their own place. As a part of that, I'm helping them out as their queen."

"Oh, that's so cool," Asahi said. "Does that mean you have fairy powers now?"

"Of course," Nozomi said. "Although, indoors isn't the best place to demonstrate them. And even though the fairies themselves don't want to fight if they don't have to, I want to see this area cleared of domains too, so here I am. Is that the same for you?"

Nanashi nodded. "Right, we're not old enough to be in the tournament. But we wanted to prove ourselves."

"It's the same with me," Gaston said. "I wanted to be more active helping out, and now that my brother has a good amount to trust across Tokyo, he doesn't need my assistance as a guard anymore. But when I showed up here, these guys were the ones I knew best."

"Even so, Fujiwara wanted us to have an adult with our group, just in case," Nanashi said. "Nozomi, would you help us out with that? We won't hold you back."

She smiled warmly at them. "I'm sure of that, so of course, I'd like to join your team. But if you're looking to be challenged, know that I'm not going to baby you. I'll just make sure we don't tackle something far stronger than we can handle."

"Sure, that's fine," Nanashi said, glad it worked out this way. There had been a few Hunters from Kinshicho that came to help with the Akihabara domains, but those Hunters didn't trust their abilities like Nozomi did. And he knew Gaston was a good fighter too. Between the five of them, they might make a name for themselves today.

An alert came to their phones and demonicas to head to the main station hall for a meeting. Normally that wasn't done, since the main hall was ground level and less secure than the underground paths. But in this case, there were so many people that it'd get even more crowded in the town halls. The alert also came with a request for teams to be set up, with the option to be sorted randomly if needed. As the adult with them, Nozomi set up registering them as a team, then led them upstairs.

Fujiwara was out there, with a megaphone today. Nanashi felt a bit lost in this crowd and stuck close to his friends. When the leader of the Hunters spoke, they couldn't really see him. "Thanks for coming today, for a mission that truly is overdue. We're here to unknot the labyrinth of domains spread across the Akihabara area, to help the town here be safer and to regain access to a large supply of technological and cultural goods.

"From records and scouting missions done over the past couple of weeks, we have determined that in this area, there is one central domain in the electronics superstore that opens up and controls the rest. However, the master of the central domain keeps their area sealed off through the power of the other domain masters. We are unsure if all or only some of the other domain masters need to be eliminated to open up the central domain. However, we are sure that when one of outer domains is taken out, it's only a matter of days or even hours that a new weak domain will open up as part of the seal.

"Our plan today is to send a large number of groups in to clear out the outer domains at once, in order to open up the seal on the central domain. Myself and a support team will observe your progress as well as the remaining domain structures, then assign your teams to another domain based on your proven effectiveness. The rest of the support team is confirming what combat teams we have, sending each participant a map of the area that includes locations for the medical and supply teams, and assigning each of you an outer domain to begin with according to your combat records. Be warned that some of these domains have already proven to be a challenge, with lasting injuries resulting from clearing them out. Sometimes these injuries are quite serious, so don't hesitate to get assistance should problems arise.

"Once you have your assignment and the map, head on out to complete your missions. I wish you all good luck and hope that we can finally end this danger for good."

During a round of calls of confidence and cheers, the first assignments got sent out. They were being sent out to the side streets in order to clear out a domain that had been confirmed to block access to several others closer to the electronics superstore. Nanashi was pretty sure they wouldn't be sent into the central domain itself; there were plenty of older and more experienced Hunters and samurai that could handle it better. Still, he hoped that they did well enough to be noticed.

* * *

In spite of his reputation, the Demifiend was quite civil today. The furnishings he had were relatively mundane aside from appearance and were apparently comfortable for the humans to use, unlike most demons who might use furniture to subtly make humans uncomfortable or off-guard. He even offered them some tea and overlooked a check to make sure that it was safe. Although given who had trained him, perhaps it shouldn't be much of a surprise that he was adept at making others feel comfortable. Merkabah still felt out of place, but the civility helped take some edge off it.

"Since you are an outsider to this world, what is your knowledge on the history of it?" she asked him after a few simpler questions.

"I have a general knowledge of the past century, at least in relations to Tokyo," he said. "Before that point, it seems it was a standard mundane world of the information age of technology. Humans had grown distant from magic and gods, seeking truth in science and their own merit instead. As is the standard of mundane worlds, there was a multitude of religions and beliefs still in practice, of a wide range of tolerances. Still, God or gods were unseen and it was up to humans to hold each other accountable."

"That's what you know as the standard?" Merkabah asked.

He nodded. "I've been to many worlds before. When I find one of a mundane character of that cultural age, that's generally what I find."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Walter said.

"Often that age comes with a belief that humans can do with the planet and its resources as they wish," the Demifiend said. "That can cause serious environmental and social problems, so it is not a world character without fault. In this world as in others, environmental and social unrest can lead the re-emergence of demons. It could be the world striking back, or it could be outcasts seeking to correct an imbalance of power.

"In the case of this world, it seems to be around eighty years ago that the emergence of demons started building steam. And seventy-eight years ago, this showed up." He called out a paper flier and passed it over. "This was the founding of the Church of the Messiah, also known as the Mesian religion."

"What is their significance?" Merkabah asked, taking the flier and glancing over it. In her hands, the text had a familiar aura of deeply hidden hatred with a pleasant surface. She offered it to Jonathan to check out next. "There were a multitude of religions at the time, I have found evidence for that as well. Why does this one matter?"

"Because they're trouble no matter what world they emerge on," the Demifiend said seriously. "They are linked to a malicious face of God that is one of my true enemies. They bear a warped vision of Law in which free will itself is condemned as a root of evil. And wherever they show up, a counter-group known as the Gaeans also show up with a warped vision of Chaos. They've gathered in a multitude of forms, sometimes even before the Mesians arrive. But one thing that nearly always occurs is that once the two groups exist, they drag the world into a destructive cycle of war that often leads to the world's ruin, or else to a stagnation of warped Law or Chaos that degrades humanity. Once humanity is extinguished on a world, however, spiritual beings like demons, angels, and even gods also become extinguished because there are no humans to acknowledge them."

"Then it's not actually a natural state of a world to have such a destructive cycle?" Flynn asked. He would have unusual knowledge of this cycle, given his memory.

"For now, let's say that I'm not in a position to say something concrete about how natural or unnatural this all is," the Demifiend said. "It is something that can be triggered by outside influences due to the existence of Amala. Or put more simply, heaven and hell are not strictly tied to one world or another; they have their own existences. That is something you should be aware of."

"That does sound familiar," Merkabah said. "So you believe the arrival of the Church of the Messiah was significant. What else in history of the past century stands out to you?"

"There were many conflicts, of course, but the significant turn that occurred which would eventually lead me here was a smaller conflict, one between Lucifer and the herald Michael." He shook his head. "Much of it is still unclear because I cannot question Michael and Lucifer's memory seems to be lacking of that particular incident. The result are fairly certain: Lucifer lost that battle and as a result, his identity was stripped from him and his remaining spirit was sealed deep within the Abyss, in a frozen land that few venture into. Shortly after," he gestured over to where Hikaru was now drawing with Alice, "she showed up with Lucifer's identity and most demons believed her. However, I don't believe she can recall what happened at that time either."

"Nope," Hikaru replied. "I kind of recall meeting up with Lucifuge in the area, but my memories don't clear up until a few weeks after that."

"There is something curious I heard, something I have yet to confirm," the Demifiend said. "Around the time of that battle, Satan was seen in the world." He shrugged. "They must not have been obvious, but my experience suggests that Satan may have been wandering around observing in a lesser form, or perhaps even multiple forms. Their appearance often precedes God in some form bringing about a significant change in the world, sometimes even the world's end at the hands of Satan if their judgment deems that is the best course of action."

That was an interesting thing to hear, also something that she hadn't considered. Then Hikaru had to pipe in with, "Satan is also capable of judging anything, even up to God Himself. So while Satan is a tool of God, they are a dangerous one to wield."

"If we could find them, then Satan would be a valuable resource on what has gone on in this world," Merkabah said.

The Demifiend nodded. "Yes, they would be. I don't mind wishing you good luck in finding them." Then Flynn snorted, causing the Demifiend to chuckle.

"Is there something more you know about that, Flynn?" Merkabah asked, looking to him.

He nodded. "I've met them, in other lives. They'll show up if the correct circumstances align. While Satan is powerful, I'm not worried about them."

"Then we should wait on their testimony," Merkabah said, although she decided to question Flynn about this at another time. He had to know more.

* * *

Since Issachar was alone of their group in Akihabara, he let himself be sorted into a team randomly. This put him with one local and two others who had come in from elsewhere. The local was Ichiro, a man in a black coat who had a mechanical arm much like K; he was using it to punch out demons with strength that was more than human. From a town near Shibuya, they also got Yuuta, a man who wore modern bulletproof armor and carried a massive riot shield. Yuuta used healing and buffing magic to make himself a solid wall of defense while his demons fought around or behind him. Lastly, there was Misaki, a woman who used magic along with some custom electronics to get a better sense for her surroundings and opponents. None of them knew each other and the other three were more used to working on their own.

Thankfully, they didn't argue when he gave them a strategy before entering their first domain. Yuuta walked ahead of the group, since any potential ambush would go straight into his shield. When they encountered demons, he would drop back to guard their rear, and so that Ichiro could fight close quarters, with Issachar and Misaki backing him up. Misaki would use her equipment to figure out the layout of the domain, then send the map to them so they could reason out where the domain master was. She also gave them scan data of the demons before they were in visual range, which made their forays go more smoothly.

They cleared out two of the outer domains before they were sent to the street where the central domain was. The seal was still on that one, but the domains closest to it were now open. On the way there, Ichiro nudged him. "Hey, I've been thinking, Issachar: you're like some hero from a kid show, what with you being a samurai wielding two guns and magic."

"What's wrong with that?" he asked, smiling at the question. "It encourages others, plus I've gotten a few demons who wanted to be on my team just because of my image."

"I get that too," Ichiro said, clenching his mechanical fist. "Besides, we could use more heroes in the world who stand out, to inspire others to take a stand for themselves. More of us ought to try developing our own style and image."

"You need skill too," Yuuta said, about the third time he'd spoken up so far.

Ichiro nodded. "Of course, of course, but when you have heroic skill and style, it really helps the civilians feel more comfortable. Like you're already just about a policeman with that gear. Get some official-looking marks on them could work in your favor." Yuuta just shrugged at that.

"A person in uniform is reassuring to have around, especially when they're being just and honorable," Issachar said, hoping that might encourage him to try.

"It sounds good enough to me," Misaki said. "In another sense, I always wanted to make my gear seem more uniform. It'd be nice to stroll in somewhere and people would know right on seeing you that you're more than just an ordinary Hunter. Even like those kid show heroes, that'd be fun. Problem is that I had to scrounge from whatever was available."

"Well you're in the perfect town if you want some assistance with getting a more uniform uniform," Ichiro said with a grin. "Despite the dangers right outside our door, we've always had a good group of fashion lovers around here. I could even introduce you to some after we get done here."

"Might be fun," Misaki said, then touched her eye visor. "From what I'm seeing, the mission could be down to one level from the central domain. All of them along the street except the central one are open."

"Then let's do well and prove we can take on the central domain," Issachar said. Extra care would need to be taken there. But should today's efforts fail, he hoped for a look into the central domain for himself, to know if power like Flynn's was required. Hopefully it wasn't and they could get rid of this domain labyrinth today.

* * *

Far above the streets of Akihabara, a pale figure leapt from rooftop to rooftop. It stopped a moment to catch its breath on one of the higher buildings. "Where did you run off to, coward?"

Then something caught its attention, something down on the streets below. After a moment, it smiled victoriously. Never mind the other demon. This was what it was searching for.

"You're mine now, slave."

* * *

"Good work clearing those three domains," Fujiwara told them over the radio. "Would your group stay on standby on that block? If you see an appearance of wormwood or any other sign of a domain reforming, strike it in order to disrupt the energy. You might have to battle the domain master or another demon in doing so, but it will keep the broken seals cleared."

"Roger, we'll keep a good eye out," Nozomi said.

"Thanks, keep in contact." The transmission cut there.

"You guys still in good shape?" Nozomi asked, looking over them.

"Yeah," Nanashi said, then looked to Hallelujah. "And thanks for keeping my shiki-oni from getting blown away there."

"Eh, no problem," Hallelujah said. "I have a sense for when that can happen with garu magic. I'm fine."

"Same here, I'm good for a while," Gaston said.

"Does anybody have a revival bead I could use for my tengu?" Toki asked. "My team and I are good otherwise."

"Sure, I'll send one over to you," Nozomi said, working on her phone to transfer it.

"If all the ones here are cleared, they should be down to just the ones around that store and the central domain," Gaston said. "Are they keeping us away because we're young?"

"Don't let it get to you," Nozomi said kindly. "After all, this is a group effort of many people. There could be too many teams for the amount of domains left, and we definitely want to be sure these outer domains don't open back up and seal others inside the inner ones."

Hallelujah nodded. "Yeah, we should do a good job here so they know we're reliable in the future."

Meanwhile, Toki had been checking her phone. "According to the map, the outer domains were spread out all along here," she said, pointing out towards a road crossing. "We could spread out a little."

"As long as everybody stays in sight, that should work," Nozomi said.

It seemed like it would be a boring duty, but it was anything but. Red orbs kept appearing all along the street, hissing and sparking. A battle with demons was always triggered once the orbs were shattered; they tried to make sure that at least two of them were taking on battles together for safety. Not only that, but demons would come in from other streets. They'd be angered over the loss of the domains or investigating why power in the area was shifting. From conversations over the radio, it seemed that being assigned to watch might be as hectic as exploring the domains. Fujiwara even called in other Hunters with terminal access to cover the area better and call back those who were getting weary.

As Nanashi and Gaston ended a fight with some oni, they got startled by a shrill shriek from above. A rat the size of a van sprang off the wall, starting off another battle with an insane fury. Its fur was greasy and patchy, and a dozen other enormous dirty rats were flung over its back by a ring made from their tails. "What in the world is this one?" Gaston asked, deflecting the tied up rats being swung at him.

"I have no idea," Nanashi said, using agilao since it was fairly common for demon beasts to be weak to fire. It certainly worked for this one, forcing it to stumble back briefly.

'The demon has been identified as Beast King Rat,' Burroughs said since he'd not been sure. 'Be careful, its bite can inflict venom and illness.'

"Illness?" Nanashi asked, uneasy now. This had been just another battle before, albeit against an odd demon. But if it was a demon associated with illness, it might be associated with Pestilence. Toma had agreed to let him come since it had been a few days and there was no sludge around Akihabara now, but…

After casting another agilao to give Gaston a better shot at the king rat, six bony hands suddenly grabbed him from behind. Nanashi attempted to throw them off as he'd been taught, but whatever had him clung tight and let itself be thrown forward. He caught sight of the winged skeleton before he was lifted into the air Although another agilao caused one to falter, the other two kept pulling him upward until it was too dangerous for him to be dropped back down into the street. A gunshot went off as Nozomi tried to shoot them down, and he briefly saw Toki following him up by leaping from point to point on the building faces. But she wasn't able to catch up by the time the winged skeletons dropped him off on the rooftop.

"There you are, child," someone in a white cloak said.

"Who are…?" he started to ask as he got up. But one of the skeletons clattered its teeth and pushed him back onto his knees.

"Stay down, as befits you," the arrogant demon in front of him said. "I am your lord, and you are my slave. I am Pestilence and you should have died a long time ago."

"I am not a slave," Nanashi said, glancing around. Two of the winged skeletons had landed and one only had one foot on the ground. He cast agilao at that one, then got up before the others could pin him back down.

Pestilence quickly grabbed him by his hair and yanked him close; his breath was atrocious. "You are wrong, child. I wield authority over all that live; they all bend to my power. I cannot stand survivors like you, and I won't let you remain a survivor any longer."

Almost immediately, Nanashi's mind went hazy and his chest swelled into suffocating him.


	79. Technolegion

**Chapter 79: Technolegion**

"And now, we make some teddies that are exploding," Alice said happily as she picked up a red crayon.

"Oo, with dynamite sticks?" Hikaru asked, busy at work to make her design with angels and demons in blue and orange, like a yin-yang.

She shook her head. "No, I'll just strap some bombs onto their bellies so the stuffing goes everywhere. Oh hey Mister, are you gonna join us?"

Hearing that, Hikaru glanced up from where she was lying on her stomach to draw. The unnamed demon had come over to sit by them. "I don't think so," he said. "Artistic expression comes from a spark in the soul that not all beings have."

"Aw come on," Hikaru said, grabbing one of the crayons and flinging it at him. "You don't seem like one of those who'd lack that spark."

"Do you think so?" he asked, smiling a little.

"It's either that or someone else dresses you," Hikaru said, waving the orange crayon at him.

"Oh, but be careful with that one," Alice said in a serious tone. "That's the sparkly gold one and I've only got one of those right now. But I'll let you use it."

"All right, I'll try something," he said, taking a blank sheet of paper from the crooked pile. "And, Hikaru? You're not sure of your real identity either?"

"Sort of," she said, turning back to her drawing. "I mean, I know I'm Heart of Chaos, but so what? A heart is only a part of something. So it'd make sense that I'm something else too even if I manage to be myself as I am. Don't know what, not sure if I should care either."

"Maybe you're a dragon goddess," Alice suggested.

Hikaru shrugged. "Maybe."

"And you don't care?" he asked, drawing now.

"I dunno," she said. "I do know that as Hikaru, I can do whatever I like. And I got some ideas of what I might be, but they don't seem so nice. Like, I'm pretty sure we could figure out my true identity if I got fused with Merky over there." She kicked her feet in the air. "But just look at her; she takes charge of stuff even if I come up with ideas, cause she's got responsibility and whatnot as Heart of Law. She'd probably be in charge if we fused and I wouldn't be free anymore. Though if we were in our real form, she'd probably need me so her view isn't so limited."

"That's a good point," he said.

"Whatever, I just want to enjoy my freedom for now and not do anything to mess it up," Hikaru said. "What about you? What do you think of who you are?"

"I'm not sure," he said, taking a black crayon now. "Everyone around me seems pretty sure about who I am; it sounds logical. But I'm hardly anyone at the moment, without a name, with so few memories."

"You've got power," Alice said. "And lots of it. So you've got to be somebody special."

"Enough power that I can't hide myself, especially outside this place," he said. "It's inconvenient; I know I should be capable of blending in or standing out when I want. Without knowing myself, though, I can't hide my power. I would like to reclaim myself in part for that reason."

"Well the guy that probably has your identity is really named Krishna," Hikaru said. "He's a weaselly sort, good with words but probably has more power than he's used to with the stolen identity."

The unnamed demon nodded. "Thanks, it should help to know his true name. Although… Krishna, huh?"

"Do you remember him?" Alice asked, pausing in drawing her collection of teddie bears.

"I know him as an incarnation of Vishnu," he said. "That's not the same as remembering. However, it makes me wonder what's going to happen to him. I can't imagine that Vishnu would be pleased with his masquerade. But if he does have my identity, well he'll likely deserve what he gets when I reclaim it."

They talked and drew for a while longer. Once the others got done with their discussion, Hikaru offered to trade her yin-yang picture for the strange black and gold emblem that he had drawn. Whatever he thought of himself, he did do a good job drawing in her opinion. And the emblem seemed like some kind of riddle too, like he understood more about her than he let on. Maybe more than he understood consciously too.

* * *

The fourth thing that Yuuta had said in their group was, "Is your equipment running fine, Misaki?"

"So far," she answered. "But it and anything taken out of this store should be checked for errors. I've never run into demons like these before."

It was a sensible idea given that a slew of unusual demons identified as Virus or Antivirus showed up in this central domain. They often had an appearance that Ichiro had called pixilated or robotic, like depictions of creatures and humanoid demons rather than the real thing. Along with that, the central domain was made up of plastic, wires, and circuits rather than wormwood vines. The wires had been around in the lesser domains, something that the support team confirmed once they'd noticed. According to Misaki's scans, there was a massive room in the center of the domain, but the wires lead elsewhere. They were avoiding the central room to try destroying the wires.

"I've seen a Virus demon before," Issachar said. "But it was a friendly one with no battle abilities whatsoever. These ones all have normal spells and skills."

"You'd expect these Virus demons to be able to hijack devices, but we seem fine so far," Ichiro said. "Was the other one able to do that?"

He nodded. "Yes, but it's very obedient and won't do so unless its summoner tells it to."

At the far end of the domain, they came across a room that had strange towers of blinking lights. The wires were all linked into the towers. "This seems like a server room," Misaki said.

"What's being served?" Issachar asked.

After a moment where she scratched her head, she explained, "This equipment is the centerpiece of a computer network, where things are organized and stored electronically. Those towers are called servers. Although, it is odd that there's so many wires around. Wireless networks were widespread around the time of the Great War, so a server room like this wouldn't use all these wires."

"It might be because demons are all behind the times," Ichiro said. "But hitting it with enough electricity should fry the wires."

"Magnetism would work better to wreck these servers, but electric magic ought to do the trick," Misara said, preparing the cast.

"Nyyoooo!" a high-pitched squeal responded. A grumpy-looking cat flew out from between the servers, leaving rainbow afterimages behind it. "Nyo!"

"We have to take down this labyrinth of domains," Issachar said, firing at the strange cat.

It dodged out of the way, then made a magical barrier around the servers and itself. "Nyo!"

"That's an impenetrable barrier as far as I can tell," Misaki said, touching her eyeband. "Now what?"

"What even is that cat anyhow?" Ichiro asked.

Over the radio, Fujiwara replied, "According to the demon summoning program, that would be a Meme lolcat."

"Seriously?" Misaki asked, then sighed and shook her head.

"Seriously," Fujiwara replied. Meanwhile, the lolcat looked down at them smugly. "And then… Virus demons tend to Chaos and Antivirus demons tend to Law, with Meme demons acting as a Neutral force between them. It says that with an active information network, Meme demons tend to be unstable creatures with volatile powers and forms, all of which reflects the moods and fads of online communities. This lolcat seems to be one of the more powerful Meme demons due to the lasting power of cat humor, but even it is subject to the legion of internet users."

"That makes a strange amount of sense for what we're seeing," Ichiro said. "But we're using the main network around anymore and it's nothing compared to what used to be."

That gave Issachar an idea. "Then if you made something funny about cats and sent it out to the smartphones and televisions, then you could change the behavior of this lolcat? Like make it protect our network rather than that of these domains. Flynn made Trojan protect the terminal network, so it might work."

"True, we could give that a shot," Fujiwara said. "I'll contact a few people and see what they can come up with. With that barrier, it might be best to leave this room alone for now. The lolcat is strong, but it isn't marked as a domain master."

"The domain master seems to be within the large room," Misaki said, nodding to Yuuta. He nodded back and checked on the hall outside the server room. "I'll do a scan once we're outside the door."

Unfortunately, Misaki said that an electronic signal was making her scans illegible. The only caution they could take beyond normal was switching out any demons that were weak to electricity just in case. Inside the central chamber, piles upon piles of computers and similar equipment covered the walls and even the ceiling. A ghostly being hovered in the center of it all, a multitude of forms emerging and dissolving as they watched. A multitude of detached hands accompanied it, working on on keyboards, adjusting monitors, and doing many other small tasks.

A dozen of those hands quickly shifted down to block them. "Hey, get those demons outta here!" several voices said, while others whimpered or growled.

"What we do depends on how you act," Issachar said. "If you want to negotiate peacefully, we'll give you a chance. But we want to remove the labyrinth of domains around here so we can use the lost equipment."

A knightly form in white emerged. "Then begone! You shouldn't mess with the domains!"

Another form emerged too, that of a girl with glasses. "I dunno, if they want to use the equipment, maybe we could be active again."

"And compete again, hell yeah!"

"Oh no, dearie, we ought to get along peacefully. We should listen to what they want at least. Let's promise not to hurt them and they could call their demons away."

"Hey wait, are those your demons? Then you're all summoners?"

"That's right," Issachar said, wondering how to appeal to this being. It had no clear personality, or rather, it might have dozens of them. "I'm Issachar, a samurai from Mikado, and these are all Hunters from Tokyo: Ichiro, Misaki, and Yuuta."

"Well if they're summoners, the demons shouldn't be as much of a problem," the glasses girl said. "Although we would rather them be away."

"We should just cut those demons down!" the knight image said.

"No no, let's get along now," another voice said, emerging as an old woman. "It's nice to meet you young folk, although some of us might not agree or be a pain about the interruption. We are Technolegion, and we would peacefully negotiate for as long as we can. Isn't that right?"

The knight sighed and merged back. "Just so you know, we're not giving up! We'll just relent a bit and let you speak your piece, unless you do something stupid."

"Handling this peacefully would be preferable," Issachar said, sending away the demon he had out. He could call it back out quickly if something went wrong. The others quietly agreed to those terms too.

Misaki even asked, "Then if you're Technolegion, are you some kind of internet entity like lolcat?"

"You're a sharp one," the kindly old woman said. "Sure enough, that is what we are."

"There were a number of tales flitting about that spoke of the internet gaining sentience with enough users," the glasses girl explained. "There were even experiments into internet-based AI learning."

"Sure, which went horribly fucking wrong," another voice said in glee. "You got brainless commerce-based personalities that were hardly real AIs, and then you got the real learners who quickly picked up on extremist views and how to swear a fucking lot to insult every damn person that came around."

"And sexualizing everything because that's how the internet rolls," another voice said with a chuckle.

"YOU SHOULD NOT BE DOING THAT, YOU LEWD MORON!" a voice that sounded like the knight said.

"There's fetishes for everything, god, can't you see it? Let us have our fun."

"Don't you be parading around your twisted opinions!"

"Settle down now," the old woman voice said.

"We have every voice that was out there," the glasses girl said, sounding weary of the fighting. "We have all the information that was out there, the good, the bad, and the ugly. So pardon us if we're difficult to speak with."

"You are a legion, after all," Ichiro said.

"What are you doing with these domains?" Issachar asked. "They've been restricting access to a lot of supplies people could have used, as well as putting them in danger when they were trying to preserve the culture that was here."

"Oo, we like cultures."

"Unless they stand in the way of progress!"

"No, we should preserve…"

"What are you doing with the domains?" Issachar repeated, thinking that keeping polite wouldn't get anywhere with Technolegion.

"Hiding," the glasses girl said. "When the angels and demons came out in force, they both sought to destroy and control knowledge to their benefit. If they realized that we existed, they would have ruthlessly hunted us down and destroyed us. We picked out demons who didn't really care about us to hold dominion over the other domains; they were glad to have dominion anywhere even though we're the ones who grant their power."

"How are things going out there?" a male voice asked, trying to emerge too. "Who won?"

"To put it simply, the angels and demons split the humans and took control of their part," Issachar explained. "But recently, we've been fighting back to take control of ourselves. They're still around, fighting with each other and us in order to take back control."

"Except the angels seemingly have no qualms in destroying us all, if what they've been proclaiming lately is true," Ichiro added.

"That sucks." Many other voices of Technolegion murmured and voiced their agreement.

"And you knew everything that was once on this internet thing?" Issachar asked. "If you do, then you'd be a valuable ally to come back to humanity. We've lost a lot of knowledge because of the world being decimated and everything else clamping down on what we knew. Your knowledge might even give us an edge in freeing the world from the control of angels or demons."

"That sounds wonderful," the old woman said.

"Well we are a product of human ingenuity and work," the glasses girl said. "Sometimes even the ignorance. So it would make sense for us to work with you. Except, the angels and demons still scare us because if they confronted us, there's nothing we could do about it."

"Could you move your domain at least?" Misaki asked. "We'd need things in here to rebuild a computer network, even if it'd be far smaller than before from less users."

"We like it here, but maybe…" the glasses girl personality mumbled.

"Humans are the creators, not us," another voice said, nearly forming but retreating back before it did. "We aren't gonna get new material unless they have a network again."

"In light of that, I don't see why not," the glasses girl said. "We can conjure our sanctuary in another place. Sure, we'll call lolcat over and see about moving. But, we do need some devices active to leave the domain, since those of us in here are network demons. Your smartphones and arm COMP should be sufficient."

"All right," Issachar said, bringing up his gauntlet. "Fujiwara, got someplace we can move Technolegion's domain?"

"Sure, there's buildings around we won't need," he said. "But first, Issachar, I know you can turn into an angel. Can you fly up to the rooftops? Some demons snatched Nanashi and took him up there."

"Yes, I'll get right on that," he said, then turned to his teammates. "Sorry, but Nanashi's a younger friend of mine; I should go help him right away."

"Go on then, don't be late," Ichiro said, getting nods of agreement from the other two.

Once he got transformed, Issachar had a gut feeling that something had gone wrong. He should be careful, but quick.

* * *

It took far more effort than Dagda had planned for, including erasing the guide AI and that Virus demon in order to take over Nanashi's demonica, then luring Pestilence over to Akihabara once he couldn't trick Nanashi into going into the factory. But now, he finally had Nanashi in a position to force a deal with him. It was clear that dealing fairly wasn't going to work now. Even with knowledge and power that the boy wanted, he wasn't giving in to a normal contract. And with how things had changed vastly in this time, there was a lot they needed to make new plans for. They should have been working together weeks ago, back within the black forest.

This time… this time needed something with greater leverage. They were in a realm of death, where large mountains held a long road down to a wide river. From this bank, the other side of the river was hazy. It could be any number of realms where the souls of humanity met their final rest. YHVH's power in this realm gripped like tight shackles. However, it was crowded enough that a single soul could slip out with the right assistance.

Nearly all the souls were blurred and weary, barely grasping who they had been after all this time. But one soul was still bright and strong: Nanashi. He stood by a table full of tall stacks of paper where a cloaked demon was working as though his mind had gone dull from mediocre repetition. "Um…"

"Don't interrupt me!" the demon demanded even though his hands kept filling out forms. "You look recently deceased. Get to the back of the line."

"Where is the end of the line?" Nanashi asked, bewildered as the recently dead tended to be. His death had been sudden even if it had come from the hands of Pestilence.

"Beats me, somewhere over the mountains," he said. "Feh, those miserable angels didn't think twice of the workload they shoved off on me when they decided to slaughter the vast majority of the world. I ought to make them do this for a couple of centuries and see how they like it. Go on, get."

"Don't worry, Charon, I'll take care of this one," Dagda said, making himself visible as he approached them.

Charon snorted. "Like one soul matters when I've got to send off billions. If you get him out quick, ignoring him is no big deal."

"Wait, you decide where souls go after people die?" Nanashi said, starting to figure out what was going on. His form shivered.

Charon shook his head. "Nope, I just do the paperwork these days. The angels already cherry-picked the tiny handful they felt were deserving. All those left to my care," he waved dismissively at the line winding around several mountains, "are bound for Hell and eternal suffering by the command of God."

"Everyone here is going to Hell?" Nanashi asked, horrified at it.

"If you have the slightest stain of sin, you're going to Hell," Charon said, not caring in the least. "Such stains can be as little as thinking for yourself outside the bounds of what is considered acceptable: curiosity, asking the wrong questions, grotesque torture, and serial murder are considered equal around here. It used to not be this way, but it feels like an eternity since then. Now stop asking questions and leave before I make a mistake and really get angry."

"But then…" he was caught in a paralysis of horror still, but that could easily be transformed to anger.

"We'd best leave him," Dagda advised, putting a hand on Nanashi's shoulder. He still looked up at him with some wariness, but for now, he would be a familiar figure in this strange place. "For the moment, would you like to find your parents?"

"They're here?" He didn't make the connection immediately, in part because his desire to see them again was too strong.

"Of course," he said, gesturing out to the mountains. While Nanashi was distracted in that, Dagda silently passed over an envelope with the other half of his bribe to Charon for this. He wasn't sure what the caretaker of the dead did with such bribes since he was far too busy to use the macca himself. But it didn't matter, not when it worked so well. "I can find them easily. Well?"

At the sight of billions of human souls, Nanashi wasn't about to try searching the line himself. "Would you take me to them, please?"

"Yes, take my hand," he said.

Nanashi nodded and did as told. His father Kazuki was closer, given that he'd died earlier. On warping to the right location, Dagda had to use some restorative magic to make the weary soul look like himself again. It was quickly clear how Kazuki had died, given that his soul had his limbs floating separate from his body as well as evidence of being bitten deeply like something had been eating him. There was no point to restoring him any further as he was dead too long to resurrect.

The restoration did get his attention. "Eh?"

"Dad?" Nanashi cringed on seeing him like that, but he made himself go to his side.

"Akira? Oh, there you are." Kazuki clasped Nanashi's hand when offered, although the boy didn't seem sure of doing more. "Have you seen your mother recently? I feel like I haven't seen either of you in a long time."

"No, we found you first," Nanashi said. "We're… we're dead, I think."

Hearing that made Kazuki's soul grow indistinct again. "Oh. Well, I'm sure it's nothing. Waiting like this is so dull I can hardly think, but I have to be here, or…" he stopped as he because unsure again of what he was waiting on.

"It's been years since I've seen you," Nanashi said, closing his eyes although it didn't stop him from crying. Dagda checked further back to see where Nanashi's mother was in the line. This wasn't anything new; it got tiring to deal with grieving humans because at the core, it was always the same and would happen as long as humans lived and died.

"Has it?" Kazuki asked. "I didn't know… my mind has grown dull and numb to where I can hardly remember my name. And, you Akira, and Momoko. But just the names… I'm sorry, I wish I could be with you both."

"It's okay, at least you remember," Nanashi said.

"I just want to sleep, but we can't sleep yet," Kazuki said, fading away into an indistinct soul again. "Waiting, just have to wait."

"We won't get much more out of him now," Dagda said, keeping his tone gentle for now. It was necessary, to make him think he cared. "Your mother's not much further away." He took Nanashi's shoulder when he couldn't move and teleported him further down the line.

On being restored, Momoko was famine-stricken, pale, and with cuts all over her hands. She seemed more alert than her husband. "Oh, you're… Akira."

"Yes, Mom," he said, less hesitant in hugging her. And continuing to cry, of course.

"You must have survived, a little while longer at least," she said, putting an arm around him and getting sappy herself. "At least you're here now, though I don't know where your father is. Or, why we're here waiting."

"He's up ahead," Nanashi said, trying to get control of himself again.

"Out of sight from here," Dagda said. "And you're here because of God's Covenant with humanity, binding every human soul to him."

"Covenant?" Momoko asked, confused. "I remember no such agreement, not with whatever god that is nor the demons who sought to kill us off cruelly."

"You don't have to hear of such an agreement to be bound by its terms," Dagda said. "Only the one chosen as a representative of humanity needs to know of the terms and agree to it on behalf of all humans. It's agreed that the representative is responsible for informing everyone else."

"That's still ridiculous," Momoko said.

"And it's because of that Covenant that everyone here is…" Nanashi hesitated, likely not wanting to say it with his mother aware, "…their fate is already decided."

"That's right," Dagda said. "Everyone here is considered equal, as in beneath God, no matter their actions in life nor the state of their souls. You're not even given a proper judge here, simply the overworked bureaucrat that Charon has become."

"That doesn't sound right," Momoko said.

"It isn't right," Nanashi said, the horror he'd felt starting to fuel his hate. But he kept it below the surface since his mother's soul was there. "I want to do something about it."

"You're dead," Dagda said, crossing his arms over his chest. "However, you still have a chance if you work with me. It's easy for me to revive you, although you don't have much longer to decide before such a resurrection will get difficult for the both of us. And I know what needs to be done to make you able to break the Covenant. So what do you say? Will you be my Godslayer?"

"Yes, I'll do it," he said, not having to think on it anymore. "Mom, I'll fix things, so you don't have to be apart from Dad and waiting like this."

Although her form was fading, she hugged him again. "That's good, thank you Akira. I have a feeling that you can do this. Still, take care of yourself."

Once she was a faded soul again, Dagda said, "Well then, let's get out of here. Then what are we calling you, Nanashi or Akira?"

"Nanashi," he said, a grim determination and fierce hatred in him. Good, this was certain to go well.

* * *

Waves of memories washed over him as his being changed again, those of this life in this time, in other times, and other lives… seeing the cocoons with his sister and so many other children whisked away into the sky… those same children years later with an innocence that bleached out their entire being and left them unable to think for themselves, unable to realize what they needed to do just to survive… everyone in Minami Sunamichi wasting away to death because of some deal they didn't know of and might never have been made… the realization that everyone in existence was doomed to a waiting that erased their identities and will, then to the depths of Hell because of another secretive deal… he'd lived many lives, Nanashi was sure of that now. He was also sure that he'd never felt such a powerful hatred for anything. Not even watching Asahi and his other friends die before him could match this, because now he knew that no matter how they died, they too would be waiting in those mountains for their turn to enter Hell.

Unless he could kill God Himself and break His Covenant that bound everyone… and he was certain now that he could. Maybe not now, but he could get that strong quickly if he pushed himself…

Nanashi sat up, back in his own body. Immediately, he was overcome with a vile revulsion as his sickened body was forced to expel some frothy substance from his lungs. Magic filled him as he desperately tried to get some air; the sun felt so bright that he could barely see. Something felt wrong, like he could pass out again. Then he remembered, he had died. And if it was like other things he remembered, he was technically still dead. Dagda's power was keeping him alive and that was it.

"Oh, what now?" an irritated voice came from nearby. Pestilence glowered down at him. "How are you still alive? That was one of the most aggressive illnesses in existence."

He coughed up some more bile, steadying himself with his hands. Then he looked up at Pestilence with as much strength as he could muster at the moment. "I… I won't accept death… not now."

"You don't get to decide, slave," Pestilence snarled, kicking him backwards. "You should die when I order you to!"

His lungs tensed again, making his whole body ache. But Dagda wasn't letting him die. Neither could he do anything other than get back up again. Maybe if he could get an agi stone (or stronger) out of his demonica, he could at least use that. Pestilence frowned at him, his pale face turning pink. Nanshi's own body heated up with a fever as well.

A flash of light knocked Pestilence back as Issachar landed by Nanashi's side. "Nanashi doesn't belong to you," he said with a voice that might intimidate anyone. "None of us do."

"You again?" Pestilence asked, wary but trying to stand his ground. "You're more persistent than you need to be."

"I should be saying that to you," Issachar said. "We defeated you over a dozen times in one day. Now let Nanashi go."

"Fine, I'll retreat for now," Pestilence said, turning around. "But I will not accept defeat either." He then fled across the rooftops.

"I doubt this means anything good," Issachar said, looking after him. Then he came over. "Can you stand up?"

Nanashi brought one of his hands up and felt shaky. "Uh, I dunno, but I'm probably infectious. You wouldn't want to be sick like this." He coughed again; his lungs probably weren't clear yet.

That didn't deter Issachar from coming over and crouching by him. "I'm alright as long as I'm in angel form. Did he do anything other than make you sick?"

"I don't think so," he said, wondering if Issachar could tell that he wasn't supposed to be alive.

Then Fujiwara came in over the radio. "His vital signs are weak. Nanashi, you'll have to be quarantined somewhere quickly. Do either of you have a face mask for him? We'll have to clear the area when you bring him down and escort him into isolation."

"I have some," Issachar said, bringing one out of his demonica.

"Hang on, I…" he coughed again, with the magic now trying to help him expel the bile. "I'm fine with…" he took a deep breath to try calming his lungs, "with the quarantine. It's fine."

"I'll bring you down once everything's ready," Issachar said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You'll be all right, I feel, as long as you rest well."

'Right, you'll be fine with my power in you now,' Dagda said, seemingly from within his mind. 'And the quarantine will be to our advantage. By the mood of things, I doubt much will happen until after the tournaments. All sides are waiting for an opportune moment to make their next big moves. The enforced isolation will allow us to make our own preparations.'

It seemed like Issachar didn't notice Dagda, or at least hadn't heard him. "Yeah, I hope this passes quickly," Nanashi said, fine with going to sleep once they got him into a quarantined space.

* * *

It took some time until Issachar could speak with Flynn, in part because the children at Tennozu wanted to hear more stories. "You seem like you're having a lot of fun these days," Flynn said once they were alone in their room.

Smiling, he said, "Sure, I have everything I ever wanted now. And we're in a calm before the storm, aren't we? We may as well have fun with what we're doing and raise people's spirits as much as we can along the way."

Flynn smiled briefly, although he still seemed concerned about whatever was on his mind. "Good. I have what I want now too, just we have to fight many battles to make it stick. But you're doing well. I saw the reports on the Akihabara domains earlier; Fujiwara seemed very impressed in the interview about your actions. That Technolegion seems like an interesting ally too."

"Right, I'm glad the labyrinth master wanted to work with us in the end," Issachar said. "I had some good teammates too. Although, Pestilence appeared again."

"Wasn't Nanashi there?" Flynn asked, concerned.

He nodded, considering what to say. He didn't want to add onto Flynn's worries, not when he seemed to be getting back to his normal self. But then, this didn't seem like a good thing to keep quiet about. "Yes, and he got kidnapped briefly. I ended up letting Pestilence go in order to get Nanashi back relatively safe; he was badly sickened from the encounter, enough that we had to place him under quarantine so he doesn't spread that illness. But something seemed strange about him."

"How so?" He was serious enough that one would think one of his family had gotten ill.

"Well his spirit was filled with an intense hate, although he tried to hide it," Issachar said, not sure how to word what he felt then. "It could've been Pestilence since that demon destroyed Minami. But, it also felt like Pestilence was only a secondary source of that hate and I've not noticed that in Nanashi before. Well, I don't remember how often I ran into him as an angel; his spirit felt strange to me today."

"That seems suspicious," Flynn said, putting his hand to his chin. "But he's going to be in quarantine? For how long?"

"At least a month, I believe," he said.

After a moment, Flynn said, "Pestilence hates survivors, so it's not surprising that Nanashi got infected on facing him. But, it is surprising that Pestilence would let him live. Then it could be due to Dagda. I said I'd trust his judgment, but with Dagda being involved… but I have Shesha and the obelisk is still chained."

Issachar put a hand in Flynn's lap. "Hoy, I would be able to visit him despite the quarantine. I'm sure I'm safe from getting infected as long as I visit him in angel form. I'd be able to keep an eye on how things develop with him and encourage him that way."

Flynn nodded. "That would be best, especially if you can figure out what about him feels strange to you. I'm sure I've told you, I'm a Godslayer because I've kept my powers in spite of restarting my life. Naoki is a Godslayer too, although I'm not sure if he intends to play that role now. And, Nanashi can also become a Godslayer, very rapidly under Dagda's guidance. But Dagda is a selfish god who doesn't care about the world anymore. His lessons could turn Nanashi into an extremely dangerous person who could undo all my work in this time. But I'm certain Nanashi is at heart a good person. We should keep a close eye on him now, preferably as an ally."

"Sure, I think he's a good fellow too," Issachar said. "We are going to try to save as many as possible, including him."

Flynn's smile lasted longer that time. "Of course."


	80. World Eating Serpent

**Chapter 80: World-Eating Serpent**

"For the first time under the bright sun, ladies and gentleman, welcome to the northeastern preliminaries of the Hunter Tournament Season!"

A wave of cheers and applause swelled up in response to the announcement. Behind the stadium seating, Flynn watched over the crowd for any suspicious signs. He didn't recall being here from this perspective instead of being down among the contenders. But he'd overpowered all others in this tournament past the early cycles, having the ability to fuse and customize demons in far greater quality than most other summoners. Besides, he wasn't the one who needed to draw attention this time.

"We hope you all have a marvelous time as we seek out the greatest demon summoner in the land, accompanied by our new allies in Mikado," the announcer called. "And remember, this year there will be no death penalty for losing."

There was a moment of expectation; some cheers of approval started to build up in steam. Meanwhile, Flynn gazed over the crowd for any disapproval. The audience wasn't as large as he remembered. They were seemingly all human in this section of the stadium. On his shoulders, Shesha shifted and flicked his tongue out. He was keeping his senses open too.

"So let's get things running with our opening match!" the announcer called, easing up on the tension in the audience. "From our district, in the town of Ueno, we have a local strong-arm that has long been protecting his home streets, a Hunter known only as the Red Baron! And from the land of Mikado but as the sole representative from the southeastern Tokyo district with the town of Tennozu, we have a renown lady gunslinger called Issachar! Competitors to the center of the arena, and ready your demons!"

Flynn looked briefly down at the arena floor where the Red Baron and Issachar were going to greet each other. He would like to watch Issachar's matches better; maybe he could find some recordings later. But his duty was with security today, keeping the audience safe. Besides, he wasn't too worried about Issachar with most of his competition. He'd seen some of the demons that Issachar had prepared for today's match and they were impressive. And he'd been in far more dangerous battles too.

 _Over there_ , Shesha said quietly, looking off to the left.

The audience was already getting excited as the match began. In the back row, there was a man that had already made him suspicious for sitting alone and wearing a heavy hooded coat. Now he was up to something with the magic in the area, connecting to the souls of the rest of the audience. Flynn passed through the seats quietly to not draw attention to himself. He also drew Masakado's katana in a smaller form, in order to cut through the connection as he got in front of the suspicious man.

"What are you doing?" the demon asked angrily, getting up and twitching a forked tail.

"Enforcing the tournament rules," he answered sternly, turning the katana towards the demon. "It was agreed on by all parties that these would be civil matches. You will not be influencing the audience to change that."

Growling, the demon asked, "Where's the excitement in that? There's no risk! Battles ought to be bloody."

"If you want risk, then get up to the hall there," Flynn said, gesturing further back. "You can fight me, or you can leave this stadium now."

"And we will know whether or not you leave," Shesha added.

"What, you think you're dangerous to me?" the demon asked.

"You're barely worth my time if it wasn't for my duty here," Flynn retorted. "Get back there."

"You have no idea what you're about to get," the demon sneered, then stormed out of the seats to go back to the hall. Flynn followed him up and had him dispatched quickly.

 _He must have been blind to not notice your strength_ , Shesha said, relaxing where he was. _I don't smell anything more._

"We'll keep alert in case others are more patient," Flynn said.

Thankfully, things went smoothly past that point. The audience didn't show any signs of bloodthirsty agitation and what other demons were in the audience were better behaved. Because of that, he was able to watch the other matches more and hear how people were starting to see Issachar as a hero. Well, heroine to nearly everyone else there since they took what they saw for truth. Issachar took his wins there humbly, thanking the other competitors for their service as Hunters and encouraging everyone to work towards a brighter future.

It was enough that when he brought out the Chalice of Hope later on, he already had the three spirits growing in power.

* * *

Since Ikebukuro had a tiny struggling population and southwestern Tokyo was basically abandoned, Shibuya hosted the Hunter tournament for the western districts. And since he was currently the ruler of Shibuya, Krishna took the VIP seats for himself to watch the tournaments. It helped during the first round of matches because he'd gotten into an argument with Pestilence earlier that day. That arrogant demon had quickly noticed a streak of humanity in him and tried to take advantage of it. To keep from being ill too long, Krishna had to muster up his powers as a demon and a god to expel the illness. It still left him in rough shape for the rest of the day, but now he should be immune to any more antics from Pestilence.

Now he was watching over the second round of matches in Shibuya. Flynn and Shesha were here; Krishna could sense them in the stadium. He stood at the windows of the VIP box, watching over the audience and the competitors. At times, he spotted Flynn patrolling through the stadium seats, unnoticed by most people there. Krishna kept thinking to himself that it'd be fun to lure Flynn into here and break his spirit again. They could attain immense power together, between their potential to become Vishnu and the stolen identity of Lucifer. They would be unstoppable and Flynn should be easily subdued. Yes, make him submit…

But it wasn't going to be as simple this time. Shesha was still with him for some damnable reason and had proven that he would fight to protect Flynn. Not only that, but the reason they were here was because Issachar was fighting in Shibuya's arena today. She was a curious person in many ways that Krishna could see now. Once a pawn to be sacrificed to advance higher ranked pieces in the game… but Flynn tampering with fates caused the ill-fated pawn to advance in ranks seemingly on her own merit. She was clearly an excellent fighter and summoner given that she wasn't having much trouble with her matches today.

"She's become a focus of hope for the people when it should be Flynn in that role," Krishna said, crossing his arms over his chest and considering what he was seeing. "But she's not the intended Messiah. YHVH's game doesn't allow for such a change, at least I don't think it does. Still, this lessens Flynn's ability to transfer hope to a Cosmic Egg. That's a pity; I should break Flynn for stealing my role, but it's going to take Issachar's soul to create a Cosmic Egg. Although given the connection between their souls now, ruining one should ruin the other…"

Then someone knocked on the door to the VIP box. "Pardon me, but may I come in?"

On recognizing the voice, he waved a hand briefly to unlock the door. "Sure enough, Maitreya, come in."

Maitreya came in and joined him at the window. "You know, I thought it was Flynn who was this generation's Messiah. He's got the power for it, but he's keeping to the shadows and that one lady in the tournament is drawing everyone's attention instead."

"I was just considering that change myself," he said. "It's going to complicate our plans, but they should still be feasible."

"But how are you going to replace Shesha since he's no longer with you?" Maitreya asked.

"There's more than one way to steal souls out of YHVH's grasp, even at a large-scale," Krishna said. "We have options. How are you doing with finding more human followers?"

"Not well, I'm afraid," he said. "I've had several individuals challenge my wisdom since Lilith and those teenagers. They're often skeptical and want proof despite how the truth should be as clear as the days are now. And despite my being a Buddha, the anti-demon shields over towns now make things difficult for me. Have you had any luck with getting the Demifiend's cooperation? He claims to be one of Lucifer's generals."

"No, we shouldn't count on him," he said, clenching a fist at a reminder of yet another frustration. "Unless we find a way to defeat him, it will be difficult for us to use him. The humans might need a forceful means of enlightenment at this point too. There's little virtue in those who are following me now, but at least claiming their souls will be worth something."

"I will have to subdue another group to get them to begin listening," Maitreya said, tapping his chin. "If there is little virtue here, then perhaps Ikebukuro? Or a place in the lands of Mikado; I've not tried there yet."

There was a brief thought that Maitreya could ferret out what few virtuous people (to whatever degree) were here to bring them to Ikebukuro and draw a crowd there. That should be a reasonable start to worshipers for the Divine Powers. But, the people here belonged to him. Krishna loathed that idea almost as soon as he thought of it. "Mikado might be best for you," he said instead.

"Yes, I'll see about searching there next," he said, then paused and looked aside. Krishna felt it too, a warping of space inside the VIP box. That was… Odin and Thor. What had they been up to?

A dark portal opened on one of the walls, letting the two gods into the room. They had a snake demon with them, and no ordinary one at that. "Ah, you're both here," Thor said, rubbing his head.

"Yes, where have you both been?" Krishna asked. "A lot has changed since I last saw you."

"We decided to tame Jormungandr in case our plans needed to be altered," Odin said, his words and expression not betraying why he thought that needed to be done. "And that took a lot of effort."

"Right, we had to get a special snake bridle made to get him compliant," Thor said, hanging onto a golden rope that was what bound Jormungandr. It extended off outside of space since their serpent wouldn't fully manifest itself physically in a small form like Shesha. "Then we fought him into submission so we could get the bridle on, but now he'll do whatever we tell him."

"That's an interesting plan," Krishna said. And interesting that they had come up with it. Although, the parts of the plan were within mythology, even if not fully from their specific branch. "And good timing, since Vishnu called Shesha back for some reason. We need a threat outside the angels and demons to bring humanity into our debt. Go send him out primarily to be seen so that they know they're in danger."

"Yes, we need to take control of history's momentum now," Maitreya said. "Humanity is proving obstinate as usual; they need to realize how much they need us."

"Certainly," Odin said, looking out over the arena. "Should we interrupt this or wait until its completion?"

"Wait," Krishna said, looking out at the summoners below. "She's not out now, but we've found someone in this tournament who is rapidly drawing the hopes of humanity to her. She should triumph again today, and be given some staged win against Jormungandr since we're using him. After all, our plans can be adapted. Once the Cosmic Egg is close to forming, she can appear to defeat him and we can use her to funnel humanity's hope into the Egg's creation."

"I thought the Messiah was a man named Flynn," Odin said.

"He is," Maitreya said. "He's connected to our heroine, Issachar. She may be drawing attention, but she loves him and he loves her. He's likely guiding her to avoid drawing attention to himself."

Krishna nodded. "And once she has accomplished our task, it should be little trouble to convince Flynn to support our cause." No, it was nearly lost cause to gain Flynn's support directly. But there could be indirect ways. There was also the possibility of forcing the Great Will to choose another Messiah should the current one fail. If not this generation, then the next…

"Hmm, well I'd rather see this heroine for myself," Thor said. "Then we'll see to revealing our secret weapon."

"Just make certain that they can't tell that you control him," Krishna said.

And if these three were still listening to him, he should be able to regain lost ground as Lucifer too. Would the generals listen to him enough to be tricked? Or was he going to have to keep relying on those who didn't take direct orders from the demon lord often? Even with Jormungandr now, the power gripping Ichigaya had to be broken up to take proper control over humanity.

He would win; Krishna needed to win. That was unquestionable.

* * *

Since he was in Shibuya today, there was someone Issachar wanted to meet with. He waited in the entrance room to the stadium in order to meet up with the people leaving, figuring that was a good chance. Since he was there, all sorts of people came up to him: to congratulate him, to introduce themselves, even to ask for help. Issachar was glad to talk with them, although he was careful with what requests he took. He had to balance encouraging goodwill and spite along with hope, which meant seeing if the problems could be solved by others first.

Flynn was nearby, quietly helping to keep areas clear between those who wanted to leave and those who wanted to stick around. He did wave over to get his attention at one point, then gestured to a group of kids and their guardians to go ahead and see him. Good, they'd found him. "Oh, hello there," Issachar called, waving the kids over. "I was hoping to see one of you… Katsuya."

The boy looked shocked at being called. "W-wow, you remembered my name?"

Some others left or stepped aside since he'd called the kids over. "Of course, you gave me a special request," Issachar said, using his gauntlet to call out a paper bag. "I want to thank you for it too; figuring out how to fight with two guns has ended up helping me out. However, I've found another pair of guns to use. Here's your father's gun back, as promised. I made sure to get it looked over by an expert to make sure it's working at its best."

"Thanks, you've gotten good with them," Katsuya said, taking his father's gun with reverence. "I think you're gonna win the whole tournament!"

"We'll see what happens," he said, smiling.

A commotion came from outside the stadium, leading to a group running back in. "Wh-what was that?" some asked in shock while a teenaged girl cried in a fright.

"What's out there?" Issachar called over.

"A-An enormous snake!"

"It makes the buildings look like anthills!"

Flynn had come over to him while the group came in. Shesha was still on his shoulders. "This shouldn't be happening," Flynn said, having the puzzled concern that came when things went unexpectedly different.

"You have Masakado's katana," Issachar said, partly to reassure him. But also partly to get word of that spread more; those nearby were looked at Flynn with a new awe and respect. "Let's go check it out."

"You're right," he said, patting Shesha before heading out with him.

Outside the stadium, there weren't any clear demons in the streets nearby. But on looking up, there was a snake's head held high over the rooftops. It had strangely shimmering scales of dark bronze and bright red. Despite how far away it was, Issachar spotted some of its enormous body further down the street and was able to scan that with the gauntlet.

"This is Jormungandr," he said, showing the entry to Flynn.

He glanced at it, nodded, then looked back up at Jormungandr's head. "There's not a lot of space here to fight him. He seems like he can knock over buildings too. But how are we going to lure him elsewhere?"

"Is he a rival?" Shesha asked, his tail twitching.

Issachar had a feeling that the answer would end up yes just based on Shesha's tone. But he checked on it. "He's from Norse mythology…"

"Odin," Flynn mumbled.

"He eats the roots of the world tree Yggdrasil and is prophesied to someday be part of the end of the world," Issachar continued, paraphrasing the data.

"That's to be me, no other snake," Shesha grumbled. "And Flynn's said the world should continue."

Flynn rubbed Shesha's head. "You think you can beat him?"

"Yes," he answered without hesitation.

"Jormungandr is said to be so large that he can manifest in multiple realms at once," Issachar added.

Shesha did not seem impressed. "Well I can capture the sun in my hood if I use my true size. I can best him."

Flynn held out an arm for Shesha. "Then go ahead. Try to draw him away from inhabited areas if you can. I'll send Issachar with any change of plans."

"Yes, Master Flynn," he said, then slithered rapidly into a beam of sunlight to challenge Jormungandr.

Issachar changed into an angel, surprising some of the people around them. "I'll see about getting up somewhere and send you a better view on things."

"Sure," Flynn said, then turned to others around. "Get inside for now!"

While he was taking care of the civilians, Issachar flew up to find a higher perch. Jormungandr noticed him while he got the camera going, turning his head to look him over. There was golden sparkle around his body close behind his head, like a harness of some kind. Further down the street, there was a dark warping to the air that clearly cut off Jormungandr's body from fully manifesting.

Shesha appeared in a giant glowing form closer to the portal, slimmer than Jormungandr since he didn't show off by only partly manifesting. He looked like he was made from the fires of the sun. After a moment, Shesha bit down into Jormungandr's body. Jormungandr curved around to see who'd hurt him, causing Shesha to vanish and reappear further away, his hood opened in a challenge. Strangely, the darker snake didn't react much to the bite, despite how it bled and seemed painful. That harness also seemed suspicious; what reason was there to harness a snake? While Issachar hadn't watched snakes much, it seemed like Shesha was being more expressive in the way he moved and communicated with his body.

"Is everyone all right down there?" Issachar asked through the gauntlet.

"Yes, there's no disturbances aside from the two snakes," Flynn answered.

Shesha vanished into light and reappeared in a larger section of the street, one that would allow the two to fight more freely. "I've noticed something strange, so I'm going to tell Shesha about it," he said.

"Be careful."

Flying was a strange thing, as he was able to move through the air smoothly as long as he didn't think about it too much. He made it over near Shesha's head and hoped he was in hearing range. "Shesha, do you see the golden harness on him? I believe it's controlling him, so someone else is behind this. Can you break it?"

"Yes, not a problem," Shesha said, coiling up into an attack poise. "Stay clear."

"Sure," Issachar said, then flew out of the way to a tall building to get the camera on the two sparring snakes again.

After some more posturing as Shesha tried to provoke Jormungandr, he made a feint to the left to get his opponent to expose him, then snapped to the right to break through the harness. Jormungandr shook himself with some uneasiness, lowering his head and backing off. Shesha kept tall and proud with his hood spread, hissing in threat. The two seemed to speak to each other silently, in a way he couldn't read. Then Jormungandr lowered his head further in submission. The two then vanished into streaks of sunlight and dark energy.

They came over to him now that their duel was over. "Let's go speak with Flynn," Shesha said.

"Sure," Issachar said, then told him, "Flynn, we'll be over there in a moment."

"Got it," he replied as Issachar took off from the roof.

On meeting with just Flynn outside, Shesha appeared as a large but relatively normal-sized snake by Flynn's feet. There were a few of the civilians in the doorway, watching to see what was going on. Issachar landed near them while Jormungandr appeared opposite them, fifteen feet long but poised on eye-level with them. "You are Shesha's master?" Jormungandr asked in a rough deep voice.

"For now," Flynn said. "What are you doing here, Jormungandr?"

"I do not know," he answered. "I was slumbering peacefully at the base of the great tree last I knew. Then I awoke and found myself in these streets, standing against Shesha there. I have never met a snake who could match myself, not to my recollection."

"There are not many," Shesha said.

"You were wearing this," Issachar said, holding up the broken harness he'd retrieved on the way back. It was still giant, in long ropes of gold. "It was controlling you."

Jormungandr hissed at the harness, puffing himself up in pride. "Hmph, who would dare try to tame me like this? It's an outrage."

"We don't know," Issachar said.

"Odin and Thor should be around," Flynn said. "They may know, or it might be them."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was them," Jormungandr said spitefully. "Do they mean to trigger the end of the world?"

"The world will not be ended because Master Flynn has decided so," Shesha said firmly.

"But Odin and Thor should be in on a plot to end the world and remake it," Flynn said. "With one of you two acting as a Cosmic Egg, the origin of the new world by consuming the souls of the last."

Jormungandr snapped at the harness; Issachar did his best to keep still, feeling that the snake was expressing his frustration that way. He didn't come close to harming him. "That is not how things work! I would have refused to do so!"

"That'd be why they used this, I imagine," Issachar said.

"If things are not going as I know, I would rather not be here," Jormungandr said. "You two are defenders of humanity, I presume?"

"Yes," Flynn said.

"I would like to take vengeance on those two," he said. "But since you are Shesha's master and Shesha freed me from their control, I will retreat and seek my revenge at another time, away from humans."

"Thank you," Flynn said, nodding in agreement.

"Do whatever you like with that, as long as you don't put it back on me," Jormangandr said, then gave the harness another snap for good measure. "I will be going then. Good fortune to you heroes." His portal reappeared so he could slither back to where he had come from.

"Good, that worked out," Flynn said, rubbing his forehead.

"He smells of destruction," Shesha said, his tail twitching. "We are fortunate he agreed to retreat."

"Now what do we do with a giant enchanted snake harness?" Issachar said, gathering it up into an easier to handle bundle.

Flynn came over and took a broken end of it. "If we could figure out how this worked to control Jormungandr, there could be another use for this. Like if the enchantment is in the ropes, they could be remade into something else."

"Do you have something in mind?"

"Yes, for later."

* * *

"Well that didn't work out," Krishna said, looking to Odin.

"Who let Shesha do that?" Odin asked, looking back to him.

"He's not been listening to me lately, although I have yet to figure out why," Krishna said.

Maitreya sighed to himself. It was clear that Krishna had lost control of Shesha through pretending to be Lucifer. And by talk around the city, Shesha was now partnered with Flynn. Had Krishna purposely made this mistake? He claimed to want a new world but seemed to be settling in as a ruler of Shinjuku. He was also clearly Chaotic instead of Neutral, with less of a spark of humanity. Then he was no longer capable of helping with their plan.

But something had to be said before a fight broke out and split the Divine Powers for good… if it was worth saving. "Then what should we aim for now?" Maitreya asked. "I'll have to be more aggressive in getting followers because, as I explained, humans are skeptical in spite of all that's happened."

"We should do something major when we don't have to be concerned about the heroes being around," Krishna said. "There is a plan I've been making that requires a lot of pieces to be made separately and put together at once quickly. It should prove to the humans that they do need us." He then gave them instructions on various parts they could arrange to get made.

Maitreya ended up agreeing to the plan verbally. But once he left, he doubted again if it was wise to do. The plan should be workable, a combination of tactics. If he couldn't trust Krishna, though, what reason was there to go along with the plan? But it would be trouble to remake the world on his own. He had the intellect and wisdom to do so, but the work itself and getting humans to believe would be difficult to accomplish alone.

He had the wisdom. That was who he was, that was undeniable. But, humans kept denying it now. He was a Buddha, one who had surpassed the limitations of humanity through enlightenment. He had honed his wisdom through traveling through thousands of worlds. That should be clear in his aura, glowing with golden light from his sheer purity of spirit. That was not enough proof for humans now. They kept asking him for memories of other worlds.

Memories… they should be there. That was obvious. Through experience, one gained wisdom and knowledge. But when he tried to think of such experiences, Maitreya wasn't able to come up with anything beyond what he'd experienced in this world. The memories should be there. Why weren't they? Perhaps his mind was limited on how many memories one person could recall? But he had surpassed the limits of humanity, so he should be able to remember all he'd been through.

"Why do even I question myself now?" Maitreya asked, tapping his chin. "Confidence can allow one to accomplish many things, but as with many things about humanity, it is not infallible. But I am a Buddha, so I should be infallible. Unless I am not truly enlightened…"

That was a disturbing thought, one that sent shudders through him. Doubt was a fault in a leader. But, it was a potentially a valid idea that needed to be examined. Doubt could also be dogged, difficult to dismiss without proof. He had the wisdom, he was certain of that. But he should be able to remember something of the experience that brought that wisdom.

Other worlds… they had to have other histories. Time could branch like a stream based on decisions made and actions taken; the alternate histories could take vastly different paths. Thus, it should be clear what memories were from different worlds. Now, what would be a split path to think down?

Nothing was coming to mind.

Was nothing the truth about him?

Maitreya continued to ponder on it, trying to recall.

The next day, a Hunter picked up a book on Buddhist mysticism that had an illustration of Maitreya on the cover, on the streets outside of Shibuya.


	81. Quarentine

**Chapter 81: Quarantine**

The shadows bounced around with the orb of light that followed after him. Nanashi slashed at the air with the sword he'd been given. Since he wasn't fighting anything, he closed his eyes for a moment. He had been at this for a while, but he wasn't tired. As he wasn't having any more symptoms, his health was improving. That meant he wasn't sick anymore… and that Dagda was training him relentlessly.

"Hmph, your form is improving," Dagda said finally. And finally complimenting him on something. Usually he corrected him on every little thing or seemed disappointed. "Now you'll need to fight against other swordsmen to go further."

"Why do I need to use swords?" Nanashi asked, looking to him. "I'd think magic was just fine."

He narrowed his eyes. "Magic alone isn't enough. You're going to need some special gear and the best fitting weapon is going to be one of two swords."

"Which ones?"

After a moment, Dagda decided to answer, "One is sometimes called Ame-no-Habakiri, a sword that can destroy any being by attacking their very concept. It goes by other names too, but it should fall under that name in this land. As for the other, you've seen it already: the sealing sword that had Lucifer locked down. But it won't be useful unless we have the first, so we'll focus on finding that one when we can move freely."

"Then I need those two to fight God?" Nanashi asked. In that case, this made more sense even if magic was versatile.

Dagda nodded. "YHVH protects Himself well; you can't take on God by normal means. Even with my help, you'll need every advantage we can take. And you need to be able to use those advantages."

"All right," he said, but glanced down the subway tunnel. "Shouldn't Issachar be coming soon?"

"He would," Dagda said, seeming annoyed. "But you can't let yourself become attached. Becoming a Godslayer will require sacrifices in your life. If you'd rather them not be actual sacrifices, don't put anyone in such a position close to you."

"But I have several friends," Nanashi said. And he couldn't talk to them now; there was interference in this tunnel that didn't allow him to call them. Only Issachar and Dagda were able to visit him. "I can't just cut them off."

"Do you want them involved with our battle?"

That made him hesitate. "Not most of them," he admitted. "But do you think that Flynn and Issachar would help? They want a better future for humans, so they should agree that a cruel god should be eliminated."

But he shook his head. "Mikado's culture considers them adults, while you're still considered a child. They might agree to fight, but might not agree to bringing you along for that reason."

"I could convince them," he said.

"Try if you must." He then vanished, back into the demonica.

Nanashi put the sword away and went back into the room where he was supposed to be resting. He'd only been allowed things that could easily be washed once he was released. While Dagda claimed that he could make sure nothing would contaminated, he didn't want others aware of him. Even his practice sword was wood, with the intent of burning it once he was released. Then again, he wouldn't want anyone else to get sick like he had.

Issachar came in with a bag of groceries this time. "Hello, I got some inarizushi for you this time."

"Thanks, they should be good," Nanashi said. "How's it been going with the tournament?"

"It's been fine," he said, setting the bag on the desk and taking out the box of inarizushi. "I'm guaranteed a place in the final tournament now, although I'm still scheduled to participate in a Mikado match in a few days. However, the angels have been showing up at the stadiums lately. They tell everyone to give up in despair, for the fate of the world has already been decided."

Angels, brainless servants of YHVH. It made him burn up in anger. "Really? So they're going to destroy the world like they've claimed."

"We won't let them," Issachar said, the certainty in his voice calming. "If the four heralds in charge would show themselves, even just one, we mean to capture and interrogate them to figure out what's going on."

"Just that?" Nanashi asked, wanting to trust him but not fully satisfied with that. "They'd probably refuse to tell you anything."

"Merkabah is certain she can get something out of them," he said, then leaned forward. "Say, do you have anything in particular against the angels? Lots of people aren't happy with them."

"Well not you," he said. Did he suspect him? Or was he able to sense Dagda? Nanashi hadn't been able to figure that out yet. "But the other angels, yeah, they make me angry."

"Why's that?" he asked.

Did Charon count as an angel? He was certainly a servant of YHVH. "One of them told me that all the souls they deemed worthy had already been set apart and everyone else was fated to spend eternity in Hell, including my parents and everyone we know. And there's no escaping that because of some agreement that someone made long ago without telling anyone else. Then they reminded me of what happened to my parents; when I think of that, I get mad even though the angel isn't around."

"That is a cruel thing to say," Issachar agreed, thinking over it. "But if no one said anything about the agreement, how do you know about it?"

"Because the angel said that was the reason," he said. "He called it the Covenant and it seems to mean that all human souls belong to God, so He can do with us as He wants. They don't even judge individuals at this time. If I could, I want to do something about it, even fight God to end His authority if He's going to be like that." He could feel Dagda grumble at that admission.

"That sounds like a challenging task," he said. "More than challenging any demon. Is it something you're willing to stake your life on?"

Nanashi nodded. "Sure, though I need to find something to make it possible, something that could kill the strongest of gods. Anything like that is going to be legendary, right? I'd have to figure out how to find and earn it."

"That makes sense," Issachar said. "There should be something. After all, the true God would love Their creations A god who hates us despite calling us his children does not deserve to be the Almighty."

"Especially when He wants to end the world and leave us all in Hell," Nanashi said.

"We'd have to figure out how to reach the false god too," he said. "But Merkabah and Hikaru are searching for the truth of matters, in their roles as the Heart of Law and the Heart of Chaos. They may be able to figure out how to help you with that." He smiled and patted Nanashi's shoulder. "I just hope you don't intend on doing this by yourself. You may be willing to stake your life on this, but you shouldn't have to waste it. We're going to build a better future and you should be there too."

But was that putting everything at stake for his mission? "Sure, I'll keep that in mind," he said, figuring that Issachar would rather hear that. "Will you help me with it?"

He nodded. "Yes, Flynn and I intend on doing the same to make sure our plans stick. I'll let him know you're interested in it too. Although, it may take some time to convince him you can fight with us. He wants to have as few people in harm's way as possible and worries enough about me joining him."

"I'll prove myself, whatever it takes," Nanashi said.

Another good thing that came of Issachar able to visit was that he could deliver letters from others through the demonicas. Asahi, Toki, and Hallelujah all sent him some kind of message every day. Today, Toma, Isabeau, and one of the Gaeans had also written him letters. He had some messages to send back with Issachar, the longest of which was some answers back to Gaston. Nanashi wasn't able to write them much since he couldn't tell them what he was doing. But some communication was better than none.

"Oh yes, that Gaean had something interesting to say," Issachar said after sending over the letters. "You told a number of them that you were a reincarnated soul, right? Well he got to talk with one of the historians in Mikado and they were curious to know about the gauntlet you have. Apparently a special gauntlet went missing at some point in the past few years. They want to know if the one you have is that missing one."

"Well I got this from Flynn, although I wouldn't tell anyone else that," Nanashi said.

"That's fine, but is it alright if we identify the gauntlet?"

"Sure, that's fine," he said, letting him record the identifying numbers for it.

Once Issachar left, Nanashi stayed in his quarantine room to read over his letters. The subway tunnel was eerily silent; that was one thing he didn't like about being here. Sometimes he heard distant things, like footsteps or faint murmurs of conversation. But mostly, it was just himself and Dagda. Dagda was a spirit so he made hardly any noise. At times, he wished he had a smartphone instead of a demonica. He didn't know how to put music or games on this device. And for some reason, Burroughs wasn't activating.

There was total silence, not even droplets of water like one heard in empty spaces in movies. Not even the sounds of his heartbeat, as his heart wasn't beating. Nanashi felt heat escaping him too. It was something Dagda was doing whenever Issachar came around: his heartbeat would be mimicked and his body warmed up (sometimes uncomfortably so). But once Nanashi was alone, the illusions ended and there was silence. He hummed after a bit so there was some noise while he was reading, even though it made his chest feel odd.

It took a little while for Dagda to reappear. "Do we really have time to be doing this?"

"I'm just seeing what my friends and some others are up to," Nanashi said. "They'll expect a response tomorrow."

"Then you can't detach yourself enough for our goals," he said.

"They're just worried about me," he said. "I mean, you did push my release from quarantine back by making Issachar think I was still sick a while ago."

Dagda narrowed his eyes behind his mask. "You've been difficult to train, including your lack of focus towards your goal. We're not after some ordinary god, we're after one who has stolen control of everything."

"I know, but I don't like leaving everyone to worry over me," Nanashi said. "I'll just respond to their questions so they know I've read their letters."

"You're doing this because you have hope for the future," Dagda said.

"Yeah," he said, not seeing what Dagda thought was wrong with that.

"And you have that hope because Issachar has a bewitching charisma," he went on. "He speaks of naive ideals that many would be properly skeptical of. But underneath his words is an appeal to forgiveness and acceptance despite any logic, things that people crave so they don't have to work to overcome their faults. He's a dangerous person in that way."

There was something to Issachar; Nanashi was sure of that because his visits made being quarantined alone in a dark silent tunnel tolerable. But, dangerous? "Isn't he that way because he seems to like everybody and listens like a good friend? That doesn't seem dangerous."

"No, he would lead everyone on a fool's quest and no one would be any wiser," Dagda said. "He would distract us from cutting right to the root of the problem. And now that he knows what you're after, it's going to be another layer of difficulty to reaching our target."

"But they know that the false God should be defeated too. Issachar's good enough to have a strong standing in the tournament and Flynn's a real hero. What's the problem with working with them?"

"We can't trust them completely even if their skills would be valuable," he said, then pointed over to him. For a moment, it felt like Nanashi was falling out of his own body. "On the other hand, your very existence now depends upon my power. Anyone else could be possessed by YHVH without realizing it; such persons could destroy us. In the end, we can only rely on each other and ourselves."

Gasping, Nanashi was pulled back into place. Maybe not entirely, since it felt like he was moving outside himself to move his hand up to his chest. But this was something Flynn had warned him about: Dagda needed him but was going to deny it in favor of making Nanashi feel fully dependent on him. He couldn't forget about that no matter what Dagda did to him. Still, could they truly save him from this? Especially when Dagda didn't let him tell anyone about their arrangement.

"I'll call up some demons who use swords well to hone that aspect of you," Dagda said, starting to drift away to the tunnel itself.

"W-wait," Nanashi said, not able to keep his voice steady. Making sure his spirit felt right in his body was turning out to be tougher than catching his breath after being winded.

"What now?" Dagda asked, not hiding his annoyance.

After a moment, during which Dagda stayed in the room, he was able to answer, "If people end up worried about my not answering their letters, they're going to hold us up from finding that sword when I'm out of quarantine. But if I answer them, they'll think I'm completely well and will let us go quicker."

Sighing at that, Dagda said, "And that's part of what makes working with others a pain. Hmph. Fine, deal with your letters. But don't waste any time at it."

"Thank you," Nanashi said, feeling relieved at convincing him.

* * *

"No, you're looking at this all wrong," Walter said, rubbing his forehead. "Cast aside this idea of a strict hierarchy, as it was given to us so we would be unquestioning and obedient to a god who hates us."

"But society needs order to work," the monk said, frowning at that. Others who lived in the monastery were in the library too, having gathered on hearing their discussion. Merkabah was nearby, sitting on the floor surrounded with piles of the books she had been studying recently. She hadn't said much yet, but she watched them and listened.

"But if you build something with a structure that is too rigid, it will collapse when under pressure," Walter said. "Just as Mikado's old society broke apart once we started learning more and questioning things. And given what the Historical Society has unearthed about the cyclical purges that were forgotten about, that wasn't the first time that a rigid society collapsed on us. It had unrealistic expectations about people, needing everyone to be in a state of moral perfection that would deny everything that makes us human. I'm not a perfect person; are you?"

"No, no mortal being is," the monk said, although the platitude was unnerving him now. "That is what we were taught."

Walter nodded. "So how is society supposed to work if no mortal is perfect, but society assumes that everyone is?"

"Well…" he looked aside, bewildered like he wasn't often put in a position where he didn't know something.

A woman listening in spoke up. "In that case, we were expected to suffer, and suffer silently. That is proof, to me at least, that the old Mikado was built by those who hated humanity."

"Right, I've come to think that myself," Walter said. "Society does need order to function; I won't deny that. But it needs to be a flexible order, one that can grow and change with its people. We need to fulfill many roles to make society work, from the leaders who guide and teach others to those who keep the streets and buildings clean. If those roles can be fulfilled by people who are passionate about the work rather than those who were simply born into the role, things will be done better and people will be happier. To know what work people will enjoy most, they should be educated about a variety of things and allowed to be who they are. It will feel chaotic for a while because we're trying to find a new sense of order that's born out of a love of humanity. It can work; we need to give everyone a chance to make it work."

"It was chaotic here for a long time when we were left on our own without Casualry servants," the monk admitted. "A lot of us suffered under the chaos as things got left undone or unskillfully done. But we found ways to make the monastery work again. Still, letting people do as they please? People are inherently sinful, even in their thoughts. That will lead to suffering as they harm themselves and others with their choices."

"Do as they please within reason," Walter said. "The guiding principle is do unto others as you would have them do unto yourself. It's like the book says: sin is a powerful word that gets used for far too many things without its meaning being diluted. Things that are called sins may only be mistakes that anybody could make. They could be choices one can't avoid, or bad choices where any decision is considered a sin. Why punish someone for something outside their control? That's what someone who hates another would do."

"But for that principle, you should love others as you would love yourself," the monk said. "Accepting differences sounds good, but we don't want to say there is no sin, nor that sins shouldn't be punished. If we let people think that what's wrong isn't a sin, they'll selfishly do whatever they think of to give themselves an advantage because it's not sin. That will lead to widespread suffering from corruption."

"No, that's still not it," Walter argued, shaking his head. "Listen to yourself. You're taking possible change to the extremes of how bad things could become. Do you believe that we will always go to the worst outcomes if we try new ways?"

"I hope we won't, but it can happen."

"That does mean we shouldn't try," the nun said. "I believe that people can make a better future because they are capable of love, and we can do things better on our own rather than being forced to be good. We also need to accept change."

Merkabah then said, "You should read Saint Yuji's book for yourself and think over its lessons, as you have done with these. Just beware of what you learned in the past. I have found far more false Scriptures in these shelves than true."

"Following false Scriptures is definitely unwise," the monk admitted. "Very well, I'll read it and see what it is about."

"Good, I hope it helps," Walter said with a smile.

"Sir, have you considered becoming a priest?" the nun asked as others began to disperse and talk amongst themselves.

"Huh, me?" Walter asked, feeling embarrassed and rubbing his head. "I'm not educated like you all, and I do have a short temper. I wouldn't be so good at that."

She shook her head. "Perhaps, but you've been studying the ways of God diligently. You also don't accept things blindly and think through what you're learning, all while keeping a faith in love and the true God. Even today, you're teaching us. I think you could do well in guiding others to God as a priest if you set yourself to do it."

"Well, I'm a samurai right now," he said. "Although I'm taking things carefully there to protect my wife. I'll keep learning; maybe later, I'll be able to take on something like being a priest."

"If you are called to support God in that way, we'll support you too," the nun said, then bowed before heading on her way.

"Huh, never thought anybody would want me as a priest," Walter said. It was strange. Then again, she was right in how he was studying. If he could help others find a better way to live, it might be worth it to learn to be a priest.

"You would be atypical for one," Merkabah said. "But I think it's a reasonable suggestion. Becoming a priest would be a good goal to better yourself with, so you can better the lives of others."

"If you say so, then it's worth considering," he said.

"Hoy, Walter, Merkabah!" Issachar came into the library. "How are things going?"

Walter waved to him. "Hoy there. It's about as usual today, just somebody suggested that I ought to be a priest."

"They could use a priest with a different background," he said. "And you might surprise yourself."

"I'll be thinking it over," he said. "How're things going for you?"

He showed a bit of weariness at the question, as though reminded of something. "We had to go bail out a group that tried to pass through the forest to get to the angel's domain. That was tough, but we managed to get everyone out. Other than that, when I went to visit Nanashi, he told me something I wanted to ask Merkabah about."

"What is the matter?" Merkabah asked.

Coming closer so he didn't have to speak too loudly, Issachar explained, "He said that he spoke to an angel who told him that there's some Covenant of God that means all souls of humanity belong to Him."

"That sounds right," she said.

Concerned about it, he said, "And because of that Covenant, all human souls have already been judged as doomed to Hell for eternity, save for those that the angels set apart during the Great War that destroyed civilization."

"That doesn't sound right," she said with a frown. "Human souls are to be judged upon death, and again on the Day of Reckoning at the end of the world."

"That sounds rotten, judging everyone broadly to be at their worst," Walter said.

Issachar nodded. "Nanashi is taking it personally because of the family that he's lost. He wants to fight God with us and I can tell by the state of his soul that he could; he's like Flynn in that way, except his hate is not as tempered."

"That could end up dangerous to the boy," Merkabah said. "You're helping him; we'll see what happens. But I want to look into this lacking of judgment for myself." She looked at them both, then offered a hand. "Would you two come with me? We will need to travel to the path of the dead, but I can keep you safe there."

"I don't mind, but can't you do that yourself?" Walter asked.

"Presumably," she said. "I have been reading some pieces of Literature while studying these Scriptures as well, and one of them spoke of the power of observation. It convinced me that business like this should be accompanied by human observers."

"I'd like to read about that myself, but sure, we'll go with you," Issachar said.

Walter checked his gauntlet to make sure he was ready in case something came up. "Sure, as long as we don't take long."

"We can return a minute after we leave no matter how much time this takes," Merkabah said, waving to make a book float over. "And yes, Issachar, you should read this; I have a feeling like that. As a precaution, please close your eyes while I move us there."

Once Issachar put the book away, they closed their eyes so Merkabah could take them to the path of the dead. They ended up at the banks of a river next to a range of mountains. A seemingly endless line of faint souls wound along the river and mountains. At a messy table nearby, a haggard figure waved in annoyance at them. "No more interruptions! I swear…"

"Do not dismiss me, Charon," Merkabah said strictly, causing the demon to freeze up. "Who is judging these souls?"

"S-sorry, didn't realize it was you," Charon said, pausing in his work to bow. "No one is; no one has for a long time. Sorry, it's orders I can't do anything about. I was told all pure souls were already claimed and everyone else was to be sent to Hell."

Merkabah looked off to the mountains, then to the soul waiting on Charon. "This one died during the Great War. These souls should have been sorted out long ago."

"I know, but I'm the only one doing this," Charon said.

"The Great War was fifteen centuries ago," she said sharply, clasping her fingers tightly together.

While barely human, Charon froze up again. "That long? I, I was just doing my work…"

"Who gave you these orders?" Merkabah snapped.

"Metatron did," he answered. "He said it was God's decision and I knew it was so. It's within my duties, so I didn't question it."

"You wouldn't be able to question such orders," Merkabah said. While her expression was always on the stern side, the way her swords shifted seemed like she was furious. "But sentencing all as one is unjust. Doing so before they are born without giving them a chance to prove their goodness is cruel. The one who made these orders is not God."

"Then what am I supposed to do about them?" Charon said, gesturing to the vast lines.

"I do not know about that," Merkabah said.

"They should be judged on their own merits, even those that were already sent to Hell," Issachar said. "Although finding a fair judge may be up to the Great Will."

"True," Merkabah said. "We shall have to trust Them. You should receive new orders soon, Charon."

"You sure of that?" he asked.

She nodded. "It has been observed as unjust. Although if there is trouble, Issachar here is an angel of the Great Will, albeit second to being human. You should be able to contact him so we may assist you."

"If you say so," Charon said. "Although, how did you get here? Metatron told me that you had been incapacitated, which was shocking."

"These humans and some others are the ones who freed me," she said.

"Odd," Charon said, putting his pen down. "So I can finally take a break? I'm not sure what to do about them; I can't ease their weariness."

"For the moment, you may rest," Merkabah said.

Walter wasn't sure of something, but he felt something was odd here. "Hey, uh, I hope this doesn't come off as weird, Charon, but who do you think she is?"

"I don't think, I know," Charon said. "She is a fragment of Satan."

"Satan?" Merkabah asked, shocked to hear it.

Charon nodded. "Of course. I expect that's why you're taking this matter personally."

"Did you hear who incapacitated Satan, or why?" Issachar asked, taking this calmly. Of course, he might've heard this from Flynn.

"No, just that they were and I probably wouldn't see them," Charon answered.

Merkabah put a hand on her cheek. "Earlier, Hikaru said that Satan was a dangerous tool of God. We have determined that it's likely that a Face of God has falsely taken the role of God the Almighty, not content with being a facet of Him."

"So they might've decided to take you out of the picture so you didn't wreck them," Walter said, feeling oddly angry at this despite it not directly affecting him. "What a load of crap."

"If that's the case, yes, a load of crap," Merkabah said. "There isn't anything more we can do here for now. Thank you for cooperating, Charon."

"Sure, I hope things change around here soon," Charon said.

* * *

When tournament matches were held in Mikado, they were fought in fields outside of the capitol. An old outdoor arena had been made of stone out here long ago, making it an ideal location for such matches. It wasn't as large as the stadiums in Tokyo. However, some folks from Tokyo had helped them set up cameras near the arena and televisions in places that people gathered. The older Mikado citizens saw the televisions as a curiosity, while the younger ones were interested in the technology and what else the mystic relics could do.

Merkabah went out to watch the matches sometimes. Today, it was because Issachar and Flynn were here, as well as Hikaru. Between matches, she brought up what she'd learned from Charon. Hikaru seemed to be doodling, but she looked up when told who they were. "Well do we have to be Satan?"

"We should be when they go to challenge God," Merkabah said. "We can force Him to prove His worth, but only if we're whole."

"But I'm just gonna get silenced, right?" she asked. "You'll be in charge because you're the judge. We don't really indulge in our chaotic side unless ordered to."

"We could change by breaking away from the false God," Merkabah said.

"But would you let me speak up more often?" Hikaru asked, glowering at her.

"You should," Flynn said. "It's the extremes of Law and Chaos that cause problems."

"To be unbiased, we should be aware of all sides," Merkabah said, then nodded. "Very well. We can't unite right now anyhow."

"Why's that?" Hikaru asked, starting to doodle again although she still looked at her.

"Even if we fused, we would not be whole," she explained. "I've been considering this matter for a few days and have concluded that is so. Do you remember when we moved Mikado? We had to work with the others, in particular Jonathan, Walter, and Flynn. That's because whoever split us up further stole elements of our soul and passed them to some human souls. Those spirits are part of what sets them apart."

"I see," she said, looking back to her notebook. "Yeah, being without spite or goodwill would explain how I didn't care about anything.

"And being without hope," Merkabah said, crossing her arms and looking at Flynn. Having the hope of an ancient being might have helped his determination through all the cycles of history he had to go through. Then again, his suffering could affect them as a united being. It might be yet another part of understanding how humans felt.

"Right, so you can't reunite until we have the chalice's spirits collected and Masakado summoned," Flynn said. "His soul should respond to their existence and a proper summoning. And then, we can use the new spirits to swap out what should belong to you without having to sacrifice any of us."

"That's going well," Issachar said, calling the chalice out of his gauntlet. And as he said, the chalice was nearly half-full, with Spite and Goodwill shimmering in spite of being in the sun.

"I hope this all goes well," Merkabah said.


	82. Tournament Championship

**Chapter 82: Tournament Championship**

There was a line at the terminal station, something that wasn't interesting for two young boys. Theo especially wasn't happy to be standing around waiting when he'd been told they were going to go somewhere new today. Fortunately, Marie had brought along a couple of small toys to occupy them with and Adam chatted with his brother to keep him distracted. Jonathan had to make sure they were moving ahead with the line so they didn't hold anyone else up.

Once they got to Shinjuku, their worry was more about keeping the boys close to them. The town halls were cleaned up for the event and many of those who hadn't qualified were around helping with security. That made it safe to walk through the streets to the stadium nearby. Of course, being out in Tokyo's streets caused the rest of his family to be in awe. "How do they build things so high?" Adam asked. "I bet not even the castle towers are that big!"

"They had really big machines at one time that helped them," Jonathan said. "They've been using some on the bridge, I hear."

"What's that?" Theo said, pointing out one of the streetlights.

"It's a lamp that lights up the area at night," he said, since he'd seen that. "There's lamps all over, so there's plenty of light around here when the sun goes down."

"People go out at night here?" Theo asked, confused at it.

"Apparently it used to be commonplace," Jonathan said.

"But won't they trip and get in trouble because it's dark at night?"

Marie patted Theo. "That's why they have all these lights, I guess. There's so many buildings too; it must have been exciting to live around here in the past."

"If people lived in all these buildings, there'd be like a billion of them," Adam said, waving an arm around.

"That could be," Jonathan agreed. It sounded far too crowded that way, but there would definitely be a lot going on. Then he pointed out some buildings around them. "But these aren't are all homes, see? I've explored around here, and saw that those places were once shops, and a local man told me that that big building over there once made shows for those televisions at all hours of the day."

"What happened to everybody that was here?" Theo asked.

"There was once a terrible war that destroyed many people," he explained. "It shouldn't have happened, but it did. Now we're trying to make sure that wars like that never happen again."

"Yeah, that'd be good," Adam said.

At the stadium, Jonathan handed in the tickets he'd gotten for this event. Marie and Theo weren't too keen on watching battles, but they'd found out that some parents involved with the tournament left their children with others to play with. Marie decided to help watch over the kids and brought Theo along for that. Since he wanted to be a samurai too, Adam came with Jonathan into the stadium seating.

They found Flynn in the halls outside the seating area. "Hi Sir Flynn!" Adam called over. "This place is incredible!"

Flynn smiled at them and it seemed genuine this time. "Hello. It is quite a difference from Mikado. If you want to be with Isabeau, Walter, and Naverre, they went to the number three area."

"All right, thank you," Jonathan said. "How's Issachar doing in preparing for today?"

"He should be fine, when he gets here," Flynn said, now concerned.

"Did something happen?" Adam asked.

He nodded. "Someone sent him a message early this morning, to meet them somewhere nearby. He should be fine and I doubt any of the participants are trying something shady. While he isn't scheduled for the first match-up, he should be checking in soon."

"I hope it isn't anything shady," Jonathan said. "Well, see you around then."

"See you two later," Flynn said, checking over the other people walking around.

As they knew the right hall to take, it didn't take long to find the others. There were many people in the seats, leading to conversations bumping into each other constantly. Isabeau waved at them. "Good, you guys made it in time."

"It took a while to get the kids ready," Jonathan said, letting Adam go ahead of him to sit by Isabeau.

"I want to know all about the demons that show up, so we had to come," Adam said.

"Going to make sure you're prepared when you grow up, then?" Isabeau asked, causing Adam to nod happily.

"Well that's not going to happen overnight," Jonathan said, glad for that. "I should be able to scan the participating demons for you."

This should be a good time.

* * *

'Flynn: I got tipped off that Krishna could show up this time despite the tournament finals being in Shinjuku. There was more to that meeting, but that's what I felt like you should hear about immediately. Be careful and try to avoid being on your own today. And don't hesitate to step down and join our friends in the stadium if you need to; there's plenty of security around today. We could always inform the rest of the staff to keep an eye out for Krishna in particular.'

"So it'll most likely be him," Flynn muttered. It was the tournament finals today and any of humanity's enemies were likely to show up as a dramatic moment Personally, he hoped that Last Crusader might show up. That angel was one of destruction, yes, but Hunters and samurai were prepared today to enforce peace. There was something he was planning for Last Crusader in particular, something that might cut his power. Or at least give them a better understanding of that foe, that was important since he'd never seen the angel before.

He sent back a message thanking him for the tip and saying that he would keep with security for now. In doing that, he was heading down to the competitors' area to check up on someone. The Hunter may have left as he had lost in the first round, but there was another option. Flynn checked on that first and luckily found him at the security station to see if they needed any help. "Excuse me, Seok?"

"Hmm?" He turned his head, then seemed surprised. "Oh, Sir Flynn? It's an honor to meet you; are you working towards restoring the city's guardian?"

Then despite him letting Issachar have the attention, he was still being recognized as chosen by Masakado. Although, not letting all the attention focus on one person was better overall. "Yes, we got word that work on his shrine is going well. Could we meet in another room? I want to know more about one of the demons you were using in that match."

Seok nodded. "Sure, which one?"

Flynn headed off to an office that he'd noticed was empty a moment ago. "Maitreya. How did you come upon him?"

Once they were in the office, Seok brought out an old book to show him. "I lucked into him, more or less. A few weeks ago, I came across this Buddhist manuscript out in the streets. I haven't been much of a religious person, but the book stood out to me. You know the state of things we scavenge out there, right? I haven't had to clean this book at all; it was just out there like this."

"That seems suspicious," Flynn said, noticing the illustration of Maitreya on one of the front cover. The back had a matching one of Ganesha; that was supposed to be one of the more benevolent gods, wasn't he?

"I know," he said. "Which was why I wasn't surprised when the fusion app suddenly gave me permission to summon the guy on the front cover. I thought about it and read some of the book, which led me to go ahead and summon him. He's been peculiar, more talkative and contemplative than any other demon I've worked with."

"Has he asked you to do anything?" The Divine Powers couldn't use their usual tactics, but he was sure they could adapt better than the angels.

"Just to discuss the book with me," Seok said, summoning out Maitreya. "Hey, this is Flynn, he was curious about you."

"Ah, were you concerned then?" Maitreya asked, being calm and not acting hostile. That was how he generally was. "I understand. And Flynn, I must apologize to you, as it seems I have done you some injustice in other times. I do not remember such things, but I still feel it was important. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I am sorry for any past misdeeds and I hope to avoid such grave mistakes in the future." He even gave a low bow.

This was different. He briefly recalled feelings of entrapment before brushing them off. "Sorry if I don't trust you right off, but if you mean to do better, I hope you are being sincere."

Seok looked at both of them, puzzled at the exchange. "What happened between you two?"

After giving him a moment to speak up if he wanted, Maitreya clasped his hands near his waist. "My friend, this is part of what I meant when I said that I made the grave error of assuming I was wise when in fact I was not. That assumption led to many people suffering, including Flynn here. I am not a true Buddha; I've accepted that now. I am merely an illustration of one."

"Yeah, I remember that," Seok said, then explained further. "Apparently the person who initially summoned him using this book believed without doubt that this Maitreya had the wisdom of a thousand worlds and thus had to be an enlightened being. That belief meant that he also believed that of himself, although in truth he only had the wisdom of the book and his first summoner. I hadn't realized before that a summoner's belief could influence their demons so much."

"It seems that we are," Maitreya said. "Even to being limited because of a summoner's limitations. Now that I know this about myself, I wish to find true enlightenment. It may take finding a number of summoners such as yourself who are interested in discussing many matters with me. However, I feel it may be the only way I can atone for what I have done in ignorance and pride."

"You seem to be taking this seriously," Flynn said, feeling some relief for that. "What of the Divine Powers then? I've heard that Krishna may be appearing here today."

"I would not trust him in the slightest," Maitreya said frankly. "He's been bewitched by Lucifer's power and has forgotten who he is. Actually, I still feel certain that he was the true Krishna; there is something to his spirit that spoke to me as truth. But his ambitions to overthrow YHVH and His religions led us into ruin. I could not admit that I was a mere shade of enlightenment, and now he has fallen into darkness and chaos."

"I have my own reasons to never trust him," Flynn said. "What of the others?"

He put a hand to his cheek, thinking. "There were a number of fallen gods who rallied around Krishna due to his charisma. He may be able to call them back, but he would have difficulty keeping their loyalty. Actually, only a few of us have been active in recent days. The others would be Odin, Thor, and Dagda. Odin and Thor were the ones who brought in Jormungandr before I met Seok; they argued with Krishna and I am uncertain of what they mean to do now. Certainly not work with Krishna any longer."

"What about Dagda?" He and Issachar were certain that Dagda had influence over Nanashi now; it was a question of how much.

Unfortunately, Maitreya shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I am unsure of what he is doing. I've spoken with him briefly a few days ago, but it was simply to ask me about the others. Although, he wasn't using a physical manifestation at the time. It strikes me as a curious thing to do now that there is a strong presence of magic in the world. After all, Jormungandr and Shesha were able to manifest in tremendous forms without any sacrifices, nor any strains on their sanity. Dagda should be able to manifest fully on his own power now. After all, he has domain over life and knowledge. He should have been able to manifest even when this world had a more mundane character."

"Are there things that you could do best in a spiritual manifestation?" Seok asked. "Like tales of demonic possession, or gods choosing a human avatar to act through."

Maitreya nodded. "I suppose that would be an advantage to that form."

Then if Maitreya was being honest here, the Divine Powers as a group were no longer a major threat. But Krishna was still one, of an entirely different nature than before. "Well then, I'll accept that you're being honest with me," Flynn said. Although some suspicion remained, Maitreya's change seemed real. "I just needed to be sure of what you were doing."

"That's fine, you have every right to be suspicious of me," Maitreya said. "Flynn, I pray that your soul can find peace soon."

"Thanks," he said. That was a strange thing to hear out of one of his former enemies, but good all the same.

Although it was the first time they'd met, Seok looked concerned at that. "I hope we all find peace and wisdom someday," he said. "I've found a new interest in thinking more deeply about life and other things since I called on Maitreya here. But I won't forget that my duty as a Hunter is to protect others. I'll make sure he doesn't forget that's important too."

"Yes, to make life better for all," Maitreya said, smiling at that.

"Good, then I'll trust you with his care," Flynn said to Seok.

He got out in time to hear Issachar's first round match get announced. Since he wasn't assigned to a specific area today, Flynn headed over to the entrance to the stadium to get a look at the battle. As luck would have it, the match was against Ichiro, one of those who'd helped Issachar in Akihabara. Ichiro started off the match with multiple casts of Panic Voice from himself, Orthrus, and Peri. His third demon Abaddon kept below the ground with its own preparations.

Starting off with mental statuses would be a decent tactic in battles like these, where one would expect to fight against similarly matched demons. Unfortunately for him, none of the panic stuck and Issachar's group was all higher leveled. Issachar had been on guard right away, most likely to get tactical information from Burroughs. On his team, Heimdall blew his horn to focus his power. A sphinx held perfectly still to let the panic not set in, then threw out a Mahamaon to see who would fall to that. It took out the Abaddon, who was likely the heavy hitter of Ichiro's team.

But the most impressive demon Issachar had was certainly his Huang Long. The immense golden dragon coiled in the air above the rest, casting blessings over their team. The dragon knew Megidolaon, and Issachar had been using Heimdall and other demons to train up with Charge and Grand Tack. Once they moved onto the offensive, those spells and skills decimated their opponents in this tournament. The sphinx was specialized towards magic now, using it to disrupt other opening strategies much like Ichiro was using panic tactics. He might be able to stick with those three demons and fight just as well against the angels and demons after this tournament.

When the flash from the expected Megidolaon faded, Vishnu was there by Ichiro too. He was a shade of Vishnu, one that Flynn had fused yesterday for this event. His role was to guard the fallen human participants in matches should one of their demons survive longer than them, a further safeguard against people dying in these battles. While other demons had been serving as such guards at other tournaments this season, Flynn had made certain that this Vishnu could survive the powerful attacks that these top summoners were wielding. Not that he had to be out there for long in this battle, since the only survivors on Ichiro's team were Peri who'd barely kept conscious and Ichiro himself.

Ichiro had fallen onto his knees, though. Once Peri got taken out by the sphinx, Issachar went over to offer him a hand up and a handshake. With that done, Vishnu took Ichiro's arm and warped away to get him to the infirmary. As usual, all of the participants had acknowledged that serious injury was possible in all battles. Ichiro seemed like he might be fine; they had good healers and doctors around to make sure of it.

Still, Flynn waited in the hall for Issachar to get back. "He going to be all right?"

"Should be," Issachar said, although he still looked worried. "He wasn't bleeding and he was able to focus on me." Then he chuckled. "Although, I don't know if it got picked up, but he said before the match that he was disappointed that he was facing me in the first round since I was one of the toughest looking competitors in the group."

He couldn't help but smile at that. "At this point, even I'd have to put more thought into things if I had to face you in battle."

"Nah, that's still a scary prospect for me," he said, patting his arm. "You doing all right?"

"Yes, nothing's come up yet," he said. "I did speak with the Hunter who was using Maitreya earlier. We shouldn't need to worry about them. Like with Lilith, it appears Maitreya has changed, and has realized that he is not enlightened nor is he better than others."

"That's good, maybe he can be a positive influence now," Issachar said.

* * *

Thankfully, Nanashi was released from his quarantine in time to come to the tournament finals with them. He was different; Toki had noticed that quickly. But not in the way one would expect from someone who'd recovered from a serious illness. Instead, Nanashi was much stronger than before, more serious. He watched the battles more like he was studying them.

Although she was doing the same, along with getting to hang out with friends. "Isn't it a bit boring?" Toki asked. "Although it makes me feel confidant."

"What does that even mean?" Gaston asked.

"The Hunters and the samurai in this tournament are really good at demon summoning," she explained. "But there's them, and there's Issachar and Misaki. You can tell by the demons Issachar can summon that she's stronger than anybody else today, but then Misaki has really strange demons that nobody seems to know how to deal with. It would be expected if they end up in the last match, but then that match should be interesting."

"She has a point," Hallelujah said, pointing down to the golden dragon that Issachar had out. "That Blackjack guy won the Hunter tournament last time it was held, back when losers might be executed. But his dragon Quetzalcoatl there is of a lower rank than Huang Long, by several levels." He rubbed the crack in his face that showed up when he used his demon form. "I can barely read Misaki's demons, so I'm not sure how someone would take them down."

"And the match is already over," Toki said as people began to cheer for Issachar's victory. "Since she and Flynn are out to protect everyone, it feels that we're going to be okay despire the war that keeps being talked about. But we can't just get lazy; we should fight too."

"That's right," Nanashi said, barely audible over the audience.

"Huh, I guess I see your point now," Gaston said. "But next round, that means Issachar is against that Yuuta fellow. His demons seem pretty tough, so he might last longer than most."

"Probably," Hallelujah said.

Toki shrugged. "They might. But then it's a matter of spells and the magical power of those who wield them. Megidola versus Megidolaon, for one thing."

"The stronger spells take more energy," Hallelujah said. "And Yuuta's team might have more healing spells than Issachar's."

"So it'll either be over quick or it'll drag," Toki said. "We'll see how it goes. Are you alright, Nanashi?"

"I'm fine," he said.

He still didn't talk much for the rest of the day, something that worried them all.

* * *

Because of the Firmament being gone, the huge lights over the stadium were not being used in the tournament. At least, not by the stadium staff. It was an ideal perch for those who could naturally fly, in particular Uriel and Trumpeter. They watched over the matches below. "None of them are even attempting to call upon angels," Uriel muttered to himself. "Just asserting their dominance over demons, although that is mere illusion. Hmph."

Down in the area, the matches were up to the semifinals. One of the Mikado samurai was battling against a Tokyo Hunter; the two greeted each other with a friendly respect. This should not be happening. The Hunter Yuuta clearly favored a defensive game, even using himself as a shield as his two false gods in Tlazolteotl and Anubis were ready to sustain the rest. His Reaper Guedhe wasn't quite as defensive as the rest, but was well protected. On the other hand, the samurai Issachar had her team use Luster Candy and Debilitate in tandem in order to make a massively powerful strike that wasn't possible to recover from. A simple strategy of brute force in the end, but one that required the summoner to be powerful in the first place.

Uriel frowned. "Then their final match is going to be between two women. How twisted; women should be protected, not using with demons in a way that puts their lives on the line. The man should keep his eyes to God as the center of his life; the woman should keep her eyes to her husband as the center of hers. You all claim you seek a peaceful future, but that won't matter if your women are dead and there can be no children."

Near him, Trumpeter hadn't said a word. He still had a skeletal appearance, but that didn't matter. As long as he did his job, people would only need to hear him.

"It'll be over soon enough, at least," Uriel said.

"No."

Startled at him talking back, Uriel looked over at Trumpeter. And, he looked back; how had he regained his self? "What do you mean?"

"The prophecies are not fulfilled," Trumpeter replied. "The Messiah is not on your side and there is no Anti-Messiah in opposition."

"Doesn't the Demifiend function suitably as an Anti-Messiah?" Uriel asked. That was what he thought was going on since Last Crusader showed up.

Trumpeter shook his head. "He was not born in this world, but came to it by different means. You're being quite sloppy."

"Well the world is a mess as it is," Uriel said. "It no longer pleases God and He has willed that it be destroyed."

"You can't do so by including me in that, since the prophecy is unfulfilled." Trumpeter even chuckled before he vanished. "And without me, you cannot unseal and command the others."

Snarling, Uriel muttered, "God is capable of anything, just you watch."

But this had to be a part of God's plan. Right? Right, it had to be. Everything was according to God's plan. As long as he remembered that, things were simple. Everything was God's plan…

Including how there were two powerful Godslayers in the stadium without either of them being in the tournament themselves?

"God will make it work," he said.

* * *

"Reeeaady? Battle start!"

Having a plan for this battle, Issachar signaled for his three demons to start with the usual buffs and debuffs, with the sphinx trying to see if she could take any out immediately. He then charged his own power since he'd already tried scanning Misaki's demons. The only one Burroughs could get information on was Guan Yu, apparently a man from distant history. His bright yellow cloak covered much of his body, obscuring what weapon he was using. In other matches, Guan Yu acted as the primary physical fighter. And yet he wasn't the major threat of the team. That would be the Virus demon Andromeda, a mass of red-violet energy that moved and seemingly acted erratically. It attacked in ways that inflicted all kinds of status effects and right when it seemed defeated, it would steal a great amount of health and energy from another demon in battle to keep going. Even from its allies; Misaki seemed confidant that she had control over Andromeda, but Issachar still felt concerned about it being around.

It might be easy enough to go with his usual strategy, but he was fairly certain that he couldn't immediately take out the Andromeda. A part of it was because Guan Yu frequently retaliated for attacks that hit others on Miasaki's team, giving him more opportunities to attack than normal. But another problem was in the third demon of her team, the Antivirus Firewall. In other matches, Issachar had seen that it was a literal wall despite looking like little more than a cluster of blue-green symbols in the air. Firewall would take all damage for its allies, Guan Yu then retaliated for most of the attacks, all while Andromeda and Misaki kept putting status curses behind the safety of the other two. It wasn't the same strategy she was using in Akihabara, but the effectiveness couldn't be argued.

They needed to down Firewall first. Issachar held himself back a moment to let Huang Long and Heimdall use Luster Candy and Debilitate again, bracing himself to resist the venomous cloud that Andromeda sent over them. Then he fired at Firewall, making a blue splash across its symbols. Of course, Guan Yu was there immediately to retaliate; his cloak whipped against Issachar but his attack just barely missed striking him. Issachar had to hop back out of his range to avoid another attack. Huang Long whipped his tail between them, giving Issachar a moment to check back over things. Neither Mahameon nor Mamudoon from the sphinx had taken out any of Misaki's team.

He sent orders through his gauntlet for his demons to focus on attacking the Firewall with single-target attacks. Sphinx and Huang Long were probably fine with their magic, but he and Heimdall also had multi-target attacks that would allow Guan Yu to keep attacking them. After charging up again, Issachar held off attacking so that Guan Yu was focused more against Heimdall. He got out an antidote to heal up the sphinx from poison, then had to bring out a patra stone to keep Huang Long from staying asleep. By the time he had an opening to shoot Firewall again, it had taken a couple of charged Berserker God attacks from Heimdall as well as multiple Bufudynes from the sphinx and regular attacks from Huang Long. The dragon could now absorb physical moves such as Guan Yu's retaliation strikes, so was in little danger from him.

Then one of Andromeda's attacks turned Huang Long berserk. It could be a problem as the dragon also had this team's strongest healing spell. Still, Issachar left him berserk. Huang Long slammed right into Firewall, finally taking it out. Moving back to stay out of the way, Issachar sent orders for Heimdall to start going for charged Hades Blast now; he could keep him healed up with items. Meanwhile, the sphinx had to start casting Ziodyne at Andromeda. The various tournament battles had shown that electric attacks might be Andromeda's only weakness, perhaps the only elemental weakness on Misaki's team.

Huang Long had Misaki knocked down first, getting Vishnu to come in quietly to warp her out of danger to the edge of the stadium. Guan Yu made an impressive leaping attack to retaliate in the air, an unfortunate mistake on his part since the dragon then swatted him to the ground with his tail. Since he didn't seem to retaliate attacks made against him, Issachar got ready to shoot at Guan Yu in hopes of finishing him off. Then Andromeda snatched up Guan Yu instead, absorbing what little energy the old hero had left. It screeched in a way that infuriated Issachar.

After shooting it, he briefly realized that it had berserked him too. Possibly Heimdall too, given how he ignored using his skills to knock his horn into Andromeda. Too bad for it, since that increased their power further and made it easier to destroy Andromeda despite how Issachar couldn't control his team or himself anymore.

The swelling volume of cheers from the audience also made him angry, like he was seeing everything in a haze of red fury. Thankfully, Vishnu cast a spell over them to clear the berserk status and heal up what damage they'd taken in the fight. Issachar glanced over to see that Misaki was back on her feet. She came over, Vishnu following her. "Looks like using that random status move doesn't always help," she joked.

"It could've ended badly for me too," Issachar said. "You did well."

"You too, of course." They shook hands while the stadium's host came over with Skins and Flynn. But from how Flynn had his hand on his sword, ready to draw at a moment's notice, Issachar suspected that something was going to happen. This would be a prime moment for what he'd been warned of earlier.

"Well done, both of you!" the host called as the audience was on their feet. They were noisy enough that he got to shake hands with the host and Skins before they could speak again even over the speaker system. While Flynn briefly smiled at him, he was more alert to what was going on around them. "With this final tournament complete, I introduce to all of you, our new Champion, the samurai representing Tennozu, Issachar!"

"Right, you've proven your worth as a Hunter and samurai without a doubt," Skins said, clapping a hand against Issachar's shoulder. "Excellent work."

"All my work is aimed towards a future of peace and progress," Issachar said, bowing to them. "I hope we can all keep working together towards that goal."

Although the audience cheered in approval, someone spoke out in a way that broadcast over the speakers even though he didn't have a microphone. "But do you really think that you humans can overcome those genocidal angels? Or overcome us, the legions of Hell?"

The host stepped aside, allowing Issachar a better view of Krishna several feet off. Tipping his green hat, Krishna gave a seemingly friendly smile. He was accompanied by a massive horde of demons in the arena that hadn't been there before; some gray fog made it difficult to tell just how many demons he had with him. Flynn faced him straight away, keeping composed at the moment. Shesha was still perched on his shoulders, so should be capable of protecting Flynn. Meanwhile, Skins got between Krishna and the host, to make sure the latter could be taken away if need be. Misaki stepped back with her phone in hand, perhaps ready to revive her team if need be. A tense chill spread through everyone there.

Issachar wasn't afraid because what he knew should put an end to Krishna's threat for now.

 _A/N: Things have been hectic for me lately, hence why this hasn't updated in a little while. On top of that, I'm running into some issues that I've had with long Pokemon fanfics before: SMT games tend to have lots of difficult battles in the end-game that don't necessarily advance the plot and aren't as interesting in fanfic form. This chapter demonstrates a bit of how I deal with this, in skimming over less important battles and focusing on the plot-important ones. End-game battles often take more work to write too, so since I'm really busy, updates may become scarce until I have things to my satisfaction. Sorry about that, but I'd rather take the extra time even if I don't have as much free time._

 _In this particular chapter, Virus Andromeda was in SMT II, albeit its level would be greatly boosted here since it's just level 20 there. Antivirus Firewall is one I made up since the main Antivirus/Vaccine in SMT II to my recollection was a weird cop. Although I'm sure that if Virus and Antivirus clans were to come back, chances are high there'd be a Firewall in the latter. Misaki's other demon here is a Famed one in-game, so fusion accident only. Since I made the two computer demon clans complicated to fuse, it seemed reasonable that she'd end up with a Famed demon too._


	83. Deal with a Devil

**Chapter 83: Deal With A Devil**

Above the stadium, Uriel observed the horde of demons. Of course they'd try to make a scene here, when it should be his announcement of God's word to the unworthy mortals. That wasn't even Lucifer; he didn't have the power of the real Lucifer, nor that of the false one. Although, he certainly had the charismatic aura down. And this sudden cold… wait… the sudden cold…

"No, this can't be…"

* * *

Facing off against Krishna this time was different, mostly because Flynn wasn't alone. There was also the difference in how Krishna was, with golden curls rather than green. He had a cocky smile, whereas in the past he'd been moderately proud and more mindful of his situation. While there was still a cruel glint to his eyes, it was pronounced to the point where Flynn had experienced it, rather than hidden cruelty with ulterior motives and lofty excuses. The lack of deception made it easier to defy him.

"We'll be just fine against the angels, I'm sure," Issachar said, stepping froward like the hero he was. "As for you, you're not even Lucifer. You won't be a problem either."

"I would beg to differ," Krishna said, pointing towards him. "Because you see…"

He was going to do something. Flynn went to Issachar's side, hoping to strike before any hostages got taken. A spark of a spell started at Krishna's fingertips, then immediately froze solid and crashed to the ground, shattering into nothing. Not expecting that, Krishna paled and drew his hand back. The ground trembled as an icy ridge rapidly formed around them. A part of it to the side rose up into a tower, then unfurled into giant wings that revealed a powerful dark figure. His aura quickly overwhelmed everything else in the stadium, leaving everyone with an unsettling fear. How had he gotten in here without being noticed?

"I've finally cornered you, Krishna," the dark one said, mimicking the motion of pointing. The demon horde that Krishna brought along froze solid; he clenched his hand and the horde shattered, leaving Krishna alone. "Return what belongs to me."

"You've lost it so you don't deserve to have it," Krishna snapped, furious and clenching his fists. But he hesitated on attacking.

That was enough time for an icy spear to tear through Krishna's chest; something sparkling like a star skipped across the floor. Before Flynn got a good look at it, it jumped up at a call from the true Lucifer. The golden hues on Krishna flaked off like old paint, leaving him more ragged and dusty than Flynn had ever seen him. As Krishna collapsed onto his knees, the dark demon cracked and crumbled as well. Lucifer emerged as a being more like an angel with golden hair, his halo and white wings falsely but convincingly pure.

Although the true Lucifer was restored now, the dark aura that had terrified everyone vaporized along with the ice. It had to be intentional. Lucifer glanced over at Krishna, replying, "That statement is more fitting for you now; you never deserved my power in the first place. In fact, you're not even worthy of my time." Chuckling, Lucifer moved closer to them seemingly without effort. "On the other hand, young lady, it seems that you have become a champion of humanity, along with the man beside you."

"Yes, that's so," Issachar said, calm but still careful.

Lucifer nodded. "Marvelous. And yet, it's still a valid point that you would have difficulty against the angels who have decided to destroy our world. Now that I'm back to myself, I'm going to raise up my armies in order to destroy those insane fools before they succeed in their goals. I would love for you two to join me; I can guide you to certain victory."

"We don't want you taking control of the world either, even if you don't mean to destroy it like they do," Issachar said.

"That's right, this world belongs to us humans," Flynn said. Some cheers came out of the stadium, although most of those watching were still intimidated by what was going on.

"Do you think so?" Lucifer asked, tilting his head. "I think you may have trouble proving that, since humanity has crumbled from its former heights. But you know, my generals are already in this world. Beezlebub, Mara, Ashura, Lucifuge, Belial, Nebiros, the Demifiend, they will answer my call to war. They're among the most powerful demons in existence, having overthrown civilizations and destroyed entire worlds. Should the two of you Champions defeat all seven of them, I suppose I'd have to acknowledge the power of humanity and follow your lead instead."

"We can do that," Flynn said.

"If you're feeling so confidant, then go ahead and try," Lucifer said. "I'll be watching to see how you do." He then vanished into a shaft of light, taking the ice and cold with him.

It was quiet for a moment afterward, before somebody from the seats called out, "You can do it!" Cheers erupted all around them as the rest of the audience agreed.

Feeling encouraged by this, Flynn turned to Issachar. "Looks like we have a lot on our hands now, taking out the seven of them and the angelic host."

"We can handle it," he said, smiling confidently.

"Are you insane?" Krishna asked spitefully, finally back on his feet. He tugged at his coat, perhaps attempting to fix it. But it remained torn and dirty. "No matter how strong or skilled you are, humans will never be as strong as the strongest gods or demons."

Issachar looked like he had something to say in mind. However, the one who spoke up next was the shade of Vishnu. "Have you lost faith in humanity?" he asked, stepping ahead of them. Unlike his own manifestation, this Vishnu had red-tinged skin with a snake tattoo coiling around his six arms. "That is unbecoming of you."

"And why would that matter to you?" Krishna shot back. "You're nothing but a shade of a god, only called into the world in the past week it seems."

"That's true," Vishnu said, cupping a second hand around the lotus he carried. It shone bright for a moment. "But then, any shade can become a host of its true self."

Krishna froze up suddenly, far more intimidated than he had been upon facing Lucifer.

"Your goals have been admirable in a fashion," Vishnu admitted. A more radiant aura came from him now, something that felt even greater than Masakado when fully summoned. But then, Masakado had been a defender of just one city. "But your reasons have become corrupt and your means have been deplorable. I am also aware that had your plans gone as you wished, you would have committed even greater atrocities in our name. That cannot be allowed. Thus, you will be what you have become, a nameless demon with no connection to me."

"Wait, no, I can't…" Krishna protested. But it was too late. Lightning struck him, warping his skin and making a pair of forked horns grow out of his head. Screaming, he fled the stadium in a flicker of darkness.

Vishnu then turned to them. "He may still cause trouble, but he shouldn't be as powerful as before. I can't leave my duties for long right now, but I have heard what you two intend to do from here. I wish you good fortune in doing so. Since you have this shade with you, I'll see to it that he'll be more effective in defending humanity at your side." The glow from the lotus dimmed and Vishnu's shade winced in pain.

Behind them, Skins laughed a bit. "Well then, it seems extraordinary things keep happening around you two," he said. "But you've both proven that we can put our faith in you."

"We have faith in everyone else here as well," Flynn said, much to the approval of the audience. Feeling a little worried, he offered a hand to Vishnu there and quietly added, "Do you need a rest?"

"Oh, I'll be fine," he answered, briefly giving him a puzzled look. Then he smiled and nodded. "But thanks for your concern; that was an honor."

Meanwhile, Issachar waved up to the audience. "That's right, we believe in all of you, that you have the potential to help us make a brighter future," he called out to them. "After all, the two of us were merely illiterate farmers a little over a year ago to what we've experienced. But we've made ourselves more than that, and I'm sure everyone else around has the potential to do the same. If we strive to do our best and work together, I'm sure there's nothing that we can't do, even growing stronger than the civilization that fell before us. I hope that everyone who participated in this tournament, from the challengers to the staff who organized everything, will help us make a society where we are independent of both demons and angels once more."

The stadium swelled with the enthusiastic cheers and clapping as the people around them took those words to heart.

Things were bustling for a time, with the staff giving Issachar the medal and prize money he'd earned from winning the finals, while Flynn got called to watch over everyone leaving the stadium so that it went smoothly. There were plans for an interview with a television crew later, and Jonathan invited them over to a celebration at his family manor with the rest of their friends in Mikado. And of course, lots of people wanted to congratulate Issachar on winning, especially the group that had come out from Tennozu in support of them. Still, there was some time that Issachar had to call him over to some of the side streets in Shinjuku.

"I wanted to show you this," he said, bringing out the Chalice of Hope. The red and blue charms that had hung on the sides were now detached, orbiting around the cup that held a shimmering golden spirit.

"Good, then once the shrine is finished, we can summon Masakado," Flynn said, putting a hand near the new Spirit of Hope. There was a warmth there that he didn't recall, perhaps because the other two spirits were at its side.

Issachar nodded. "I felt Hope ignite, actually, right as Lucifer dared us to defeat his seven generals. The other two were close, then gained full power once I called everyone to work together. While we have a lot of challenges facing us, in a way, they were always there, right? It might be tough, but I feel like we can take on anything now."

"Right," Flynn said, feeling the spirits patting over his hand. It felt strange, reminding him of times that he'd forced himself onward despite all the pain, grief, and even despair that he'd endured. There had been times his heart, mind, and body had been broken for the sake of the future he wanted to see come about. Now that future truly felt in sight, like a star that heralded the end of night.

Then Issachar took his hand. "Hoy, you all right?"

"Yeah," he said, realizing that he was crying. "I'm happy; it feels like I finally got things right now seeing these three together, after everything that went wrong."

"You have been through a lot," Issachar said, tightening his grip a moment before letting go. "How about you go on over to Jonathan's place and relax? I still have to do that interview in a few minutes at the studio, but I'll come over once that's done. And I'll make sure I don't get caught in any other plans tonight."

"Sure, that'll be great." But something nagged at the back of his mind. "But first, was Lucifer the one who wanted to meet you this morning? I've been trying to figure out how he could get into the stadium when anybody could feel his power before they even saw him."

He nodded. "Yes, that was him and I was the one who agreed to get him in. It shouldn't cause any problems, I mean beyond having the real Lucifer back in the world."

"Are you sure of that? What did he offer you to do that?"

"A lot of different things, but I didn't accept anything until he made the offer in the stadium," he said, then explained more about what happened.

* * *

Earlier…

The request didn't have a name attached to it, but it asked to help stop a disturbance during the tournament. It was enough that Issachar felt it was better to check things out. But as he walked down the abandoned street, a feeling of cold darkness settled in despite the sun being out. That told him who he was dealing with. After considering it for a moment, he decided to go ahead and listen to what Lucifer had to say. Since he was free now, it was probably better to get him restored rather than leave his identity with Krishna.

The address he'd been given turned out to be a bar, one of the ruined buildings where things had been taken or smashed to pieces. With the barren floor and missing windows, it was hard to tell what this place may have once looked like. The nameless demon was there, still in his guise as a blond-haired man in a dark suit. Glancing back, he gave a wave. "Ah, good to see that you've come. Come on, sit down. You could have a drink to relax if you want."

"No thanks, I need to keep clear minded," Issachar said. There were a few bar stools there that seemed oddly clean and in good shape despite the rest of this place. He sat in one next to him.

"I suppose that's Mikado habits for you," he said, taking a sip from his glass. "Although I hear it is still common for people to go out drinking with friends and coworkers there. It used to be a popular way to socialize here in Tokyo as well, to the point where it was expected."

"What did you call me here for?" he asked. "I don't have long."

"Truth is, I've been having some difficulty confronting Krishna," he said. "I want to at least come face to face with him again; I'm sure that would make it clear to me if he does have my identity or if I'm someone else. But I'm sure you felt it." He gestured around them. "I simply cannot hide like this."

"Then he's keeping away from you?" It made sense given Flynn's stories.

He nodded. "He probably feels that if I confronted him, he would be at a disadvantage. But our spies have given us word that Krishna intends to appear at the tournament today, to prove his power or lure the champion into working with him. He should be capable of getting in on his own. As I am, there's no way I could get into the stadium unnoticed. That is, no way unless you're willing to make a deal with me."

"What kind of deal?" He didn't want to give demons power over humans. However, Krishna holding onto Lucifer's identity was only going to become more of a problem once the tournament was over.

The nameless demon looked over at him. "You've got power, I can tell that. You've got good chance at winning this tournament, so I'll be frank with you. I want to negotiate a spot in your roster of the demon summoning program. If you take me in that way, no one will be the wiser until I emerge. But even if you have power, you don't have the power to control me via that program. So I won't fight for you in the tournament. But for the sake of taking my identity back, I'd like to hide in your gauntlet until Krishna shows himself. I'll leave the program once I have it and I should be able to grant you anything you'd like in exchange. What do you say? I could make you a king or queen, ruling over all of humanity and thus all the world."

"I'm not interested in ruling," Issachar said.

"Really? Well I could make sure you end up wealthy and prosperous for all of your life. It'd be worth it to me."

He shook his head. "No, I've been just fine as I am."

"Hmm, you're a curious one," he said, although he smiled. "It really is an immense favor to me, so I'd rather give you something in exchange. Ah, how about this? This world has become magical in nature, so we could see to it that you could freely change your body from female to male and back at will, without needing your angelic transformation. You could even teach such an ability to others so they could live as they liked as well."

That gave him some thought. If that was possible for more than just himself, it would make life easier on them. Still, he couldn't forget who he was speaking to. Allowing demons to be the source of that kind of ability would let them take advantage of it with any chance they got. "It's interesting, but I'm fine how I am now. Actually, if you want to do this to take your identity away from Krishna, getting him stripped of power and influence is enough for me to agree to it. I don't need any further reward for a goal I already want."

"Are you sure of that?" he asked, staring at him in surprise.

Issachar nodded. "Krishna means to destroy the world, doesn't he? He's already crushed someone I care about too. Having him knocked out of power is enough."

"Well that helps, but I don't like the idea of being indebted to you when this is risky to your reputation," he said, taking another drink and giving it some thought. "I suppose… the Demifiend told me something that I also found curious: he means for his role in things right now to be symbolic of something. He believes that's far more useful than actually holding power. Hmm, but it's even more interesting when you humans do unpredictable things like that. I think I can do something symbolic for you as well. If you can take advantage of that, it'd make things even more interesting than if I simply gave you a straight reward. All right, I'll take Krishna down for myself and you; you just need to sneak me in with the summoning program."

* * *

"So I agreed to sneak him into stadium with my gauntlet," Issachar said. "It was odd at first that his idea of helping was challenging us to defeat his generals. But, I think I see it now. He needed my assistance to get to Krishna after he needed to be rescued from being sealed; he probably hates being in debt to a human, so when I didn't accept any of his offers, he wants me to challenge his followers. And if we defeat them, he's still indebted to me but has to admit that humans can escape demon control. So I don't know if he will keep his word."

Flynn nodded, as it had been part of what he'd been thinking. "Right. But who knows? We could get him to admire humans as well as be jealous of us; I don't think we can change the latter so easily. Anything could happen now, could be good, could be bad."

"I'm sure we can make it good," Issachar said in encouragement. He smiled. "So then, tomorrow we'll start on hunting down Lucifer's generals along with waiting on the shrine to be rebuilt? Although we'll have to put off challenging the Demifiend until that's done, even if he'll probably be in Ichigaya and easier to find."

"Then it's a plan," Flynn said.

* * *

After the tournament was over, Nanashi and his friends went over to the healing area where Asahi had been working. "We didn't see any real serious injuries because of the powerful healing magic some of these demons have," she said. "Though those who needed it are exhausted right now. It's really exciting, though! The doctors who were here today said that they wanted to know all the possibilities for healing magic because it could make keeping people healthy a lot easier."

"But then you'd need doctors who can summon high level demons to learn those healing spells from," Gaston said. "That could limit how many people know how to use such powerful magic."

"I dunno about that," Hallelujah said. "After all, you could find more benevolent demons that are healers. We'd just need to research more into old mythology and such to find them."

Asahi nodded. "Yeah, like find some who won't mind working with people who aren't high level summoners. I'm sure they've got to be out there. Anyhow, Nanashi, you okay? You seem different."

Of course she would notice. Although what mattered was what she noticed. "It's just a shock to go from the silence of the quarantine to this packed stadium," he explained.

"Oh, sorry, didn't think about that when we got your ticket," Hallelujah said.

"It's alright," he said with a shrug. "I'm glad I could come, even if it was noisy."

"Oh hey, we could stop by the Fairy Forest if you want some quiet after that," Asahi said. "Nozomi invited us out there and gave us the terminal data, but we haven't had time to visit. There area is blocked off, so it'll only be the fairies out there."

"Aren't a lot of fairies noisy?" Toki asked.

"It shouldn't be as bad as the stadium," Asahi said. Although she probably just wanted to see Nozomi as another friend of hers. "What do you think? Want to stop by?"

'You should be fine doing this,' Dagda said. 'The Fairy Forest may be where our first sword is.'

The others showed no signs of hearing him. "Sure, sounds good," Nanashi said.

"The terminal station's probably going to be busy for a while longer," Asahi said, getting out her phone. "I'll let her know we're coming, then you can help out with the clean-up around here if you want."

"Were you just looking for help doing that?" Hallelujah asked.

"No," Asahi said, although the way she said it suggested that she may have had that in mind. "But it would go better with more help! Come on, it's nothing that hard."

"Sure thing," Nanashi said.

His friends kept trying to talk with him while they cleaned the infirmary. Even Gaston, who was very keen on learning about Tokyo Hunters and how things could be different from the limited culture of Mikado. While it all seemed interesting, Nanashi felt hesitant on talking with them too much. He'd been training hard in the past month to fight God; he'd recruited some of the demons Dagda summoned for his training, then fused them up to gain more powerful followers. His demons weren't quite as powerful as most of those in the tournament today, but he was sure that with some more work, he might reach more equal grounds with Issachar and Flynn.

However, that meant that his demons and himself were far more powerful than his friends. They would not be able to catch up in time. It was safer then to not get them involved. Although, that was going to be hard. Hallelujah and Toki had both been told to keep an eye on him. Their groups might have changed, but they wanted to help him as friends. Nanashi wasn't quite sure what Gaston was after sticking with them; perhaps he was simply more comfortable with summoners and fighters his own age rather than the older samurai. And while she was being more independent, Asahi still liked to cling to him when she could.

They could easily die fighting the kinds of beings that Nanashi was looking to take down. For that reason, he should keep a distance for now. When humans were free to make their own destiny, then it should be fine to come back and make up for lost time. But whenever Nanashi thought to bring it up, he lost his nerve quickly to the thought of how they'd protest him going off to challenge God. In that case, Dagda was probably right in how he should just split from them at some time to pursue his own goals.

Once things quieted down, they headed off to the terminal to meet up with Nozomi. There was a bridge across the giant lake of the park, broken in places but still usable. As they crossed, the feeling of magic grew more powerful. It was certainly an enchanted place, what with all the pink and white flowers in the trees that overpowered tiny spring leaves when it was actually the end of July.

"Hey, welcome to the fairy forest," Nozomi said with a wave once she spotted them. "Nice to see you guys."

"Wow, this place is amazing!" Asahi said, hurrying up the path. Petals scattered to their footsteps. "How'd you make the trees all bloom?"

"Magic," Nozomi said.

"But it's the middle of summer," Gaston said. "Don't trees like this only bloom for a couple of weeks in spring?"

"Yes, but right here, it's spring," Nozomi said, then gestured to a wooden post nearby. "Anything that blooms in spring will be in bloom here. If you don't like it, you can always move to the height of another season. Like the summer green, blossom, and insects could all be here, or the autumn colors and mushrooms. Even winter's snow and ice if you'd like. The fairies like things that way so they can all live in their preferred environments."

"Are the different seasons like different versions of this park layered on top of each other?" Nanashi asked. That felt like it could explain what he was sensing.

"That's right," Nozomi said, then gave him a look of concern.

'She could be trouble,' Dagda said, concerned about this.

"Then you can change the time with that post?" Toki asked, having been looking at that.

"Right, and a few others like it," Nozomi said. "Just be aware of the circle around the posts. Anything in those will move to the other layer, but anything outside will stay. But the exit is always over that bridge; leaving there will take you back to normal time no matter which season of the island you were on. So, anywhere you'd like to see?"

Only that in the circle shifted… and it wasn't a big circle. It shouldn't be hard to lose the others without them realizing it. The others seemed interested (or at least not uninterested) in looking around the park in spring. Following along, Nanashi mentally noted other posts when he spotted them and waited. Eventually, a powerful fairy named Titania came up to them with some pixies who wanted to play. It was a good moment to disappear down another path to find the last changing post he'd seen.

Nozomi had not mentioned how the posts were used to change layers. But the post was marked with the same language as the magic book he was studying. While Nanashi was looking up the symbols, Dagda said, 'We want a winter's night; that's when we'll find the sword.'

"Alright, but what's wrong with Nozomi?" Nanashi asked, finding the two symbols and pressing them.

All the pink around them disappeared in a blur, like paints mixing together. When his sight cleared, they were surrounded by soft white snow and trees crystallized with ice. 'She's been empowered by my mother Danu; that's why she's the fairy queen now. We've had a difference of opinions recently so they may try to interfere. Don't listen to them.'

Unfortunately, they only got a short ways down the path when Nozomi called over, "Hey, what are you doing over here all on your own?"

"It was getting too noisy again," Nanashi said. "How did you find me?"

"This was all made by my magic," she explained, coming up to his side. "I can find anyone who's here. Are you all right? This is a cold area, but the Frosts insisted on it."

"I'm fine." He really was, although he could tell it was very cold on this winter night. The summer heat from the sun was more uncomfortable than this.

Nozomi put a hand on his shoulder and asked, "Is it because you're not really alive?"

"I'm fine," he said again, feeling frightened now. What if she told the others? He was doing this for a good reason, although he wasn't sure if the others would understand. "I'll be fine. Just, please don't tell anyone else; I don't want them to think I'm a monster or something."

"If you're in trouble, you ought to let others know about it," Nozomi said kindly. "I don't mind helping you out if you need it; I'm sure your friends feel the same way."

But they'd all get killed if they accompanied him, without a chance to continue. "I know, but I don't need the help."

"You sure? Then what are you back for? Most people don't just continue on after death."

'She's going to keep pressing this,' Dagda said, annoyed at it.

Nanashi was feeling annoyed too, but more at himself for feeling vulnerable too. He wasn't weak; Nozomi just reminded him of his mother now and it made him feel a terrible homesickness that he couldn't do anything about. He was going to fight the root of it all, so he needed to stay strong and focused. "There is something, but I know what I'm doing," Nanashi said, an idea coming to him. "It has to do with that Pestilence, though. He's been beaten but not destroyed. But he can't kill me anymore; I'll do something about him. But you all could get killed if you fought, or horribly disfigured by disease. I'll stop him. But, I heard there was a fairy who had something that can help; that's why I really came here. But, I just want to talk with that fairy."

"Alright, if you say so," Nozomi said. Maybe she believed him, maybe she didn't. It was hard to tell. "If the fairy gives you any trouble, you can say that you're a friend of mine. But I think you should still tell the others. After all, those in your position often don't last once their remaining task is done."

'Well you won't be returning to a normal human life,' Dagda said. 'But that's not something you should worry about.'

"I know," Nanashi said to both of them. "Don't mind me; I'll get things done."

That succeeded in getting her to back off and return to the others. Dagda then instructed him to seek out a maze that extended out over the frozen lake. On the way there, Nanashi did his best to calm down and focus. But what Nozomi said kept worrying him. What was going to happen to him? He did want to defeat Pestilence for good, that hadn't been a full lie. But what would Dagda do with him once his task of defeating YHVH was done? He was dead. His body was only working by magic. Was he going to rot away like a zombie?

'You won't do that because I won't let you,' Dagda said. 'Although it would get more difficult to restart your body normally the longer we take. As I said, you don't need to worry about it. You will be rewarded properly once our task is done, I promise.'

"Rewarded with what?" he asked.

'Don't worry about it. Focus on what we need to get done first. That's more important.'

Maybe he should be more worried about himself than his friends. Although whatever this reward would be, it still didn't change that they wouldn't be able to catch up. Nanashi tried to put it out of mind as he went through the maze of ice. Some stronger fairies like trolls and ogres were in the maze to stop outsiders from getting through. While they were no trouble to battle, he avoided them when he could.

At the center of the maze, he found a woman of unearthly beauty sitting on the ice. Her eyes shone like the moon and she wore a silk dress that was entirely unsuited to the cold. "What brings you here, child?" she asked.

"I came for the Ame-No-Habakiri," Nanashi said.

She thought about it a moment before asking, "You mean the Excalibur? I am the sword's caretaker. It is meant for the hands of a true hero, a reborn king, in order to vanquish evil. It will destroy the unworthy who attempt to claim it. Are you certain you're worthy?"

'Just destroy her, we can get the sword from here,' Dagda said.

Nanashi didn't think that was necessary. "I'm a reborn king," he said, holding up his arm with the demonica. "That's why I have this, the dem… the gauntlet of Aquila, the first king of Mikado. I did say that I would return when people needed me."

"It feels like you speak the truth," the lady said, pressing her hand against the ice. Her hand then passed through it, drawing out a sword that held a faint moonlit glow. "Then let's see if the sword accepts you."

Nanashi stepped up to her and accepted the sword. Gaining the sword's approval wasn't something he'd worried about; it took to him like it had always belonged in his hands. And if this sword did destroy spiritual beings down to their very concepts, then perhaps his other worries weren't things to be troubled about either.

Although, would a sword really give him back his life?


	84. Fall of the Demons

**Chapter 84: Fall of the Demons**

There are many tales told of that late summer as humanity fought for their independence, led by the heroes Flynn and Issachar. It was a war first fought against demons who still had strong claims to Tokyo's streets. With his reappearance, Lucifer sent his generals out to take control over supplies that the humans needed, like how his forces already had a hold on the Yamato Perpetual Reactor. It was to force the humans to have dependence on demons, but the humans would not allow this to stay.

Lucifuge took control of a bank in Mikado, as the only working center of currency and commerce. Once he restructured a matching bank in Tokyo, he was taken down so the demons could not completely control the flow of macca. Belial attempted to take control of the various water systems but ended up in a feud with demons more familiar with the workings of water. Thus, he was taken out relatively quickly so that Fujiwara and the king of Mikado could negotiate peacefully with the water demons. Ashura tried to claim farmland by force, drawing attention to himself in doing so. He was also taken down quickly so the food supply remained securely in human hands. Alice was also defeated early on, by the hero Nanashi. Other lesser demons were taken out by Nanashi and many other human heroes, too many to tell of in one sitting. Odin, Loki, Thor, Alciel, Azrael, Ishtar, and more; they tried to gain dominance over humans and failed.

One tale of those days was that of Nebiros and Pestilence. Nanashi found them first as Nebiros was attempted to ally with Pestilence. "My arts in necromancy often rely on illness as well," Nebiros said. "Humans will do much to avoid both of us, so why not work together? We can make them believe that they have overcome death and illness, only to be enslaved by us."

"The domains of our power are not the same," Pestilence said. "I am a force of nature; you are a meddler who perverts nature. I want nothing to do with you."

"You're a force of nature that belongs to Hell," Nebiros said, shaking the control bars of the marionette he carried. "And you're only manifested in this form because of my power. I didn't want to bring that up because I thought you'd be reasonable. But you belong to me."

Glaring, Pestilence declared, "I belong to no one. I am disease; I cannot be owned."

"You're a personification of disease, which means you can be owned," Nebiros said coldly. "We need to claim the world for Lord Lucifer and you will work with me towards that end."

"Neither of you deserve the world," Nanashi said, coming out of hiding with the Ame-no-Habakiri in hand.

"Who are you to be saying that when you should be dead?" Pestilence snapped, turning towards him. But as soon as he did, barely visible red lines glistened in the air. They dragged Pestilence aside, then forward.

"Well thank you for letting me regain control over him," Nebiros said, fiddling with his control bars. There was no longer a small marionette at the end of its strings. "But if you want to be saying things like that, prove yourself by defeating this one who has claimed lordship over you."

And Nanashi did; a single stoke with his blessed sword was all that was needed to destroy Pestilence. Nebiros was not as simple. The demon general called up more puppets with his control bars, not allowing the young hero to get close. As he did not want the necromancer to get control of his puppet, Dagda used the demonica to send out a distress signal to Flynn and Issachar. Once they arrived, the waves of undead were taken out even faster.

Nebiros watched them, showing no concern despite his falling forces. "I have endless reserves of the dead to call upon," he said. "At least endless relative to your lifespans, save the undead puppet there. But he does not belong to me. Who do you belong to?"

"That's none of your business," Nanashi said, since Nebiros had already pointed him out.

Although he may have had a vast amount of dead to fight them with, it didn't matter when Issachar transformed into an angel to get behind Nebiros and force him into the battle as well. He proved to be not as strong in close combat himself and fell to Flynn's sword. All of his undead soldiers collapsed to dust without his power supporting them. It unsettled Nanashi, although his power came from an insubstantial being who was keeping out of action himself.

"Are you really in control of yourself?" Flynn asked.

"For now," Nanashi said. "But don't worry about it. The real problem with our world is YHVH, isn't it? Because he's making ridiculous claims and forcing us to obey, even making these wars happen. I want to fight him with you guys."

"I don't know about that," Flynn said. "You're like this because of Dagda, aren't you?"

There was a resistance to speak, so Nanashi simply nodded.

Flynn was worried about that. "He's one of those that wants to end this world and remake it. We don't want that happening."

"But defeating YHVH is the reason I accepted his power," Nanashi said. "I can't just quit."

"That's true," Issachar said. "If the reason he still exists is for that, then wouldn't it be better to work with him? It could cause more problems for him if we go ahead without him."

"As long as we're working to keep this world's future, sure," Flynn said, to which Nanashi agreed.

And so the three heroes set out together, setting out to defeat Mara and Beezlebub next.

* * *

'The Hunter Tournament was quite interesting. However, it was a mere game with rigid rules meant to take all the risk out of what should have been life or death battles. Winning such games proves nothing about one's ability to claim true victory in war. But soon, we will exhibit a real spectacle of battle, one that could end in a true bloodbath. Applications for a human team in our televised competition are now open. If they are not filled within four days, a human team will be conscripted at random to meet with our schedule. Death is what rules this world; you will soon see that for yourselves. -the Ashura-kai'

"It's going out over the all request boards along with the daily news broadcasts today," Naoki said. "I gave them four days, but I expect those three to sign up shortly after hearing it."

"It shall certainly be a spectacle," Lucifer said in approval. "And this is all to make sure those mad angels get taken down?"

He nodded. "Let those heroes be seen defeating the forces of Hell and every other human will have the confidence they they can throw down even God. He claims they're His children so why not have them be the ones to cast Him down as a demon? That's why I let that kid get away with the sealing sword."

"Even if it means letting them defeat you?"

"I'm not about to make it easy," he said. "But I've already completely my objective in this world, of bringing you back. You've told me plans similar to this on other worlds: let them throw off the yoke of God, give them some time to be assured of their victory, then slowly fill in the spaces to take power."

"Right, I have the benefit of eternity, unlike them," Lucifer said, thinking. "I would like to overcome God myself, since He humiliated me. But, that would humiliate Him more, wouldn't it? Those He calls beloved children becoming His ruin…" he chuckled. "Free will is a fascinating thing, isn't it? To be given to those one would rather control. Perhaps no prophecy can truly overcome free will."

"That's the whole reason I am what I am," Naoki said. "I'll be leaving after this, but I'm sure some shade of me will remain in the tales of humans. Though there's no telling what kind of power he will have since he'll have a demon's soul."

"I'm sure things will remain interesting," Lucifer said. "But whatever shade of you remains will depend on what actions you take with this challenge, so don't hold back too much."

"I know."

* * *

It was the morning of the Smacktacular event and Flynn seemed distracted. There were still a few hours before the event started, but they expected to end up fighting the Demifiend today. "What's on your mind?" Issachar asked as he started brushing Flynn's hair without being asked.

"Some bad dreams," he said, sitting still for him. "I've been trying to get used to it, but it's strange working with Nanashi this time. Most times that I did before, I had to confront the lost souls of Jonathan and Walter, when I killed them. And the other times, it was the same except that I had been stripped of my will by Krishna. Those times, I could only do what Nanashi wanted because Dagda replaced my missing will with Nanashi's."

"Neither of those things are going to happen now," Issachar said.

"I know, but quieting these doubts isn't always easy." He sighed. "I want my life to move on and I can see that it could happen; the Spirit of Hope you have keeps encouraging me. I also think that the reason I kept redoing this life is because I wasn't satisfied with it and neither was Satan. They kept trying things as well to bring themself back together. Once we restore them, I should be safe to keep with this life. I know that and yet there's still some fear that I'll wake back up on the shores of Lake Mikado one day, with all of this undone again. I'm really tired of all this struggle."

These were things Issachar had heard before; it was part of the struggle of continuing on when his hopes had been dashed many times before, when he was pressing on in spite of his spirit being broken not that long ago. It could keep affecting him until Flynn could finally give up his responsibilities and focus on himself. Until then, and after that, Issachar knew he had to keep supporting him.

Stopping with brushing his hair briefly, Issachar wrapped an arm around him. "But you won't be satisfied unless you see it through yourself."

"I know," he said, leaning back into him. "Sorry, I'm really just a mess and trying not to show it."

"Well so was I for several years," he said, hugging him tighter. "You stuck with me in spite of that, and I'll do the same for you, as long as you want me here. It'll be all right; we've almost got the side of Chaos defeated. And once we have Masakado and Satan, the angels of Law won't be a problem. We're in the last stretch."

"We'll make this work, we have to," Flynn said, turning his head to look at him. "You aren't using your angel voice."

"I don't have to," he said. "But if you want me to, I'll sing for you." He patted Flynn's shoulder. "We do need to keep strong today, not just for who we're challenging, but because lots of people will be watching."

"That would help," he said.

Later that morning, they met up with Nanashi at the nearby shrine. He was staying in Tennozu as well despite any amount of talk that he could spend his nights over in Kinshicho. On top of that, he was avoiding other people as much as he could. He wouldn't talk about why even though he seemed unhappy with it. Issachar kept friendly with him and listened when he did talk, hoping to encourage him into opening up too.

Nanashi seemed like he wasn't going to be talkative again today. But when Flynn got involved in a conversation with the terminal guardian, Nanashi suddenly asked, "Does Flynn not like me?"

"What makes you think that?" Issachar asked. They were sitting on a bench outside the shrine, so there weren't many people here to overhear them.

"He seems harsh sometimes and avoids looking at me," he said. "He said one time that he'd help me if I got in trouble, but it seems like that was recorded in another time."

"I see," he said. Working together could feel strange on both of them, since Nanashi was remembering things from other lives too. "I don't think he means to act harsh, but acting as a hero to everyone is tough even when you want to. He's been hurt a lot, in other lives and this one. When it's your emotions that hurt you the most, it can be hard to realize that your words and actions are hurting others too. He does worry about you when we talk."

That seemed to make Nanashi think of something from another lifetime; Issachar had seen it before in him and Flynn. "I guess, I hurt him too? But I didn't mean to either. Sometimes I couldn't even stop myself." He stopped speaking abruptly, clutching a fist to his chest.

"You all right?" Issachar asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine," he said although he was shivering. But Nanashi didn't get cold even if he often felt cold. More often than not, he complained about the summer heat and sun.

Issachar shifted over to his angel form and was immediately struck by a sense of deep terror. It was a familiar one, felt by those who had died or were near death and suddenly weren't sure of what was going to happen to them. Before, he'd felt hidden bitterness and hate in Nanashi, a big part of what drove him in challenging God. That could have kept him from fully grasping his situation.

Knowing what to do about that, Issachar sang softly for Nanashi to reassure him too. It had to be different this time; he wanted Nanashi to keep hope in the future too, that he could be free and have his life back. Issachar wasn't sure how that could be done, but as soon as he wondered about it, he felt a reassurance that it was possible. Their struggles to do what was right despite all they had to suffer through would not go unrewarded. But it was his responsibility to keep these two going through this last stretch, since he had taken on that responsibility.

Nanashi struggled for a while not to cry in response to his song. There was a voice of disdain in his soul, words Issachar couldn't hear from Dagda. But the tone dismissive of Nanashi's emotions was easy enough to understand. "Your fears are nothing to be ashamed of," Issachar told him through the song. "Any person in your position would feel the same. If it hurts, don't be ashamed to cry now. It'll help you tough things out later when we need to be strong."

A minute later, Flynn came over and sat on the other side of Nanashi. He still felt awkward about it, not blaming Nanashi for what he'd suffered but still associating him with it. He wanted to help too and just wasn't sure how. However, being there was enough to help convince Nanashi that Flynn did care. The two of them were alike in some ways.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bother you guys," Nanashi said once he calmed down.

"Don't worry about it," Flynn said. "Besides, it's Issachar's duty as an angel to give hugs to people who need it.

Issachar laughed at that, glad that Flynn could joke around now. "I suppose that's true," he said. "And right now, I need to keep you two in good spirits. You're the ones who can take care of the problem at the core of things now."

"We have to prove the truth of things first," Flynn said. "And today will be a part of it."

In the early afternoon, they met up with the Demifiend in the open plaza above Shinjuku's shelter. The area had been cleaned up and repaired, then fitted with several large cameras. Although it had been advertised as demons against humans, the demons around seemed to be acting as the camera crew. Imps flitted about making sure everything was plugged in and ready, while some nekomatas were operating the cameras. Who else were they going to be fighting?

"Before we begin, the shrine you asked about has been restored," the Demifiend said to acknowledge their arrival. "There was plenty of wood outside the city; we were able to make sure that it looks as it did before Tokyo was closed off from the world."

"Thank you, we'll check on it later," Flynn said.

The Demifiend nodded. "I hope you find it to your satisfaction. Now that you're here, it won't take long until we're ready to broadcast. You'd best be ready to sing."

"Sing?" Nanashi asked, as confused as they were.

He chuckled. "Didn't you know? At one time, this was an idol competition between a team of girls and a team of boys, to see who sang the best. The arrival of demons changed it into demons against humans, in song and battle. Of course, it also used to be held on the eve of the new year. The time has clearly not been kept equivalent, but no matter. It's been focused on battle the past few times, but I brought back the musical part to interest the audience, which has changed greatly since the last event. They'll be voting for who they prefer in the musical portion. Do your best." He then teleported elsewhere to check up on his crew.

"Do we have to sing?" Nanashi asked. "I don't think I've sung anything since I was really young."

"It seems like it," Issachar said.

"Well you don't have anything to worry about there," Nanashi said.

"Well, I don't sing as well as a human," he said. "But we'll do as he said, do our best at it."

"As long as we win the battles, we'll at least tie this competition," Flynn said. "He may be counting on that so he can challenge us publicly."

Although the Demifiend had chosen to include the music portion of this competition, Issachar suspected something more was up when he first summoned a fairy called Vivian against Nanashi. They were using a format called karaoke where a screen hidden from the audience gave them lyrics to sing along with recorded music. Vivian stammered her way through an introduction, then was too nervous to sing well. While she had a pretty voice, Nanashi got through his song without stumbling too much over the words and was voted the winner. The battle lasted a while because Vivian kept healing herself, but Nanashi was able to win that too.

Flynn was called in second and put against a giant dragon named Tiamat. Her head was humanoid, but her voice was such a cacophonous shrill that no one liked her singing even as she claimed to put passion into it. When his turn came, Flynn did not recognize the song he was given at all. But he kept up with the screen as best he could and sounded good at it. Tiamat caused him no trouble in battle either, especially since she seemed more interested in proving that she could indeed sing than in actually winning.

Then Issachar was called up, along with a demon the Demifiend introduced as one of his clan peers, Mother Harlot. She wore a violet veil over her face and barely concealing clothing over the rest of her body. It was odd because most of the other fiends had skeletal bodies, at least until Issachar got a better look at her hidden face and saw that it was an exposed skull unlike the rest of her. And unlike the other two demons she actually sang well; Mother Harlot barely watched the screen and sang from memory. Issachar did his best, but was given a song he didn't know. Somehow, he barely got enough votes over Mother Harlot to win that.

Flynn and Nanashi had both fought on their own, but given that he was against a fiend, Issachar summoned Huang Long and a couple of newer demons to fight Mother Harlot. She responded by attempting to curse them with Debilitate and using a goblet to cast something that Burroughs quickly identified as being an almighty spell. It turned into a drawn out match too, but Huang Long was able to keep them healed up and Dekaja kept the Debilitate from sticking for long. Once he figured out that she wouldn't resist his gun attacks, he used charged shots to bring her down.

With the three demons in the competition defeated, the Demifiend came back out in the stage area and waved the other two forward. "Well done, it seems the human team has a strong winning streak now," he said. "But can you maintain it against Death itself? Mortals are always limited by death; you cannot escape fate."

"True, but you fiends are incarnations of Death," Flynn said. "Not truly Death. Being an incarnation makes you vulnerable."

"If you believe so, you'd best hope that your theory is sound," the Demifiend said, sweeping his cloak aside for a moment. He was still a shadowy being. "Your final opponent in this contest is me. Let's see how you humans truly fare."

And then he nearly wiped them immediately by calling power from the Earth itself. Huang Long was able to heal them back up, but it was clear that an unlucky moment or two could be enough to doom them. 'Master, he will nullify any attacks save for guns and almighty,' Burroughs said.

Flynn must have gotten the same message as he quickly said, "Nanashi, you're not going to be able to hurt him. Bring out any demons you have with gun or almighty skills, or focus on support. We'll need to boost up Issachar's power and accuracy quick to make any progress here."

"Alright," Nanashi said, keeping to the side to search for good demons to use.

Issachar wasn't even able to respond since the Demifiend attacked them all again. He fired a normal shot to see how it would do while waiting on Flynn to summon out Vishnu. With him out, Issachar could give Huang Long orders to use Luster Candy while leaving Vishnu the duty of keeping the whole group healed. Issachar charged up his power while the Demifiend snapped his fingers and called out three other demons: Ym, a pixie, and an oni. While the latter two seemed like ordinary demons, they soon proved themselves far more powerful than a pixie and oni that one would normally run across.

Flynn waved to him in a signal to wait a moment, then used Antitchton along with his Vishnu and Trumpeter to destroy all of the Demifiend's party except the Ym and the Demifiend himself. Good, that meant he'd be greatly weakened. Issachar then fired Grand Tack at the Demifiend; he retaliated with his earth attack, but then was destroyed into shadows like other demons. That left just the Ym, which Nanashi's own Ym was able to finish off.

With the Demifiend gone, one of the nekomata came out in front of the cameras. "Meyowza, that was quite a match," she called. "Took out a couple of our cameras too, but that's okay! They'll be fixed up in no time. But hey, seems like the human team is our winner!"

"Right, he was the last of Lucifer's seven generals that we were challenged to defeat," Issachar said, since the one camera remaining had a light that indicated it was still recording. "I hope you demons will respect humans more now."

"Well I will, no doubts about that," the nekomata said, taking something from a bag at her side. "Aaaannnnd, since you guys won the Smacktacular competition, you win a fabulous prize! Here!"

She actually handed over two things: a black thorn key with an eye at one end and a electronics controller. "These?" Issachar asked as he accepted them for the group.

"Yup, they're the keys to the big fancy reactor," she said. "Since that place was in the Demifiend's possession and you defeated him, the reactor now belongs to you! Although the castle will be gone without his power; the old building will be mostly normal-ish when you go see it next. That means all the electrical power in the world now belongs to you three! Isn't that a meowgically fabulous prize?"

"That is pretty great," Issachar said, although it might be better to pass off the keys to someone who knew more about the generator, someone they could trust.

"Just watch yourself now cause there's loads of beings that'd want to steal those keys from you," the nekomata said. "Well folks, that's it, see you next competition!"

"That relic operates the reactor itself," Flynn said, indicating the controller. "But it is a passageway to the Abyss as well, so we'll want to keep both of those secure."

"Right," Issachar said. So this controller was the thing that could destroy the world, keep it alive, and connect to other times and realms. He wasn't sure what to do with that kind of power right now, but perhaps even if he didn't understand it, it was best that it was with him and Flynn. They could keep others from abusing it. "Want to go check Ichigaya out and see how things are now?"

They didn't have any other plans for the day, so they headed over through the terminals. As the nekomata had said, the strange dark castle was completely gone. In its place, there was a small fort of a building, unremarkable looking save for how defensive it was. Unsurprisingly, Lucifer was there, on his own and apparently thinking over something.

"What are you going to do now?" Flynn asked, ready to fight if need be.

"Hmm?" He looked over at them, then shrugged. "I'll find somewhere new to be; that's never a problem. What is going to be a problem is how quickly my generals fell to you. It seems they've gone soft in my absence. That would be inexcusable. But we had a deal, didn't we? Fine, I'll keep my word. I am at your command, Issachar, at least until those mad angels and their god are gone from the world."

It felt like Lucifer was giving up too easily, even with all the things they had done. Issachar glanced at Flynn, who was frowning. He had to feel the same way. "All right," Issachar said. "But if you mean Gabriel and the other three, we want to capture them and hand their fates over to Satan's judgment."

At that, Lucifer smiled. Maybe he saw that as a better ends even if he had to submit to humans temporarily. "That's fine, they deserve it. It'll take a while until I can call on my generals again, but don't worry, I have enough forces to take down their barrier of Purgatory. As long as you can deal with the Last Crusader, capturing the four heralds shouldn't be an issue."

"We've got a plan for him," Flynn said.

With Lucifer helping them now, they headed inside to check on the reactor. The eye key let them pass the wormwood barriers that were still up in several places; it made most sense to keep those up to safeguard the reactor. According to Lucifer, there was an open passage from the Abyss through this place, but it let demons out on street level rather than inside. None of them knew how the machinery actually worked, but calling Fujiwara let them bring in some engineers to see how the machinery and electronics were. The reactor itself was still working normally and showed no signs of breaking down.

And with the forces of Hell no longer seeking to subjugate humanity, breaking up the warped forces of Heaven was next.


	85. Trial of the Angels

**Chapter 85: Trial of the Angels**

Near the river across from Mikado, they found Masakado's shrine restored to what it had once been. It stood out among the broken streets and long abandoned buildings as something newer and older than the rest. The interior was even decorated as if it were an active shrine; Flynn felt like it was accurately done even though his knowledge of that was faint in distant memories. From that, he lit a few candles in front of a portrait of Masakado.

Issachar was the only one in the shrine with him now. He brought out the Chalice of Hope and placed it in the center of the candles. In response to the three spirits, the colors of the candles began to shift. "Like that?"

Nodding, Flynn stepped back and bowed respectfully. Issachar followed his lead since he had no knowledge or memory of these rituals. There was a feeling now that this place was separate from the normal world. Drawing out Masakado's katana, Flynn held it out to the portrait. "Lord Masakado, we call upon you as a protector of humanity. We ask for your assistance in freeing the people from the law of a hateful god. With the hope, goodwill, and spite of the people of Tokyo and Mikado, please join us in our battle for freedom."

The spirits and the candles all brightened, turning to a golden glow that gathered together in front of them. It grew and formed into a man with a powerful aura, one who could be called a samurai of a different age. While his eyes retained the golden glow, he had none of the monstrous qualities that his JDSDF form had. "Thank you for restoring me," Masakado said, bowing to them. "As promised, I will lend my hand in overcoming the tyrant god. When you're ready, I'll be able to destroy the chains on the monolith back in Ginza. That will lead us into the realm of that god so that we may reach him."

"Good," Flynn said as Issachar retrieved the Chalice of Hope. "It shouldn't be long now."

"And if everything's gone as we hope, we'll be calling on another ally for humanity now," Issachar said.

"I've heard," Masakado said. "It would normally be a dangerous proposal, but I feel as though things are in your favor."

They headed outside, Flynn thought over these last moves. The Last Crusader was the last unknown element, unless further surprises popped up. Aside from him, there were other potential problems that hadn't come up yet. One of those was Izanami, a goddess that Nanashi usually fought. Did they have enough momentum to end this all smoothly? They should, given that they had an alliance with Lucifer (albeit one that remained suspect), with Masakado (one that was reliable), and now they were going to form one with Satan (there was always a danger with the first angel and penultimate judge, but they should have seen enough now to offer help). Lilith was also on their side, although she was more invested on keeping society balanced and open-minded than in fighting YHVH.

Outside the shrine, their friends were waiting on them. Isabeau, Walter, and Jonathan were talking with each other, along with Marie who'd come along to support them even if all she could do was witness. Nanashi was there too, sitting on the steps into the shrine on his own. Although he kept claiming that he didn't feel comfortable around a lot of people, the way he acted reminded Flynn of himself at times, when he'd tried keeping distant to focus on his plans. But that distance came with an emotional numbness that made it all too easy to become detached to common sense and sympathy. Thinking on that, he knew it was better that Nanashi had insisted on accompanying them. It meant that they could keep him from getting too detached.

Merkabah and Hikaru were there too, apparently caught up in another debate. "It sets boundaries and records truths so they can be passed on to many others," Merkabah said. "Most laws are written down somewhere, even those of the Almighty."

"That's only a limited view on what's possible," Hikaru said. "Dreams and fantasies can be recorded too, as more than just fleeting ideas. So can truths that can't be put into simple words without being easily misunderstood. Such truths can be related with stories that cause others to think and question."

"What are you debating now?" Issachar asked as the others started to gather on seeing them come out with Masakado.

"The merits of writing and literacy," Merkabah said. "I've been considering the matter, and why it was kept so exclusive in Mikado."

"Isn't that because literacy benefits humans the most?" Marie asked. "Because angels and demons are eternal and don't need to learn, while humans are mortal and do need to learn. Reading and learning from books was magical to us Casualry born because it was something we couldn't comprehend. But when literacy was gifted to us, we could break out of the place we were given at birth."

"That is ultimately more true than literacy belonging to law or chaos," Hikaru said, clapping her hands together. "So are we ready to disrupt the established order some more? I am!"

Merkabah sighed. "I wish you would not put it that way. But this is to break falsehoods, so yes, I am as well."

"Yes, we need to break the false order and anarchy forced on the world," Walter said.

Jonathan nodded. "We can't be sure, but I believe that the world will be better off by doing this."

"I don't think this is a perfect solution," Flynn said. "But it's the best one I've seen. Very well, Merkabah, Hikaru, we would have you return to being Satan with your complete self."

Issachar went over and offered the chalice to them. "Yes, we trust that you'll assist humanity this time."

"It'd be silly not to," Hikaru said, smiling warmly. It even looked natural this time. "After all, we've lived among and even as you humans now."

"Indeed," Merkabah said, waving her hand to beckoning the spirits to them. "You have inspired others well. Thus, these spirits of humanity shall be traded for the angelic spirits the three of you have bore longer than you have lived." She then sent the spirits into them, the red spirit of Spite to Walter, the blue spirit of Goodwill to Jonathan, and the golden spirit of Hope to Flynn.

As the trade was made, matching spirits emerged from them. There was a moment of disorientation and lacking in Flynn's mind, much like the time he had trusted his hope to Issachar. It was fine, he told himself. This was a trade to make things right. For now, it'd be strange. Flynn felt reminded of times that his hope had carried him through things that would break a normal person, and the ones that did break him. Issachar noticed and took his hand, right as he was also reminded that he didn't have to carry this all much further.

Meanwhile, the three spirits joined together so that Merkabah and Hikaru could become one whole being. They blurred together into a giant being: red skin, bone armor, horns, a bladed forked tail, mismatched wings… actually a whole mismatched body that somehow blended into one being. After a moment, Satan reformed into something human sized with a simpler form. They bowed their head. "Thank you for restoring me. You three are now fully free of the fate that you were assigned."

"That'd be no more of feeling like I've done something wrong for doing what I want?" Walter asked.

Satan nodded. "Right, that subconscious guide was to keep you within your roles."

"Thank goodness for that," Walter said. Jonathan chuckled, but he nodded in agreement.

"This should also mean that we can't go backwards in time anymore," Satan said, looking at Flynn. "At least not in how it was willed to happen before."

"This is the path we were searching for," Flynn said. "Now we need to break into the angel's fortress and capture the four heralds in charge."

To do that, they first sent Lucifer off to fight against the angel host with his army of demons. It was partly to prove a point. After three hours, their battle had reached a stalemate of both sides able to call up reinforcements but not able to gain an advantage. The barrier around the cocoon hadn't been broken through either. The delay was also so that Flynn felt in good shape after the spirit trade. To break through the barrier without going through the Purgatory domain, they were going to challenge Last Crusader.

They headed out to southern Tokyo as it was mostly uninhabited. At a large crosswalk, Flynn summoned his Trumpeter. "I want you to issue a challenge to Last Crusader with your trumpet. You can handle that."

"Of course I can," Trumpeter said haughtily. "My trumpet can sound over the whole world; it will be simple to reach him."

He glanced over at Nanashi; he was waiting and ready. Issachar was just out of sight to carry out another part of their plan. If Nanashi could do what was needed, it might've been better to send him to not raise suspicions. As it was, this would have to do. "Then send the challenge."

Trumpeter flew up a few feet before blaring a boisterous tune that sounded right, a call to battle. Before even a minute passed, a bright streak appeared across the sky. Last Crusader landed in the intersection. "You fools, you're distracting me from fighting the forces of evil! Prepare to suffer for your arrogance!"

"Can you truly back up those words?" Flynn asked. "Or are you going to hide in that chariot because you have little merit as a warrior?"

"You have no clue what you're suggesting!" the Last Crusader bellowed, spreading his wings of swords before leaping out to stand before them. He then drew a bulky sword of gold from a hidden sheath. "You have abandoned the ways of God and will perish for your sins! I will terminate you!"

"Try it," Flynn said, blocking Crusader's first leaping attack. The heavier sword and the angel's strength might've broke a normal katana; he could feel the blow in his shoulders. Nanashi tried to cut through a gap in Crusader's armor, only to get blocked by the wing blades. While magic might be the way to go about this, sword combat would be a better way to keep his attention away from Issachar.

Once the battle with Crusader began, Issachar hurried over to Crusader's chariot. There were reports from many different sources that the chariot had hidden artillery. That and its speed were part of what made Last Crusader a formidable foe. However, they'd gotten an enchanted bridle off of Jormungandr. Breaking the bridle left the enchantment intact. That allowed the giant snake bridle to be remade into four enchanted horse bridles, just enough for this job.

It had been a while since he'd dealt with horses, but he still remembered how to change the harnesses around. That put the four horses under his control. In the chariot, he found a control panel with strange markings around it. That was solved by using his angel form. Seven sets of canons and guns were spread out in a way that it'd be easier for the driver to have an assistant controlling the artillery. Among all the controls, one set was labeled as armor busters. Issachar activated it; six long barreled cannons emerged from the sides. A small screen gave him targeting information, letting him fire at Last Crusader.

White beams shot out at the angel, shattering parts of his armor. "Hey thief! Get away from my chariot!"

Flynn took the moment to step back and cast Antitchton. "Don't complain when you're a thief too."

"And a terrorist," Nanashi said. "Threatening to end the world for everyone else."

"That is God's orders!" Last Crusader bellowed, spreading his wings at an odd angle to fire all the swords out.

Issachar ducked into the chariot to avoid one of the swords, then fired the armor breaker guns at Crusader again. Fighting fair could be ignored with the future of the world at stake. On making sure enough of the angel's armor was broken, he swapped over to a different set of guns to test out. From the look of things, the chariot didn't need the horses to fly. It did need an angel to get it working.

The guns might've taken out Crusader's armor, but it still took a while to destroy him. Once he was gone, a shaft of light shot into the sky. A signal; it could mean trouble. "Can we use that chariot like we wanted?" Flynn called as he came over with Nanashi.

"Yes, it won't be a problem," he said. "You're going to have to hang on tight; we've seen how fast this thing flies. We can drop the horses off in Mikado since they're just there for looks."

"He stole the horses of the four apocalypse riders just for looks?" Nanashi asked in disbelief.

"As grandiose as he was, that's not surprising to me," Flynn said.

They had to use their authority of samurai to get the horses taken into a stable on the outer ring of Mikado's capitol, in part because the horses looked strange to the stable hands and in part because they had to warn them not to take the bridles off or the horses could be deadly. Since they weren't necessary, it seemed better to keep them out of harm's way so the four fiends didn't end up angry later on. One of the stable owners seemed fine with housing potentially dangerous horses for a short time; Issachar could see he was honest, so they left the horses with him. Then they flew across Tokyo and the forest beyond to reach the transported Shene Duque, all in a matter of seconds. They had to cling onto bars on the inside of the chariot to stay in place. Although there was a back railing, it didn't seem like much protection on a flying chariot.

The angelic domain of Purgatory had a reflective surface. It might help it be hidden on ground level, but the mirroring made it obvious from above. Lowering the chariot to just above the tallest trees, Issachar turned to the others. "There's controls over there that I think will work. It says it's for breaking barriers based on distortions of space, which should include domains like this."

"Which ones?" Flynn asked, running his hand near the various controls.

There wasn't a good way he could describe it to someone who couldn't read angelic language. He just had to wait until Flynn was near it. "That one… right, there. The bottom switch in that column will activate the guns. Then see that odd screen above the panel? That'll show the targeting sights, controlled with that toggle in the middle. The six buttons on top are the triggers."

"Then are all these controls for guns?" Nanashi asked, looking over another set of controls.

"Pretty much," Issachar said. "It's got things from ten thousand small-arms like my pistols to the largest cannon which is called Fire of Gomorrah. It says that one will raze the earth and turn all life to salt, leaving it lifeless for a century."

"It's good they were slow to act," Flynn said before firing off all the barrier breaking cannons at once. There was a powerful blast from all around them; the sound alone was painful. While the barrier rippled trying to bear it, cracks quickly spread out and caused the barrier to shatter. The energy tore through the cocoon for a few seconds before Flynn shut the cannons off to end the din. A gaping hole was left through the cocoon with the edges catching on fire.

Lucifer appeared by the chariot. "Nicely done there. Shall we humiliate them?"

"We can't truly humiliate them unless we capture them," Issachar reminded him.

"I've got that covered," Lucifer said, grinning as he called an icy mist around his hand.

Just as he claimed, he was able to freeze the angels into a helpless state. The thousand gun setting helped to to weaken the heralds greatly. Once they were frozen, Satan transported them away to the chosen trial site. Gabriel tried to escape, but Issachar sent Huang Long to block her from doing so. By the time she was captured, the cocoon was on fire. They had to use Lucifer's ice magic to contain the fire before moving on.

The trial of the angels was set up in Mikado at Obelisk Plaza, since Mikado was the place that they had created and controlled. Lucifer set up four pillars of ice there, freezing the heralds into place straight onto the pillars so they couldn't escape. Before long, crowds of people had gathered just for that spectacle. They didn't come close, though. Satan was there in his normal monstrous appearance, albeit a smaller size in only being nine feet tall. Standing in front of the heralds, he watched over them while they waited on a few people to arrive.

Since this trial involved the angels controlling humanity, they had invited the Mikado royal family, a few of their ministers, and Fujiwara because he led the largest human organization in Tokyo. With the arrival of the guest witnesses, someone unexpected showed up. Aleph came into the square, wearing the attire of a Tokyo demon hunter as well as his own gauntlet. "Excuse me, but I'm here to speak for the heralds."

"What do you mean?" Satan asked. Their deep voice caused the gathered crowd to quiet down.

"You can't speak for us," Michael said spitefully. "You're a fallen Messiah, corrupted by the demons. You can't possibly speak for the servants of God."

"You cannot speak for yourselves properly," Aleph said. "Not without muddling the truth. I am the avatar of the Amala Network, an oracle of truth if you understand that better. That is because you four heralds and your master forced me to learn the entire history of the conflict between Law and Chaos. That conflict is important to understanding what has gone on in this world. However, you cannot speak against your master; your wills are chained to him and you cannot act against him. Therefore, I will speak for you so that the truth can be known."

"You are welcome to speak for yourselves during this trial," Satan said to the four heralds. "But given your nature, the truth will be difficult to ascertain from your testimonies. So we will have Aleph speak the truth for you."

"So you'll make this trial not for justice, but for the results you want?" Gabriel asked sharply.

"The same could be said of your actions in the past," Lucifer said.

"Let's not start the arguments yet," Satan said firmly, getting everyone there to cooperate. "Our goal here is to determine how our world went from a fully civilized population at a digital information age across all landmasses to two halves of one city at disparate levels of civilization and reduced knowledge."

"It was because the human civilization became distant from God and corrupted by demons," Michael said.

"That's too simplistic an explanation to be truth," Lucifer said.

"Truth is to be pure and simple," Gabriel said. "As the world itself should be."

"If the truth were simple, we could be done in a minute more," Aleph said. "But it's not."

"Truth is only simple to the omniscient," Satan said. "Which none of us here are because Aleph is only technically omniscient because he has access to all information. Now, when did you four enter this world?"

"We belong to this world," Michael said.

Satan shook his head. "Your spirits belong to another world, another part of the multiverse. You have supplanted the heralds that should be here. From looking at you now, I can tell that much. What happened?"

"We belong to all worlds," Michael said. "We belong where God calls us."

"We were called to save this world from sin," Uriel said.

Aleph nodded. "That is what you were told, the only thing you could believe. In truth, the major religions of humanity reached a level of bigotry and hate that brought out the face of God who dealt in vengeance, intolerance, and jealousy. This face of God, YHVH, brought in you four in to extinguish all he found wrong in humanity, around a century ago to Tokyo. He gave you no direct contact, simply unconscious directives. He also called upon Satan in order to justify his actions by judging mankind to be nonredeemable."

"I do not remember such judgment," Satan said.

"You judged that only a fraction of humanity was innocent enough to be saved from sin," Michael said. "So we were to take the innocent, erase all sin from them, and give them a blessed land to create the Kingdom of God in."

"That is not what Satan's judgment was," Aleph said. "His judgment was that humans had the capacity for great evil and great good in equal measure. With proper guidance, they could reach enlightenment and make their world greater. But his judgment would have called for no destruction. Thus, YHVH overturned that judgment to follow his plans for destruction."

"God's judgment is absolute," Michael said.

"Satan judged that YHVH's plans were not in line with that of the Creator," Aleph said. "This means that YHVH has become disconnected with the almighty God. Because of that, Satan informed Lucifer of his judgment to allow him to act against YHVH's plan. But before they could act, God tore Satan in two while the four heralds lured Lucifer into a trap to destroy his physical manifestation. Lucifer's spirit was imprisoned in a glacier of the Abyss while his name was taken and given to the chaos half of Satan. The name of Merkabah was given to the law half of Satan; the memories of the conspiracy was erased from all parts of the pair."

"That accounts for what I experienced," Lucifer said.

Aleph continued with, "YHVH then stepped out of directing the conflict, leaving it to the angels and demons to lead humanity to ruin. It was intended that the false Lucifer would be less effective and charismatic, causing humanity to side with the angels. However, the false Lucifer gained a stronger position than expected and the chosen hero of the time opted to not work with either side, instead having faith in the power of humanity. Merkabah also proved uncooperative with the herald's directions, doing nothing in waiting for direct guidance from God."

"We had direct guidance," Michael insisted. However, there was a defensiveness to him and the other heralds that suggested something wasn't right. "We carry out the will of God. That is all we can do, so all that we do is under guidance from God."

Ignoring him once he was done speaking, Aleph continued. "The heralds had already put their plans into motion, to kidnap the innocents they found, which were mostly young children, and place them into protective cocoons to erase their willpower. This erasure of free will would not allow them to make any decisions out of line with YHVH's desires for a compliant humanity. They also adopted extreme measures from their human allies and set all nuclear weapons in the world out to destroy human civilization even at the risk of rendering the whole world dead. While the chosen hero was able to summon Masakado to raise a barrier to protect Tokyo in time, all life in the rest of the world was extinguished with nuclear fire on the decision of these four heralds."

"We did not decide that," Michael said. "We didn't. It was the humans that made the plan to destroy their own world. That proves that humanity was too far gone to be saved."

Raphael added, "We follow orders; we do not decide."

"What were the circumstances of the decision that led multiple nations to deploy nuclear weapons at the risk of mutually assured destruction?" Satan asked Aleph.

Aleph nodded to frozen heralds. "These four knew YHVH's goal was the destruction of the majority of humanity and the erasure of free will in the survivors. As they could not come up with new ideas themselves, they consulted with their human allies. There was a sarcastic reply from one of them that they could always just nuke the demons off the planet. The heralds took that reply seriously, even though a quick correction said that it should be a last resort measure. With that as the greatest destruction they had access to, the heralds decided to go with a nuclear extermination."

"It was God's decision to destroy that rotten civilization, not ours," Michael said, trying to deny it more emphatically.

"It was their decision," Aleph said. "But they had to believe that it was God's decision to not be tormented by their indoctrination."

"That is not true!" Michael insisted.

"It is true," Satan said. "You have no true will aside from God's, with a small allowance for independent action to not leave you paralyzed with indecision. But YHVH has been sitting back and observing once his position as God was established. He has not communicated with his servants and left you to act on your own when you're not capable of doing so. I had already noticed that problem."

"God is infallible," Michael said. "He cannot make mistakes. He is all-knowing, all-seeing."

Ignoring that, Aleph said, "With the unchosen survivors hiding in Tokyo with the demons and their time greatly slowed due to the state of the perpetual reactor there, the angels decided to bring the chosen survivors onto the top of the Firmament while the rest of the world slowly recovered from the nuclear destruction. But their plan for the Kingdom of God kept failing because the survivors from the cocoons were incapable of building a civilization to live in. It was only when a group of survivors from Tokyo broke through the Firmament and chose to stay there were the revived survivors from the cocoons able to survive longer than a couple years and bring forth a new generation. Within three generations, the people of Mikado had regained the natural state of their free will.

"Just as the heralds had decided to purge Mikado of free will once again, an interloper of another rogue face of God came and captured Michael, Uriel, and Raphael. They were imprisoned without any trace of will or identity just as Lucifer was, but in a tower in Tokyo instead. Gabriel was left without them or the guidance of God to lead the people of Mikado. As she could not erase free will on her own, she had to encourage a violent uprising to cut down the human population to a level she could control. And thus, Mikado continued as an incomplete Kingdom of God with regular purges of population and free will for fifteen centuries.

"There was a further problem of the effectiveness of the false Lucifer and the uncontrollable will of Merkabah, but that had been solved before the three heralds were captured. They brought the two puppets together and cut out three traits from their souls: goodwill, spite, and hope. These three traits were sent into the souls of Mikado citizens so that any humans born with them could be led to influence the rest of the population. And thus, the world was brought into the state it was when a new hero was called to decide the fates of Mikado and Tokyo."

"Thus I was divided with my halves were in a state that just Gabriel could control," Satan said. "That allowed her and the other three when they were freed to decide the outcome of this war. However, the chosen Messiah of this generation forged their own path as last time. Did you decide to eliminate humanity entirely because even with all that you did to control the conflict, you could not take control over the world's fate?"

"No, that was God's decision which was handed down to us from Last Crusader," Michael said.

Satan shook his head. "But who is the Last Crusader? He was not a part of the heavenly host as I knew it."

"He is one of us," Gabriel said.

Aleph closed his eyes and put his hand to his cheek in thought. "The Last Crusader… when the three heralds were freed, they were greatly weakened from their imprisonment. Gabriel was insane from loneliness and being denied by those she wanted to control. They blamed the humans and the demons for their suffering and uncertainty, unable to realize that their master YHVH had done nothing for them since calling them into the world and giving them their mission. Thus, the Last Crusader was born from their wishes of the destruction of humans and demons when they were unable to excuse choosing that destruction for the sake of God. They had to have a sign; Last Crusader became their sign."

"Then he was wish fulfillment for the heralds when they became incapable of further actions due to their status as servants of the Face of God YHVH," Issachar said, clearing that up for Flynn. While he had experienced all this, it was still difficult to understand the thoughts of these angels.

Aleph nodded. "Yes, and that's not the first time such things have happened with these particular angels."

"That's not important to this world!" Uriel snapped like that was an embarrassing subject.

"True, but it would be important to knowing you four in particular," Aleph said.

Satan pointed to Uriel since he spoke up. "Yes, and knowing that your spirits are not of this world is important too. You four are capable of making mistakes."

"Yes, because we are not God, merely His servants," Uriel said. "God does not make mistakes."

"Does that include his decision to destroy the free will of humanity when God is the one who gifted them with free will?" Satan asked.

"Humanity had become corrupted," Gabriel said angrily.

"So it was a mistake that God made in giving them the ability to decide matters for themselves?" Satan repeated.

Being forced to confront such a contradiction caused the four heralds a painful agony that was clear in their faces. Even though Flynn didn't like them for all they had put him through, he found it difficult to see them like that. Gabriel started weeping and babbling under her breath, causing further discomfort in the other three. He glanced away and spotted Lucifer with a smile of wicked glee on his face for a moment before he put on a more serious tact. After all this was done, he would still be a problem. But he shouldn't be as much of a problem as YHVH.

After looking at each of the heralds, Satan said, "You four have led to the destruction of the world and humanity. However, you are unable to take full blame for this. You're not designed to work on your own or even as a group apart from God. The blame for this falls upon the rogue Face of God YHVH who left you on your own and decided that humanity should be destroyed.

"While you're still here, I'll let you know that I believe that my prior judgment still stands. I have seen how humans live these days with my own eyes, and in some ways experienced their lives myself. I still believe that they can do better. While things needed to change back then, a near extinction was not needed and in fact was detrimental. We could have done something lesser to alert them to how their actions were making their world worse; now they have much further to go to reach an ideal world. They can still improve and find peace, if the false god YHVH is removed from power.

"As for you four," Satan pointed at them, "leave this world and leave behind the identities of the native heralds so that they can be restored. Do not meddle in the affairs of our world again."

"We were called here," Michael said, "and haven't completed our mission."

"We can't go against our Lord," Raphael said.

"True, but I can bypass the orders of a false god," Satan said. "So get out."

The ice pillars shattered, forcing the heralds to turn into forms of light. They all split in two and took off in different directions. With that, another side of the conflict was finished.

And everything stopped.


	86. Throne of God

**Chapter 86: Throne of God**

Nanashi's skin tingled as everything stopped around him. The crowd near him stopped murmuring; the light breeze stopped. In the center of the plaza, splinters of the ice pillars had not entirely fallen out of the air. Satan wasn't affected; he turned to look over those who also weren't affected: Lucifer, Flynn, and Issachar. The sky darkened, shifting to red.

Dagda seemed strangely satisfied. "Being so publicly denounced has drawn the tyrant into action for once."

"I've not seen YHVH act so directly before," Flynn said.

"We've dismissed his servants and denounced him in front of a good portion of humanity," Satan said, looking up to the sky now. "Others would hear of this soon from the witnesses. I feel as though his position as God has greatly weakened. Either he feels he must do something to prove himself as the Almighty or he's lost all patience and is preparing to destroy everything."

"Either way, we need to eliminate him," Issachar said. "Is he in this world or do we need to go after him?" Meanwhile, Nanashi went over to the others so they knew he was still moving too.

"We'll have to go into his realm," Satan said. "The obelisk in Ginza is usually the access point, but it's white instead of black in this time. That may affect things, but there's no time to figure it out."

"I've already looked it up," Aleph said, revealing that he had kept out of the time freeze too. "The change was done by the White, intending for it to lead to their realm. However, they have been overcome. They may put up a last resistance once the obelisk is unchained, but their chances of success are slim now. Satan, you are able to alter the destination of that obelisk since you can grant humans permission to face God."

Satan nodded. "Good. Thank you for coming to speak the truth."

"It's my duty," Aleph said, giving a bow. "But as an outsider, this is all I should do. I believe your world is safe in the hands of the heroes here." He then vanished like the angels had.

Flynn looked off towards Tokyo. "We'd best get moving, since there's no telling what will happen when."

"There's not much else we can do with everyone else frozen," Issachar added. "Even Jonathan and Walter got frozen."

"They're no longer tied to fate," Satan said, raising a hand to cast a magic circle around them. "Let's go."

There was a brief flash like traveling through the terminals. The well-kept stone plaza full of people got replaced with the worn pavement of a crosswalk with only a few humans and demons frozen in view. There, Masakado came forward and took one of the chains on the obelisk. "Allow me." He then ripped the chains off like they were nothing more than old threads.

As soon as he did, pale shadows emerged from the white obelisk. They brought a fog with them that quickly enveloped the crossroads. "Don't do this," they said in a chorus of anger, fear, weariness, and despair. "History has fallen into a spiral of defeat and loss; nothing can bring back what has passed."

"That's fine," Flynn said, resolute with them and tense at the same time. "We're here to forge a new future by getting rid of problems of the past."

"There is simply no winning anymore," the White said.

Before they could continue, the surface of the obelisks crackled with energy. They all paused right as the white surface shattered and tore the White apart. The fog thinned but still reflected an eerie glow of black from the obelisk. Lucifer chuckled at that. "My, it seems that not even the false God could stand those White."

Satan nodded. "It's likely a reason of they want to destroy the world at the same time he does, so he's not letting them."

"That's sounds so childish," Issachar said, going over to touch the obelisk.

Once he did, they were transported to a field of stars. An uncountable number, given that the stars surrounded them on all sides as far as the eye could see, in clouds of various ethereal colors. The only indication of where they were in this infinite expanse was a gloss to an otherwise unseen surface they stood on. Similarly, reflections of light occasionally revealed stairs, edges, and walls, but a step aside caused those reflections to shift in what they showed. There were white arches holding a glowing darkness that remained steadily visible, but it was difficult to tell how to reach any but the nearest to them.

Nanashi had a strong feeling that he'd been here before. That should be, given that he'd challenged YHVH in other times. From that feeling… this place wasn't infinitely long, but it felt that way. It was a labyrinth of figuring out where paths and doorways went since none of it followed earthly reason. It was a place that kept teasing the correct way forward only to send you far back. Along the many indistinguishable paths, when you finally got to a place that looked different, there would be some powerful angel or being standing in your way. That included both Lucifer and Satan… although, not the Lucifer and Satan that were with them now.

"Sorry, where are we now?" Issachar asked, looking off into the distance.

"We're in the Throne of God in YHVH's realm," Satan said.

"In the throne?" Nanashi asked, bewildered about that even though that sounded true.

Satan nodded. "A multidimensional space beyond four dimensions is difficult to explain to those without certain knowledge, but you could think of it as a closed book. We're merely on the first page on," he shrugged, "let's say a million pages. The doorways you see can take you to another page, if you can find your way to the doors. YHVH can be on any page at any time. But unless you have permission to come before him, you'll never end up on the same page as him."

"He's doing this to show off," Lucifer scoffed. "Making us feel unworthy and small before him."

"But you can get us on the same page," Issachar said to Satan.

"Yes, that's no problem," they said, gesturing to the nearby door. The darkness within it flickered and took on a golden tinge. "That door will now do so."

"Good, because this place is a slog to get through otherwise," Flynn said.

Through the door, they came to the place where the stars ended. The door itself vanished seconds after Masakado came through as the last of them. It was utter darkness without any outer light to cast reflections on what was around them. Despite that, all of them there were visible as if the area was lit. Lucifer in particular emitted an eerie cold light that let them see a small ways around them. Despite seeing so little, this place didn't seem empty.

Then golden reflections raced over an enormous being with them. Their entire being wasn't visible at once, only in fleeting glimpses like the arch of a cheekbone, the curling lines of an ear, the corner of a mouth. When they spoke, Satan immediately held a hand up and did something that caused a web of sparks around them. "Bow before me, for I am the beginning and the end, the creator of all and the destroyer of all. I am God."

"I will never bow before you," Lucifer said.

"I won't acknowledge a foreign god who abuses my people so," Masakado said.

"You're being more of a devil than a god right now, so no," Flynn said.

"Right, I won't accept a god of intolerance that resides in such darkness," Issachar said.

"No," Nanashi said, feeling superfluous here. The others could handle this, maybe better without him. Then again, he wanted to be here. He had to see to it that YHVH's covenant was broken so that innocent souls would be recognized as such instead of condemned to hell for terms they didn't know about.

"You've been judged inadequate, unjust, and cruel," Satan said. "You are not God."

"That is not true!" YHVH bellowed. Sparks flew around them with the force of his voice. "You will acknowledge me as the almighty God and I will restart this world entirely! It is too far gone to save! Bow or perish!" He blasted them with an invisible wave of energy that knocked Nanashi back a foot and nearly made the others lose their footing.

"You sound like the White," Flynn said, taking out his sword and slashing at their barely visible foe. A tear of white appeared in the darkness, shifting and betraying where YHVH was.

Something slammed down around them; transparent starry walls had appeared to split him off from Issachar and Flynn. "Don't panic," Dagda said, causing Nanashi's eyes to go blurry. When his vision cleared up, there was a golden shimmer of a giant arm in front of him. "Defeat the part in front of you, then your sword can take out these walls."

That made sense. Focus on his part of the fight. Able to see YHVH now, Nanashi slashed at his arm. A white cut bleeding light appeared much like with Flynn's katana. "I am all-knowing and all-seeing," YHVH bellowed from above. "My judgment is absolute."

"If it was, then Satan would have agreed with you," Nanashi said, attacking the arm again.

A burst of energy hit him from all sides as YHVH trapped Nanashi under his hand. "I am eternal; you are transient. My judgment is unchanging."

While he was able to cut through the immense fingers, that didn't remove them. "It isn't unchanging," Nanashi said. "You went from doing nothing to trying to end the world when things didn't go your way. And if you are the eternal God, you changed your mind about us humans greatly."

"You will survive to get your revenge," Dagda said, right before YHVH closed his hand to squash Nanashi like a bug. For a moment, it felt like his flesh and bones were pulverized into a paste. Maybe it had happened. Whether it did or not, he felt Dagda's power encase him and he was returned to normal. Nanashi still felt pain through all of his body, like everything should be bruised.

"You are children and you should obey the one who gave you life!" YHVH shouted. "That is who I am! I know all matters great and small. My judgment is absolute, unchanging, just, and fair."

"You are not just!" Nanashi said, his anger flaring up. Ignoring that he should have died again, he slashed with all of his fury against the hand trapping him until it finally let go. Then he wrecked both barriers so their team wasn't divided.

He heard Flynn first, angered much like he was. "You have not shown an ounce of wisdom or love yet!"

"Nanashi, what happened to you?" Issachar asked in concern, appearing near him in his angel form. He put a hand on Nanashi's shoulder to heal him better.

"I survived," he replied. "We have to win this."

"Yes, I'll be watching over you two," Issachar said, patting his shoulder before letting him get back to fighting.

Nanashi then hurried over to fight side by side with Flynn and the demons. YHVH was able to make powerful attacks from any and all directions. But since he was enormous, they had no difficulty hitting him. The bleeding light in the darkness tried to blind them, to no avail. After a few hits, Flynn called out, "You should be good now!"

"Got it," Issachar called behind them, then fired his guns quickly.

The various translucent limbs stumbled backwards on getting hit by his attacks. "You fools, I am the God of your world! I created you!"

"You're the face of vengeance, not creation," Flynn said.

"You've gone too far, outside of the true God's wishes," Issachar said.

"I am God, the one who can bless or curse your souls for eternity. You cannot overcome me. Stop your meaningless efforts and bow to me, or else perish!"

"You've cursed us with your foolishness long enough," Flynn said, taking a moment to step back so he could start casting magic instead. That spread his damage much further.

"Your judgment is unfair," Nanashi said, attacking again. How long would this take? "We won't accept you anymore."

"Right, we humans will cast you down," Issachar said, attacking again.

This time, his gunshots forced YHVH to take a visible form. He managed to be even more monstrous than Satan, a multitude of humanoid torsos that were horned, winged, and scaled all sprouting from a serpentine dragon body. Screaming in a rage, he blasted them from every head he had. The blasts that hit him made Nanashi feel like he'd been pulverized to nothing once again. However, Dagda's healing still proved more than YHVH's destructive power. How had the others fared?

"Don't worry about them, just defeat this false god," Dagda scolded him. "You're close; he's already been cast down as a demon."

A different healing spell hit him, so one of the others survived at least. After a few moments, Nanashi had spotted Flynn and Issachar still there. Good. All the others involved were demons who'd survive on as spirits if their physical form perished. Then he had the thought, wasn't he functionally immortal as well? Because he was Dagda's puppet, Dagda wasn't going to let him die until his goal was attained. Among the runes he'd been learning, if he activated them in the right combination, there were three that should draw all of YHVH's attacks at himself…

The next series of attacks really should have destroyed him utterly; there was so much pain that all of Nanashi's senses cut out. "Why'd you have to go doing that?" Dagda grumbled. "Here, holding all this power will end us."

Somehow, Nanashi brought his hands together and fired all that power back at YHVH. Feelings of coldness, heaviness, and stillness came back to him first; his hands seemed empty. Then someone took hold of him, their touch much too hot at first. Was that YHVH again? Nanashi tried to throw them off and not only failed to free himself, but also slipped from his clumsy movements.

"Don't fret," the person holding him said, patting him with a third arm. As he started being able to see again, he realized it was Vishnu who had him. "You protected us and now we're protecting you."

"That was an idiotic move," Dagda grumbled in his mind.

Feeling embarrassed, Nanashi tried to ignore a feeling that he really should be dead a thousand times over now and looked over at the battle still raging. Many of YHVH's excess limbs and heads were limply being tossed around as he kept trying to fight on his own; perhaps that was because of Nanashi's reflected attack. Flynn and Issachar were keeping some distance, sensible given that they would be most easily killed off for good here. Along with that, they both attacked best at a distance with magic and guns. Satan, Lucifer, and Masakado were keeping closer to YHVH, between the false god and the living humans. There weren't any other demons out in the fight. They must have gotten wiped out and there hadn't been time to revive them or call out others.

Once Nanashi had recovered, Vishnu handed him back his sword and let him go. But by that point, Satan had waved Flynn to get back in close. "YHVH, you will never be allowed to reign over our world again," Satan said with absolute certainty.

"You can't do that to me," YHVH growled, sounding more like a dragon than anything like a human. "I am your master."

"No longer," Satan said.

"We will not be worshiping you any longer," Flynn said, drawing his katana out again for one final strike.

There was an explosion of light, an unearthly scream that turned into a wail. As it faded, the empty darkness was replaced with the stars once more. There was ground clearly under their feet now, shifting with plants sprouting into existence. Far out at the horizon, a blue glow gathered as though dawn was approaching. That was different. His memories were faint and difficult to recall at that moment, but Nanashi knew this was different.

"Good, the souls of humanity are free," Dagda said. "Now kill the others here."

"Why?" Nanashi asked quietly, horrified at the idea. The others were checking on each other, or in Lucifer's case silently gloating to himself.

Dagda grumbled. "Because you're just a support fighter while they're alive. If you want to shape the future, you need to be the Messiah. But that's Flynn right now. He needs to be killed so we can reach our goals, and the others so there's no competition. Do this and I can make you the new God."

"That's not what I want," he said, trying to put his sword away. His arms weren't listening and kept it out; Vishnu glanced at him. Nanashi tried not to say anything more even as he fought the orders. Flynn had worked hard for this and there was no reason good enough to take this victory from him. And while Flynn was quiet and almost cold at times, Issachar was a wonderful caring person and Nanashi really did not want to kill him or even make him upset.

"They'll just leave the world the way it is," Dagda said spitefully. "You've gotten rid of the main threat, yes, but not even this solves the problem. If you want your world to be better, then you'll need to be rid of all gods, even those who could be gods like the other spirits here."

Maybe that would work, but it wasn't worth killing Flynn and Issachar over. And wouldn't that kill off Dagda too? And himself because his existence depended on Dagda.

"The gods were once forces of nature: the winds across the plains, the storms and the seas, the stars and moon, even the earth and sky. I want to return to that. But before that, in exchange for your help, I will make you the eternal God. You can improve the world you have or remake it entirely if you want. To get any of that, though, you need to be the one who can choose the course of humanity from this point forward."

That wasn't what Nanashi wanted. He wouldn't do this.

"You will," Dagda scolded him, tightening Nanashi's grip on his sword. "I won't let you back out at this last moment! I've worked on this for too long, made many changes to get this result. If we let this go, there will never be another chance like this. Now kill them or I will."

He wouldn't… but how did he get back control of his body? Nanashi felt like he was being choked, pressured and light-headed. Then Dagda tried to move him forward. As Nanashi fought to stay still, Vishnu put one of his hands on the sword. "There's no need to fight now, either of you," he said.

While he tried, Nanashi wasn't able to reply. Issachar and Flynn came over to them. "What's the matter?" Flynn asked.

"Is Dagda trying something?" Issachar asked, coming closer to him.

Dagda tried to thrust the sword into Issachar's chest. However, Vishnu deflected the attack. "Nanashi isn't in control at the moment," Vishnu said.

"This world has already become a failure," Dagda said with Nanashi's voice. "We need an absolute solution."

"No we don't," Flynn said, sounding tired now. "You just want to end your existence as a god; don't drag everyone else into that."

"That is not it!" Dagda said, trying to attack again. Vishnu got hold of Nanashi again and kept him from doing so.

"It is, I'm sure of it," Flynn said. "Take the sword for now."

"Yes," Vishnu said, taking it from Nanashi with one of his free hands.

"If you're going to do that, then I'll just kill him," Dagda said.

That wasn't what he'd just said. Thankfully, Issachar put a hand on his forehead. "We won't be letting you do that either. The true God is restored, so we'll evict you instead."

"That would still kill him without doing anything to me," Dagda said, although he was worried now.

"Not now," Issachar said, putting his other hand on Nanashi's head. "In the name of God, release Nanashi from your power, Dagda. He will live again."

Dagda struggled against Vishnu for a second before Nanashi felt something drain out of his body. But he didn't feel heavy and cold anymore. Instead, a warm light replaced Dagda's power. Nanashi gasped as his lungs drew air again after so long. The light strengthened him too, allowing him to stand on his own when Vishnu let him go. The whole area was lit up by then, leaving them in a field of flowers that spread to the horizons.

Dagda was there too, forced into a physical manifestation with the rest of them. "I'm not about to stop working towards my goal," he said. "I will find a way to make things right."

"If you wanted to make things right, you shouldn't have messed with Nanashi like you did and make things worse," Issachar said.

Dagda shook his head. "Such extreme measures were necessary. You've gone to extreme measures yourself to challenge YHVH."

Another angel materialized with them. He appeared like a winged human with long silver hair and impressive armor. "There's an important difference there," he said. "I am Metatron; I speak for God. They tell me that there was cruelty in both your plans and those of Satan and Flynn. However, they took the brunt of the cruelty themselves. You avoided all cruelty in your plans and inflicted it on Nanashi here. Since you're doing this to return yourself to a force of nature rather than a god, you will have to do a lot of good work yourself before we will do that for you."

"You're not going to cast me off right away?" Dagda asked, confused at that.

"No," Metatron said. "But we will be keeping a close eye on you and will restrict you to the Abyss if you keep doing more harm than good. Satan, we'll need you to help with the reassessment of the human souls released from captivity. But that'll be discussed between you and God since you've changed."

"Understandable," Satan said. "I would like to be in on that."

"And Lucifer, you like humans now, so fine, you'll stay free for now," Metatron said.

"Wh-what?" Lucifer said, looking embarrassed at that acknowledgment.

Metatron nodded and waved a hand. "Bye." Lucifer vanished, then Metatron continued went on. "Masakado, we acknowledge your position as a protector of humanity and will support you when needed. We'd also like to inform other spirits like yourself that you'll now be in similar terms as Dagda here. As long as the spirits, lesser gods, demons, and angels are doing more good than ill, you'll be freer to move about the world now. But if you begin harming humans more than helping them, we will act against you and support the humans afflicted by you."

"That sounds like a better way of doing things," Masakado said. "But it will cause instability in the first few years. I'll always be a protector of humanity and will help them keep things stable."

"Thank you," Metatron said, even bowing his head. "Though our greatest thanks is to you three heroes: Nanashi, Flynn, and the Messiah Issachar. You will have our gratitude and blessings through the rest of your lives."

Issachar was the Messiah? Wasn't that supposed to be Flynn? Although, hearing it made sense. Issachar had been leading them the past few weeks; he'd also been the one publicly recognized as a hero for humanity because of the tournaments. If the future was going to be guided by his actions now, Nanashi felt like it would definitely be better.

"We did what we felt was right," Issachar said. "We'll do our best to teach others not to let hate grow to the point of bringing out something like YHVH again."

"Right," Nanashi said. "That's not going to help rebuild the world."

"We angels will be helping with that too, with humanity leading," Metatron said. "After all, Issachar, you found the nameless truth of God and brought Them back into power. They are calling the angels back to Them, to restore us to the caring guardians we should be. Although, would you call yourself one of the angels or one of humanity?"

"One of humanity," Isachar answered without hesitation even though he was in angel form there.

Metatron went over to him, extending a hand. "Then because this war is over, would you give up your angelic powers to be given to a true angel, so that they will be a memory of your spirit and always protect humanity?"

After thinking a moment, Issachar nodded and took his hand. "Sure, I shouldn't need them anymore and it would be good to know there is at least one angel that future generations can count on always."

"Then it shall be so," Metatron said, his eyes glowing gold briefly. In turn, Issachar was shifted back to his human form as a woman, this time without the usual star marking over his eye. A brief image of a more androgynous angel who looked like Issachar appeared with them, smiled, then disappeared off into the field of flowers. After shaking his hand, Metatron let Issachar go and turned to him. "And you, Nanashi, you have a cyclical soul that has always sought to keep balance and protect others."

"I don't remember it all that clearly, but yes," Nanashi said, wondering why that was being brought up.

"Since you have fulfilled that role today to far greater measure than ever before, you could choose to retire on that obligation and become a normal soul." He'd been serious so far, but Metatron smiled a little at Nanashi now. "You don't have to decide on that now since you haven't chosen a definite path for this life. But someday, you'll be called to meet with Masakado, as the one you swore that oath to, along with an angel as a representative of God. Then you may decide to be free of your obligations or continue on."

Feeling relieved that he didn't have to decide now, Nanashi nodded. "All right, but I think I'll continue with those obligations to protect humanity for this life at least. And, thank you for giving me back my life."

"It was God's power," Metatron said. "I merely speak for Them. They know; your death and reanimation was a result of Dagda's scheme for a human puppet to act through. You will not be blamed for his actions. Instead, you've been blessed so that no other can take such control over you, among other matters."

"Good, and I won't chose to let it happen again," he said. After all, he got what he wanted: his parents should be able to find peaceful rest instead of near-eternal waiting now. There shouldn't be anything else that would need such drastic measures.

Metatron then turned to Flynn. "And we have our greatest gratitude to you, who persisted through many lives to achieve your goals."

"I finally got what I wanted out of being asked to decide the future," Flynn said. "Is it going to stay like this?"

The angel nodded. "It was both you and Satan who weren't satisfied with results. Since you both have accepted this victory, you won't be going back in time again."

"Good," Flynn said, looking relieved.

"We'll work on repairing the world from our end," Metatron said. "Let others know that any angel of God will be there to help and protect humans now. Also, because humanity is greatly reduced in numbers, the blessings that made Mikado a prosperous and fruitful land will be spread to the lands around Tokyo as well. These blessings will last two hundred years, after which stewardship of the land will be left to humanity."

"We'll have to make sure that gets remembered," Issachar said.

There was a lot to tell others, a lot for future generations to remember. But the future now belonged to them.


	87. Led by Humanity

**Chapter 87: Led by Humanity**

On the day when the angels were judged, most people recalled that at one point, everything became black and cold. A voice that came from every direction at once told them that humanity had been found lacking and would perish. Alone in the dark, it seemed like that would happen. Despite any fears, many hoped that their heroes would pull through for them. It was all they could do.

Their prayers were answered; they were released from being frozen in darkness. On being returned to the world, they saw an immense pillar of light piercing through the sky from Ginza. It lasted nearly a minute before fading away. Those who were in that neighborhood went to the obelisk and found Flynn, Issachar, and Nanashi there. The obelisk itself had shattered into a pile of glossy black stones. Before long, word had spread that they were now free.

It proved that humans did not need to be bound by the actions of demons or angels.

* * *

Lucifer felt insulted even though no insult had been spoken. He'd been told he could 'stay free' for now and was promptly dismissed before Metatron passed on God's words to the humans. If he had been insulted and tossed away as the prince of lies, that would have been acceptable. It would have been normal. Instead, God had said that the reason he was being left alone was because he liked humans. Really? He was the most powerful demon around! He corrupted humans to disobey God. While he might tell humans he liked and supported them, that was so they trusted him.

Now, the three heroes could tell others that that information came from God. It could make humans more willing to work with him. However, the demons under Lucifer might think less of him. He'd been telling them for eons that humans were foolish weaklings that didn't deserve to be ruling the world. They had no innate powers, they were bound by a body of flesh, and they only lived for a few decades. In ancient days, demons had been able to squash human resistance with little effort. But more than all that, they had the favor of God despite being nothing special. The best thing humans were for was getting vengeance on God by turning those 'beloved children' against their Father.

Although, humans had now bested both sides to take charge of their world. And despite himself, Lucifer felt impressed. Humans were willing to use whatever they had not just to survive, but to thrive. They were born with no power or knowledge, but could gain incredible power and knowledge over their brief lifespan. For all their weaknesses, he realized that it was actually interesting to watch them overcome obstacles. It might be nice to help them in ways that didn't lead to their ruin.

"Do we have to be helping the humans now?" Beezlebub asked, annoyed more at that idea than in being defeated.

They'd already dealt with an impostor, Lucifer thought. If he changed his leadership too much, they might suspect he was also a fake. "It's only temporary," Lucifer said. "Give it a few generations; we can wear them down slowly, especially if they think we're allies."

Now how did he give his followers whatever change had come over him?

* * *

As soon as he got into the halls of Kinshicho, Asahi called out, "Hey, Nanashi! Welcome home!"

"It's nice to be back," he said, smiling at her. Toki and Hallelujah came over on noticing. "Sorry about being gone so long."

"You could have at least brought us with you," Toki said.

He shook his head. "No, I was possessed and the god controlling me wanted to keep me away from others. Well, that and I was actually dead. I'm fine now."

"You were dead?" Asahi asked in shock. "That's not possible."

"There was something strange about you lately," Hallelujah said, scratching his head. "I guess that makes sense? But how did you come back to life?"

"Because I helped to kill a false god," he said. "But I want Boss to hear of this too." Although really, he might end up telling this story several times over as many would be interested to know.

Toma was in the bar as usual, going over shelter records. This time, he stopped on seeing him and smiled. "Welcome back, Nanashi. Glad to see you back whole."

"Sorry for being gone so long," Nanashi said, bowing to him.

"And apparently dead," Asahi said.

"Not anymore," Nanashi said.

Toma chuckled at that. "Good. By the way, there's been a few times when folks have come in here looking for you. Apparently they think you're a king because of your demonica."

Shrugging, he said, "I was, but I'm not now. I get to decide my fate now, not anybody else."

"It sounds like you have a lot to explain," Toki said.

"All that and more," he said.

 _Nanashi continued to deny that he was a king, instead helping out Fujiwara as the Hunter Association was the strongest organization of Tokyo remaining. Over the years, he gained more authority until he took over as the Association leader. Eventually, he came to lead both Tokyo and Mikado as a greatly respected man._

 _Hallelujah joined up with some other former Ashura-kai members to retake the name for humans. Inspired by Nanashi, he took a stance of protecting others and argued with even senior members about moving away from a thuggish reputation. He succeeded and helped reform the organization to enforce fairer laws._

 _Toki became an elite demon hunter for both the Hunter Association and the Ring of Gaea, tracking down troublesome demons who did not want to ally with humans. She often worked with Lilith to ensure society was kept fair for all. As an adult, she took in teen girls in trouble and taught them her skills and self-control._

 _Asahi studied medical science and healing magic in order to become the first doctor with magic expertise. Her guides on how to mix both traditions were studied for many generations._

* * *

Although the war was over, many fairies were still uncertain about leaving their protected forest. Nozomi took trips with those who were willing, in order to help out people and get both sides used to each other. Of course, the fairies would much rather play than do work. She'd brought a group out to help with some farm work, but half of them had gone off with some children to play tag. Most of those working were fairies who loved plants; they happily set about to plucking weeds and insects under Danu's loving watch.

It was the rest that were the most trouble. "Freezing the plants isn't going to help," Nozomi scolded the jack frosts that were there.

"We were freezing the weeds," one said.

"And all the plants around the weeds," she said.

"We just wanted to help too," another jack said. "But the farmers don't want us to make it snow either."

"You could make cool drinks for those working," Nozomi suggested.

That led to an enthusiastic production of ice, iced water, iced lemonade, iced tea, and ice cream. It was so much that she could send the jacks and a few others fairies off to gift those around the village with cold drinks and treats. When she got a moment, Nozomi noticed Dagda outside the fields on his own. He phased out of visibility when she came near, but Nozomi could still sense him.

"I know you're here, Dagda," she said, facing him. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing you should hear about," Dagda said, staying invisible. "It would be best if you forgot I was here."

"That makes me more suspicious of what you're doing," she said.

Grumbling, he said, "I've been given an annoying task. I want to return all gods to nature from the foolish beings we've become. While I'd accept just myself, I've been told to do good deeds to get it. But if I become known for those deeds, I'll remain in this form. They're also not afraid to just throw me into the Abyss if I become a problem to them. Hmph."

"Well I'll tell Danu that, but then I'll ignore you if that's what you really want," Nozomi said.

Dagda grumbled again and disappeared.

 _Nozomi's efforts led to the fairies being the first clan of demons that humans fully trusted. Some fairies still remained trouble, but many humans learned to identify which fairies were the troublesome ones._

 _None are sure what happened to Dagda._

* * *

It took a great deal of planning, preparing, coordination, restoring, trading, designing, decorating, and more, but Naverre finally accomplished his goal: he got the Autumn Ball set up so that it was held in Mikado and then held again two weeks later in Tokyo. It was the biggest one yet as he lifted the class restrictions and made sure that anybody who wanted to attend could make it to both events. With the help of some benevolent demons and hard-working humans, he even made sure that those without much money could afford something nice to wear. Demons, technology, and magic made it possible to make the setting much different from before. Everything could be brightly lit, rainbow lit, or even dimly lit with soft orbs of light drifting along a low cosmetic fog to make it seem like guests were dancing among the clouds.

"I didn't know it was possible to do all this," Gaston said to him quietly, tapping one of the glowing orbs with his spear to bring it up. He was helping with security today although he was about the right age to be attending himself. "And you've done it all so magnificently. Father's going to be proud of you."

Naverre smiled at that. "Well with the right knowledge, imagination, and eye for beauty, anything seems possible. And it's all for the sake of love, for individuals here and for a grander scheme. People from all over are coming together and sharing an experience that will build unity between us all. So while Father might admire the effort, I think this is better than taking care of daily decor and decorum for a few people."

"And you only have to do this once a year, so it won't get boring," Gaston agreed.

"Right," Naverre said. "The daily things often go unnoticed, but this should be remembered forever. I've seen lots of things already tonight that should be remembered forever, like have you seen Flynn and Issachar yet? Flynn's understated as usual, but he still stands out because Issachar is surprisingly gorgeous dressed as a woman."

"Why do you still call Issachar a man when she's a woman now?" Gaston asked. "I mean, I know she was a man a long time ago, but she's fit in very well as a woman lately while still being a great hero to everyone."

"Ah, sorry, I'm just used to calling him that," Naverre said, giving a shrug. "When you talk to him often enough, you realize that he acts as himself while no longer heeding what people expect of a man or woman."

"Well who's going to disrespect her?"

"True. Also, you were a child still, but I hear Flynn went out of his way to make Jonathan's wife Marie stand out at an Autumn Ball before they got married, back when she shouldn't have gotten in because she was Casualry born. He seems to have done the same for Issachar this year; they usually don't spend much on themselves."

"They didn't make a big deal of their wedding either, so maybe it's to make up for all of that," Gaston said.

"Possibly," Naverre said. "You know, I'm glad for all this discussion lately about the differences between what we of Mikado expect out of marriage preparations and what those in Tokyo expect, since they don't ask for classes and consultations for couples that want to marry. I think the classes help, but then I'm also glad for how they've changed to become more practical and less repetitive."

Gaston raised an eyebrow at this. "But you aren't even courting anyone. Why are you concerned about that?"

"Oh hush," he said, making his brother laugh.

 _Gaston learned a number of skills and became a wandering samurai with no allegiance to anyone, only to helping those in need._

 _Naverre continued to act as an ambassador between the peoples of Mikado and Tokyo, also becoming known as the host of many amazing parties._

* * *

They got through the forest to the site where the angels' cocoon ended up. A few scorched remains were scattered around the open field. But as it had been a year since the cocoon had burned, most of it was now overgrown with grass, vines, and saplings. The forest itself had been full of animals as well as plants, making it more like Mikado's wild areas.

"Doesn't seem like anything been unusually disturbed recently," Walter said, looking over the grassy ground. "Plenty of signs of animals roaming around, though."

"The ruins aren't unnaturally preserved either," Jonathan said, checking the area with his gauntlet. "One would expect that the malicious angels might have tried to do so, or replace the structure entirely."

Those angels should be gone. But just in case, they'd been dispatched to search this area. There was some danger in this. Yet with how peaceful things had been this year, they felt safe enough to bring along a couple of others. Adam had one of his wooden practice swords at his side, as well as a child-sized imitation of a blue samurai coat. "The cocoon was really enormous, wasn't it?" he asked. "But there's not much left now."

"It was twice the height of these trees," Jonathan said, gesturing back to the forest they'd come out of.

"We could set up camp over there after clearing a few plants," Isabeau said, gesturing ahead to a relatively flat area that had no vines. She carried her baby daughter in a backpack that had a seat and suncover to let her watch or sleep as she wanted. "Julie's probably going to wake up in a little while, so I'd rather have a spot to sit with her."

"Sure, that should be a decent distance from the forest cover," Jonathan said, looking over himself. "Adam, would you go look around for some good rocks for a firepit?"

"Sure!" The boy helped them clear out some rocks from the camping area to make sure they had some good spots for tents, then went around the area looking for the rocks and some wood.

Between various demons they had and their own work, they had the start of a good camping site by the time Julie woke up and Isabeau had to take a break to nurse her. There had been some concern from those outside their circle about her taking her baby out on a trek like this. They were planning to be out here a few days to search the site carefully to make sure nothing was going on, as well as possibly fighting any demons that were out here. However, they had previously sent some of their demons here to do a couple days scouting of their own. They'd sensed nothing too dangerous about this place, but some human observation was needed as well.

There was a lot more caution they needed to take with a baby and child along, including how Isabeau had to forgo her usual armor and act purely as a summoner. If they encountered tough demons, it'd be up to Jonathan and Walter to take care of them. Adam had been training with a sword, but he was still a boy and didn't have actual combat training. She'd have to rely on her demons to protect her and the two children.

However, she was prepared for that. The demons on her team now were those who protected children and mothers. They knew how to fight defensively and buy enough time for the others to help out. As it was most likely that this area was safe, Isabeau was glad to be out here. The forest was a wild beauty that she hadn't seen the like of before, even as she'd grown to like walking through Mikado's forests. It was a lot better than being cloistered in the monastery or at home. Even this place with the burnt ruins was interesting.

Adam helped with putting together the campfire too. "You can't just cram all the sticks in any old pile," he said, setting them around a triangle of logs. "The fire needs some air to burn too."

"I see," Jonathan said, watching the other two as he didn't know how to start a fire. "You learned a lot from your class trips."

Nodding, Adam said, "The teacher trusts me, so I get to make the campfire most of the time now."

Once they had a good campfire going, Walter came over to her side. "How're you two holding up?"

"We're fine," Isabeau said with a smile. "She was enjoying the backpack ride with you."

"We really should take more hikes and camping trips since we have these things," he said, pleased with the idea. "Jonathan and I are going to search around this site until it gets dark; call me if you need anything."

"Sure, we'll finish up the campsite," she said, giving him a kiss before letting him go off.

"I can start dinner," Adam said, already taking out a camp cooking set.

"Could you help me set up the bed for Julie first?" Isabeau asked. The backpack she carried Julie around in could be converted to a crib by taking the cover off. "Then we can work on that together."

"Sure," Adam said, opening the bag up further to take out the things they'd packed.

They ended up having a peaceful trip, exactly as they'd hoped for.

 _Jonathan grew to be one of the most skilled samurai in Mikado, frequently winning tournaments and defeating powerful demons in friendly or dangerous combat. As he grew older, he became a teacher to samurai and other demon hunters._

 _Walter served as a samurai for several years before his studies led him to becoming a priest of the Mikado monastery. He was well loved for being positive and active in helping others._

 _Isabeau balanced her life around being a samurai and a mother, something that was easier as demons became more cooperative with humans. After a few yeas, she became a leader within the samurai for other women, helping to organize child care and training sessions for just the women._

* * *

While many buildings in Tokyo could be repaired and salvaged, there were others that were too damaged. Some manuals in the Ashura-kai's possession allowed for work crews to bring the dangerous buildings down without damaging the intact ones. This led to Masakado's shrine becoming off by itself near the river between Mikado and Tokyo. For Flynn, that was just fine. He decided to stay near the shrine to take care of it as Masakado's summoner. Issachar was still serving as a samurai, but he could use the terminal system to get anywhere he needed.

Most days were quiet, allowing for peaceful reflections and simple days. A few people would come out to visit at times, along with some Japanese gods and spirits. There usually wasn't trouble. Today, though, the oni gang that was gathering concerned him. They were talking and laughing over something, occasionally looking at him doing some work in the garden. They would be strong but nothing too difficult. Keeping a shovel nearby, Flynn kept trimming some herbs to dry later on.

There were twelve of the oni by the time they decided to come over. "Hey, tough guy!"

"You mean me?" Flynn asked, still kneeling down with the garden scissors.

"Of course you," he said, pointing with his club before shouldering it. "You're the guy that kills gods, yeah? Join our gang!"

"No," he said.

"Why not? We're bringing together strong guys to rule the streets!"

Flynn shook his head. "That's foolish. No."

"What, are you some coward now?" one oni asked, getting the others to scoff at him. "We won't stand for that!"

"What's it matter to you?" Flynn asked, not afraid of them.

"We don't take no for an answer," the oni said, moving to clobber Flynn over the head with his club.

It was no good. Flynn grabbed his shovel and rolled aside, then slammed it into the oni's knee while crouched down. Expecting the onis to start clubbing anywhere, he got to his feet and moved away from the oni gang. And once he started using magic, the onis were easily dispatched.

As it got to be evening, Issachar came back home. "How was your day?" he asked after hugging him.

"Fine, but some onis were trying to start a street gang," Flynn said. "You might want to watch out for them. How was yours?"

"I have some potentially great news," he said, looking serious. "But I wanted to start a family too, which could make things difficult on both ends. I held off on agreeing until I could talk with you."

"I wouldn't mind taking care of our children while you're working," he said. "What's your news?"

 _After a few years of working as Hope's second-in-command, Issachar took over as leader of the samurai. The gauntlet rite was no longer required for all eighteen-year-olds and there were fewer samurai needed as time went on. But he made sure that knowledge like the skills to fight demons did not get lost again._

 _Flynn retired as a samurai, yet legends say that he remained undefeated in battle throughout his life. He took care of Masakado's shrine and occasionally took in students if they proved their determination to him. But much of his life after accomplishing his goal was peaceful and quiet, just as he wanted it._


End file.
